Easy Peasy Microwave Porridge & Some More Exciting Versions

This winter I have found a new love ... Porridge. It is so warming and comforting and such a lovely thing to wake up to on a freezing winter morning & it is so filling it keeps me going until lunchtime. My only problem is I think porridge tastes bland and boring this is why I did not eat it before. I have discovered that porridge can be delicious by adding your favourite flavours to it. Over this winter I have experimented with flavours so here are some of my favourites:

The other reason that I have started eating porridge is that I found out that you can make it in the microwave and it tastes just as good. Apart from not liking the bland taste of porridge the other reason I never made it was having to wash up the pan which porridge always manages to stick to stubbornly. Making it in the microwave means you just make it in the bowl your going to eat out of.

Method:

• 38g of porridge (or more or less depending on how hungry you are) 
• 280ml of milk
• Pour the oats and milk into the bowl and microwave for 2 mins, stir it and then microwave it for another 2 mins. Keep an eye on it in the last 2 mins and make sure that you stop it before it bubbles over the top. You need to make sure that you do let it bubble up a bit though or the oats stay hard. This will depend on how powerful your microwave is - mine sometimes takes a bit longer because it is not very strong.

Lemon Curd and Blueberry

I am a massive fan of Lemon Curd, I use it with a lot of recipes. If you like lemon you should definitely try lemon curd in porridge it is delicious even if it sounds strange. This is my favourite flavour of porridge it just goes really well. To make this just stir in a spoonful of lemon curd and if you've got them a handful of blueberry's go really well with the lemony flavour aswell.

Apple and Cinnamon

This is delicious but is is quite sweet and it takes a bit longer to make so I have it as a treat on a lazy sunday morning.

To make the apple and cinnamon chop up two apples, they can be any type of apple you like, put them in a saucepan with about 3cm of water in the bottom. Add about 3 tablespoons of brown sugar - you can use white if you like - and 2 teaspoons of cinnamon. This really depends on how sweet and cinnamony you want it, I usually put in loads of cinnamon. Leave this to bubble for 10-15 mins until it can be squashed together into a smoothish sauce. Don't be afraid to add more water to it absorbs all the water.

Once you have the apple and cinnamon sauce just stir it into the porridge and enjoy.

Maple Syrup and Cream

Stir in a spoonful of maple syrup and one of cream. or if you are feeling really decadent you can use cream instead of porridge. It makes the porridge so rich and ...creamy.

Fig and Honey

If you want a really quick version chop up the fig and put the pieces on top of the porridge and drizzle with honey.

If you have a bit more time it is even nicer with baked figs. Just cut the figs up and put them in a baking dish/ tray. Drizzle the figs with two tablespoons of honey and a pinch of cinnamon. This is also really nice with a tablespoon of brandy for a christmassy porridge. Then bake the figs in the oven for 20 mins at 180. Make sure you check them after 10 mins because the riper ones cook faster.

Golden Syrup

You can't go wrong! Just dollop in a generous spoonful, swirl it around and it tastes lovely. This is probably the easiest aswell.


.... & some less successful ones which you should never try under any circumstances!

• Peanut Butter and Jam - Jam is lovely in porridge and Jam and PB are so good together but apparently not in porridge! The Peanut Butter made it such a strange texture, really sticky and claggy.
• Chocolate Spread - sounds delicious tastes awful, I'm not sure why because chocolate is good with anything and everything. I've tried putting a square of chocolate on top of porridge and that is delicious  but for some reason mixed in it is not good. Don't do it!

I am absolutely loving discovering all of these new flavours so please tell me your favourites to try.