Breakfast: the first meal of a promising day that breaks the fast from the previous night: some skip it, I cannot function without it!
I always find it pretty hard to explain why I stopped eating meat because it’s not sustainable, but yesterday the Vegetarian Society tweeted a useful link on a few reasons to be a vegetarian and “Growing grains and pulses to feed to animals is much less efficient than eating them ourselves. The livestock industry uses huge amounts of land, water and fossil fuels, while producing 18% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions and all sorts of other pollution.”
At the moment my favourite quick and healthy (and sustainably vegan) breakfasts are…
Porridge
It’s great now that the Autumn air is getting crisper: it’s nice to leave your home with something warm in your tummy, or know that you can having something healthy and warm at work.
I make it with hot water from the kettle and add cinnamon to it – 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon a day can lower cholesterol, it has an anti-clotting effect on the blood and contains calcium and iron amongst many other health benefits;
Porridge with Cinnamon
I also like to add the Linwoods Q10 seeds and nuts, even on top of the cinnamon.
Porridge and Healthy Sprinkle
There are several other sprinkle combinations you can get from health shops or sites such as Amazon:
Linwoods sprinkles variety
Yesterday morning I tried porridge with a completely new and unexpected topping: chilli powder.
I know it sounds weird, I was expecting to be annoyed with myself for making it but it was actually really nice!! 🙂 Please try it on a spoonful of porridge and let me know what you think! 😀
The only downside with having porridge with sprinkles and cinnamon (or chilli powder!) is that I sometimes get hungry soon after I step into the office, so I have found a way of making my porridge more filling:
Porridge with Peanut Butter
I topped my porridge with the Meridian crunchy peanut butter I first tried a couple of months ago and it really filled me up for longer! I first got this peanut butter from Whole Foods but this time I got it from Holland&Barret (£5.29 for 1kg tub). It was SO nice!
Or if you fancy a change, add Almond Butter to your porridge.
Meridian Almond Butter
This almond butter is 99.5% roasted almonds and 0.5% salt, rich and slightly salty, it’s lovely and unusual.
There are many other butters you can try such as cashew, pumpkin seed, hazelnut, brazil nut…you can find them at Holland&Barrett or Amazon.
For a more indulging porridge I add dark chocolate squares to it, they melt with the warmth of the porridge and it becomes silky and chocolatey – I started doing this when I was in China and it’s simply luscious…
Porridge with Chocolate and Dragon Well Tea
I usually have it with Lonjing Tea 龙井茶 also called Dragon Well Tea, a distinctly flavoured pan-fired green tea from Hangzhou, where we were studying, and one of the most famous ones. You can buy it in good tea shops or online, it’s definitely one of my favourites.
If you love fruity porridge, as suggested by J-F from ever-interesting blog “222 Million Tons“, you can make it with a little soy milk, which makes it more satisfying, and add cinnamon and raisins, apple or banana while it’s cooking. Super healthy!
Granola
Have a look at my crispy crunchy granola recipe post, great with soy yogurt, milk or on its own.
Home Made Granola with Soy Yogurt
Bagels
I also really relish bagels and got some seeded ones lately…the New York Bakery Co. are always available in shops and come in several versatile varieties (the cinnamon and raisins ones are a must try!).
New York Bakery Seeded Bagles
So I have been having these toasted with Vitalite dairy free spread (£1.20 for 500g from Tesco)
Seeded Bagels with Vegan Spread
They are so delicious toasted and it’s so nice to hear the seeds *pop* in the toaster 🙂
Seeded Bagels with Crunchy Peanut Butter
Yogurt
I also tried Alpro soy yogurt and topped it with crunchy corn flakes and cinnamon.
Soy Yogurt with Crunchy Topping and Cinnamon
You could also add the topping that you’d add to the porridge like almond butter or jam, fresh fruit or fruit compote.
Alpro Soya Yogurt
This 500g pot of yogurt was £1.25 at Morrison’s, it can also be used for marinades and for anything you’d use cow’s milk yogurt for.
Soy Yogurt Benefits
It is naturally low in fat and cholesterol – of course you can buy many types of cow’s milk fat-free yogurts but there are often full of added sugar and other additives, including gelatine.
Hot Drinks
If you are more of a “breakfast on the go” person and love to grab a hot drink on your way to work, have you tried having soy milk in your morning latte or cappuccino instead of ordinary milk?
If you normally avoid soy milk because you don’t like its taste, do not worry, you can’t taste it with the coffee or hot chocolate. So you can utterly enjoy a warm and light drink that doesn’t make you feel bloated by milk.
Hot Chocolate with Soy Milk
This is delicious, it’ll make you look forward to a sweet Monday morning 😀 add cinnamon to make even more warming and Autumnal.
Caramel Macchiato with Soy Milk
Caramel Macchiato with soy milk is another way to enjoy a more sustainable coffee.
Vegan Bars
If you are a fan of cereal bars, have you tried making your own at home?
My vegan bars don’t have any nasty additives that some shop-bought ones have and are very simple to make, and of course they are SUPER TASTY.
Vegan Breakfast Bars
All you need to is cut them up and pop them in a Tupperware box or wrap them in tin foil to have a crunchy breakfast wherever and whenever you want.
Cooked Breakfasts
And if you fancy something savoury and have a bit of time to cook something for breakfast you could try scrambled tofu on toast with fried potatoes and tomatoes:
Scrambled tofu on toast with potatoes and tomatoes
Or why not have a more sustainable, healthier sausage sarnie by using vegan sausages?
Linda McCartney Vegan Sausages
2 of these sausages provide 202 calories and 8.8g fat, 3.6 saturates.
2 of my boyfriend’s Tesco Finest grilled pork sausages with caramelised red onion provide 320 calories and 23.7g fat, 8.5 saturates.
That’s such a big difference…! Of course the vegan ones aren’t as juicy as the pork but also not as fatty and artery-clogging.
Linda’s sausages are delicious with ketchup and just thinking about them is actually making my mouth water!
Pancakes
I made these satisfying fluffy vegan pancakes a while ago and they were really nice, no need for milk or eggs.
Fluffy Vegan Pancakes
There are many more sustainable breakfasts I haven’t included here such as French toast made with silken tofu, soy/almond milk and fruit smoothies, apples with peanut butter…There is something for everyone!
What sort of breakfast do you enjoy?
Would you try a vegan breakfast to start your day?
billow 