Make your own liquid breakfast

Liquid breakfasts – things you sip straight out of the pack – are all the rage. For busy people flying out the door, it’s the ultimate in a quick meal replacement. Nothing to mix or chop or toast, grab as you head out the door, easy to consume via the straw, non-messy and designed to substitute for that bowl of wholegrain cereal with milk.

Healthy breakfast recipes for breakfast on the run are hard to find - so here’s my idea for a real liquid breakfast that is healthier, made from simple ingredients that you know and trust, and packs in a powerful punch for lowering your cholesterol.

  This post is sponsored by HeartActive milk   

HeartActive is a delicious, 99% fat free milk enriched with plant sterols, which are proven to help reduce cholesterol. Research shows that consuming plant sterols everyday in milk can reduce cholesterol by an average of 10% in three weeks.

HeartActive is currently available in a 1 L carton with an extended shelf life (45 days from production) compared to ‘regular’ white milks with a shelf life of 14 days.

Drawbacks of commercial liquid breakfasts

As I’ve pointed out in my recent Reviews of several of the latest offerings, most of the supermarket liquid breakfast products have their drawbacks. For instance:

• Their flavours are not to everyone’s taste, being quite ‘artificial’ even though they’re advertised as having ‘natural’ flavours and ‘nothing artificial’. I found anything with banana flavour tasted unpleasant and reminded me of those banana lollies we used to have as kids rather than a fresh real banana, if you get my drift.
• Liquid breakfasts are often overly sweet, appealing to kiddie taste buds with their love of pure sweet flavours. Not something a mature palate will find appetising, especially first thing in the morning. A small amount of sugar or honey is fine in a balanced diet but I suggest you use just enough to sweeten and make high-fibre, low-fat dishes more palatable. My philosophy is to use any type of sweetener sparingly, not eliminate entirely.
• There are additives that you may want to minimise such as thickeners, stabilisers, acidity regulators, vegetable gums and flavours. Even though there’s nothing harmful about these, anyone who wants to eat clean will not want to have these.
• The fibre is not from normal high fibre ingredients such as oats, oat bran, wheat bran, psyllium or whole grains. Usually it’s from a special extract such as inulin (high in fructose) or Hi-Maize which suits a manufacturer but is not a common kitchen ingredient.

How to make your own

If you need something quick in the mornings but have to watch your cholesterol, here’s my alternative DIY liquid breakfast idea.

Make it up the night before and then you’re ready to grab and drink on your way to work, college or the school drop-off. This recipe makes two serves so I drink one on the first morning and leave the second in the fridge for the second day. Keep it chilled in the fridge and it will be fine 24 hours later.

In a blender, place 2 cups of a low-fat milk like HeartActive and add ½ cup frozen mixed berries (keep frozen), ½ cup yoghurt and 2 tablespoons oats plus 1 tablespoon of some sort of fibre. Ideally oat bran but psyllium husks or ground linseed or wheatgerm are all good.

Fibre does double duty – it keeps your bowel in good working order and prevents constipation AND it helps sweep cholesterol by-products out which is one mechanism by which fibre lowers cholesterol.

If you currently use Benefibre or Metamucil powder, you can add a spoonful of either of these in place of the oat bran. Ideally the plain unflavoured type. Throw in a good pinch of cinnamon or nutmeg if you like the taste.

Whirl everything together for a minute, then pour into two glass or plastic bottles. Seal and refrigerate until the next morning.

Grab, shake well to distribute everything and drink for breakfast.

This drink gives you the fibre, dairy, grains and calcium of a balanced breakfast. If you need more, say after a gym class, drink with a slice of grainy toast or breakfast biscuits.