It’s Monday morning; you just barely made it out of bed, and thinking about how far away Friday is already drains you of all energy.
The best cure for the Monday blues? A good ol’ dose of the good stuff. Yes, we’re talking about quick and easy breakfasts that’ll have your sweet tooth singing all day long.
Try these three breakfast recipes for a boost of energy to get you through the week:
Seeded date and granola energy breakfast bars
Serves: 12 bars
Cooking Time: 10 minutes plus three hours chilling time.
Ingredients:
- 12 large Medjool dates, pitted
- 60g (1/2 cup) sunflower seeds
- 70g (1/2 cup) pumpkin seeds
- 50g (1/2 cup) walnuts
- 280g (2 cups) Jungle Muesli Cinnamon Granola
- 60ml (1/4 cup) cocoa powder
- 75ml (5 tbsp) coconut oil, melted
- 10ml (2 tsp) honey
- 30ml (2 tbsp) water
- 2.5ml (1/2 tsp) mixed spice
- 50g dark (70%) chocolate, melted
Method:
- Place the dates, seeds, walnuts, and Jungle Muesli Cinnamon Granola in a large processor. Blitz until coarse breadcrumb-like texture.
- Add the remaining ingredients, except the chocolate, and pulse once more until well combined. Transfer to a lined 20cm square baking tin. Press down firmly and chill for three hours or overnight.
- Drizzle with chocolate and slice into bars. Store in the fridge until ready to serve.
Breakfast apple & pear crumble
Serves: four
Cooking Time: eight minutes for fruit and 25 minutes in the oven.
Ingredients:
- 2 large green apples, peeled, cored, cut into 3cm pieces
- 4 small pears, peeled, cored, cut into 3cm pieces
- 2 tbsp water
- 4 tsp lemon juice
- 4 tsp maple flavoured syrup or honey, plus 2 tbsp extra
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 1/4 finely chopped walnuts
- 4 tsp pumpkin seeds
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 cup low-fat Greek-style yoghurt
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 200-degrees Celsius.
- place apple and pear in a pot with the water over medium heat. Cover and cook for eight minutes or until just tender. Stir in lemon juice and syrup. Transfer mixture to a three-cup ovenproof dish.
- Combine oats, nuts, pumpkin seeds, oil, and extra syrup in a bowl. Sprinkle oat crumble over the apple mixture.
- Bake for 25 minutes or until crumble is golden.
- Serve with yoghurt.
Chocolate and oat breakfast brownies
Serves: 16 brownies
Cooking Time:
Ingredients:
- 200g butter, cubed
- 200g dark chocolate, finely chopped
- 3 eggs, lightly beaten
- 30ml (2 tbsp) strongly brewed coffee, plus extra cup to serve (optional)
- 5ml (1 tsp) vanilla essense
- 335g castor sugar
- 60g cake flour
- 40g cocoa powder
- pinch of salt
- 100g pecan nuts, roughly chopped
- 60g oats
- fresh fruit, to serve (optional)
Method:
- Grease and line the base and sides of a 23cm square brownie tin. Preheat the oven to 180-degrees Celsius.
- Place the butter cubes and the chopped dark chocolate in a large glass bowl and fit the glass bowl over a pot of simmering water (don’t allow the base of the bowl to touch the water below it). Stir the chocolate-butter mixture until melted, then remove from heat.
- Stir the beaten eggs, 30ml (tbsp) brewed coffee, vanilla essence and castor sugar into the melted mixture. Mix well to combine and to dissolve most of the sugar. Sift the cake flour, cocoa powder and salt into the mixture, and fold gently to combine, without overmixing. Fold in the pecan nuts and oats, and pour the mixture into the prepared brownie tin.
- Bake the brownies in the preheated oven, 30 minutes, until they feel set but still squidgy in the middle. Remove the brownies from the oven and allow to cool, about 30 minutes, before slicing into 16 squares.
- Serve with your choice of fresh fruit, if desired, and a cup of freshly brewed coffee for a breakfast treat.
For more lip-smacking recipes, check out Food&Home.
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