[Shake up your wake up] Creamy Mushrooms on Toast

Farmhouse Breakfast Week 2013 will take place 20^th – 26^th January
Disclosure: I have not been paid to do this post...I genuinely belive in the power of breakfast and support the campaign. It's also a great excuse to share my latest breakfast recipe with you!


 

Some of you may remember a post I did last year about the Shake Up Your Wake Up Campaign. The campaign is all about trying to educate the general public about the importance of eating breakfast. Each year they host the Farmhouse Breakfast Week where you too can get involved with spreading the word about breakfast. For example, did you know that one in ten people skip breakfast thinking that it will help them to lose weight, yet breakfast skippers are twice as likely to reach for a bag of crisps mid-morning! (And crisps definitely are not on the diet!)

Now I should admit...I’m not a big breakfast eater, but it is something I have been trying to work on. Even as a child I never really got on with breakfast. I’m not a cereal eater nor do I like toast as I hate all processed bread with a passion! As a result my parents used to do anything to get breakfast into me. At one stage I had had scotch pancakes with golden syrup every day. This went on for so long I even ended up getting sick of them! So surprise, surprise the thought of breakfast in the morning tends to make me feel sick. I also think part of the problem is that I wake up at 6:30 and am out of the door by 7:30 with no time to spare for putting together a breakfast other than the toast or cereal I despise so much.

So this leaves me with a bit of a problem.

Because I’ve been feeling so lethargic without a morning meal, I’ve started to listen to my body and I now buy porridge with honey on the way to law school each morning. The days I don’t manage to nip in to prêt I really notice the difference. So, I may not be a breakfast lover, but I most definitely agree with independent dietician Nigel Denby who has commented on this year’s study saying: “People who eat breakfast have better concentration, more energy and tend to be less stressed. They are also less likely to be overweight.”

If these aren’t good reasons to eat breakfast I don’t know how else to convince you...except with a simple yet scrumptious breakfast recipe.

Now I’ve said already that I’m not a massive fan of toast. BUT, if it’s from a good crusty loaf and topped with something yummy then I will more often than not give in. (Over Christmas I had toast almost every day topped with an amazing Rhubarb and Ginger preserve that had so much zing, you really noticed a spring in my step for the rest of the morning.)

These mushrooms on toast are much more warming and comforting. Their creamy, mellow flavour is extremely indulgent, so perhaps best reserved for Sunday mornings. Though, should you have the time to whip them up every day you won’t have to worry about your waistline, just go easy on the butter and use reduced fat crème fraiche as I did!

But enough trying to convince you, here’s the recipe:

Creamy Chicken and Tomato Potato Bake

 

Its January in the year 2013, dubbed to be the ‘unlucky’ year that could never live up to 2012. We’ve all eaten and drunk too much over the festive period, and as we look ahead to what 2013 has to offer we all decide we want to be a little bit skinnier along the way.

Now I don’t want to be all doom and gloom. But I’m sure I’m not the only one living in a house of people who currently seem to have a million and one things to moan about, their waistlines being one. I should’ve known the joy and frivolity of Christmas wouldn’t last forever, but I didn’t expect it to end so soon!

Nonetheless, requests are flying in for tasty food that will help people slim down over the coming months. After all, if there’s one thing we can change about this ‘unlucky’ year, it’s how much we weigh.

So, with weight loss in mind, and a fridge full of food I set about creating my low-fat creamy tomato potato bake. Now, the most common complaint about low fat food is that it is bland and doesn’t fill you up for long enough. This recipe is neither of those things!

The reason behind this dish is that it always seems to me that as soon as I tell myself I should be eating healthily I suddenly crave all the things I shouldn’t, in particular chocolate and all things creamy. I’d previously developed a low in fat yet very creamy Chicken and Mushroom Pasta Bake, and I was keen to try and come up with another creamy sauce that wouldn’t make me pile on the pounds. The indulgent creamy texture of the reduced fat crème fraiche in this sauce makes it feel like you’re treating yourself without taking on unnecessary calories. By making just a few substitutes on your ingredients list you can cut out quite a lot of fat!

The fact that this dish is baked in the oven also reduced the need to add any fat to the cooking pan. (You won’t find any olive oil here!) You can further reduce the calories, and make it suitable for vegetarians, by simply leaving out the chicken.

So next time you want a low fat dinner that will keep you full all evening, and is choc-full of flavour, pop this potato bake into the oven (and maybe do a few sit ups while you wait…)

Gourmet Tuna Pasta Bake

Pasta bake is one of those dishes that everyone seems to associate with students...it might be the lazy pleasure of hearing that pasta sauce jar pop as your take off its lid, or the fact that if you’re willing to wait a little longer...you don’t even have to pre-cook your pasta! That’s one less pan to wash up!

I’m not going to lie, I’ve taken the pasta bake route many a time in my uni career, and with my uni career coming to an end in just a week, I’m not ready to give them up just yet! So, I set myself the challenge of a gourmet pasta bake, fit for the lawyer I am going to become!

If you though pasta bakes were for lazy people on a student’s budget, think again! The pasta bake is back and it is better than ever!