Veggie Breakfasts – Savoury, Sweet and In Between!

I do like a challenge and when someone offers to send me an ingredient if I can come up with something creative I’m not one to shirk my duty. Blue Diamond are asking food bloggers to come up with breakfast goodies using their Almond Breeze almond milk…I may have got a bit carried away! Recipes are at the bottom once you’ve finished drooling over the photos. Only one of these can be entered into the Foodies 100/Almond Breeze Competition, look at the bottom to see which one I’m going with!

1. Apple and Sultana Breakfast Muffins

Halfway between a cake and a bread these substantial muffins are a perfect start to the day. Not too sweet, not too fluffy they’ll keep you going until lunchtime.

2. Almost Eggs Florentine

A fabulous veggie savoury, this is a substantial dish which ticks all the boxes for breakfast being the most important meal of the day. Traditional Eggs Florentine doesn’t quite hit the spot for me so I add a delicious Portabella mushroom and serve it with homemade English muffins – it is to die for!

3. Banana Smoothie

Possibly the perfect accompaniment to those apple and sultana muffins, these take seconds to whip up and seconds to disappear. I know he’s set up for a day at school/adventuring/dragon fighting if he’s packed this away!

4. Proper Summer Porridge with Raspberries

Picking your own breakfast is hard to beat, so I sent him out into the garden with a cup while I whipped up some almond milk porridge. Porridge is his absolute favourite breakfast of choice so I will ring the changes with banana, apple and cinnamon, maple syrup, toasted nuts, stewed chopped apples or pears, golden syrup, blueberries or whatever else takes his fancy!

The Recipes

1. Apple and Sultana Muffins (makes 12)

250g wholemeal flour

300g plain flour

2 tsps salt

150g peeled chopped apple

75g sultanas

450ml almond milk

1 free range egg, whisked

100g unsalted butter, melted

100g runny honey

• Preheat your oven to 200°C, grease or line a 12 hole muffin tin with paper liners
• Sift the wholemeal flour and put the bran which remains in the sieve into a bowl
• Sift the plain flour into the wholemeal flour
• Add the salt, apples and sultanas
• Add the milk, melted butter, egg and honey to the bran and leave to soften while the oven heats
• Stir the flour mix into the ban mix with a fork until you have a thick lumpy batter. You don’t need to over mix, lumps bumps and bits are fine
• Spoon into the muffin cases and pop into the oven for about 25 minutes until lightly browned
• Serve warm with a banana smoothie, almond milk or fruit juice

2. Almost Eggs Florentine – Serves 2

200g washed spinach leaves

2 eggs

pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

2 large Portabella mushrooms

25g butter

25g plain flour

250 – 300ml almond milk

25- 30g strong cheddar, grated

½-1tsp grain mustard

salt and pepper

• Preheat the grill
• Put spinach into a pan with a few drops of water and cook until just wilted, leave to drain in a sieve
• Cook the mushrooms in butter until all liquid is released and then gently evaporated, keep warm in the pan
• Melt the butter in a small saucepan, add the flour and cook gently for one minute, whisk in the milk and cook on a low heat until the sauce thickens. Stir often and whisk again if you get lumps. Simmer for 3- 5 minutes.
• Add the cheese, mustard and salt & pepper to taste
• Poach eggs ( I poach mine in water at a rolling boil with a teaspoon of vinegar added. I stir dramatically until a whirlpool is achieved and then drop the egg in, folding its white around it with a spoon. I cook them for no more than two minutes before removing with a slotted spoon and popping them into a bowl of cold water. You do it your favourite way!)
• Season the spinach with nutmeg, salt and pepper and put it into individual shallow oven proof dishes, top with a mushroom then an egg, season and cover with the cheese sauce.
• Pop under the grill for a couple of minutes until the sauce is bubbling but remove before the yolk is set.

Serve with toasted English muffins (recipe to follow), soda bread or wholemeal toast. You can add a grilled, sliced, beef tomato on top of the mushroom and before the egg or serve with veggie sausages for dipping. Heaven.

3. Banana Smoothie – Serves 1

1 ripe banana peeled and sliced

250ml chilled almond milk

A drizzle of good runny honey

3 -5 drops of vanilla extract

• whizz everything together in a jug with a hand blender or in a food processor/blender
• Serve in a tall glass with an apple and sultana muffin!

4. Proper Summer Porridge with Raspberries – Serves 1

50g porridge oats

275ml almond milk

A handful of fresh raspberries

• place the oats in a small saucepan
• cover with cold milk and bring to the boil
• simmer for 4-5 minutes, stirring often
• Pour into a bowl and top with fresh raspberries

Why Almond Milk?

According to Blue Diamond:

‘It’s lactose free, dairy free and soya free and has no added sugars. Made using all natural ingredients, it contains all the superfood goodness of almonds. These little wonders of nature not only make it taste great, they also mean it’s a good source of calcium and low in saturated fat.

With no added sugars, Almond Breeze® Unsweetened is, wait for it…only 14 calories per 100mL – this is over a half less calories than skimmed milk and a half less calories than unsweetened soya milk whilst being naturally low in fat.’

That’s all lovely jubbly but, my boy doesn’t care about calories, fat or super foodiness! He cares whether it tastes good and he tells me that almond milk is better than cows’ milk (which we rarely buy) and even better than goats’ milk which we usually choose! I have a feeling that Blue Diamond Almond Milk may well be a feature on my weekly shopping list from now on!

Disclosure: I received a one litre carton of Blue Diamond Almond Breeze Almond Milk for the purposes of this review. For the purposes of the competition I am entering my ‘Almost Eggs Florentine’.