How to Serve a Healthy Breakfast in Under 90 Seconds

Sometimes, for laughs, I ask my friends what time they get up in the morning.

One of my best friends, for example, gets up at 6.30am. She leaves the house at 8am. That’s 90 minutes to shower, tend to the dog, make breakfast and get ready for the school run.

Friends, this is nothing short of MADNESS.

My experience tells me that the earlier you get up, the more things you’ll find to fill that time. Your child will dawdle. It’s all eating cereal at glacier-melting pace, and lost shoes. You’ve lost an hour of sleep and for what?

Nope.

My philosophy is that you should get up no more than 30 minutes before you leave the house in the morning. This is more than enough time to drink a coffee, wash, get dressed, brush teeth and leave the house.

“What about a healthy, nutritious breakfast?” you ask.

“I’m so glad you asked,” I reply. (go with it)

Because it’s actually possible to pull together a nutritious breakfast combining whole grains, dairy AND one of your five a day in less than 90 seconds.

I present – my Peach and Granola breakfast parfait.

It sounds WAY posh but is in fact incredibly simple to make.

Peach and Granola Breakfast Parfait

• Start with a glass and spoon in a tablespoon of fat free Greek yoghurt (or your own preferred yoghurt)
• Sprinkle wholegrain granola over the top
• If you like, add a drizzle of your preferred sweetener – we use agave but honey or maple syrup would work as well
• Top with drained, chopped fruit
• Repeat by adding another layer of yoghurt, granola and fruit

We made this breakfast recipe using tinned fruit which is even quicker than peeling and chopping fresh peaches. Princes asked me to work with them on a breakfast recipe using tinned fruit, and it seemed like a great opportunity to share one of my favourites.

Tinned fruit is the sort of thing you always seem to have lurking in the back of the cupboard, isn’t it? But you feel vaguely guilty because it’s not as “good” as fresh fruit. In our house we’re particular fans of tinned mandarin oranges and pineapple, which I can serve for breakfast or later in the day, as a no-fuss dessert.

While it’s true that canned fruit doesn’t always have quite as much fibre or vitamin C as fresh fruit, it does count as one of your five a day, and does contain lots of important vitamins and nutrients. And at a time when less than a third of us actually manage to eat five a day, adding fruit to breakfast makes a lot of sense.

When you’re short on time and don’t have fresh options to hand, it’s the work of a few seconds to open a tin, drain some fruit (try and go for the sort that’s canned in juice NOT syrup) and add it to a breakfast.

The extra bonus of this parfait is that is fits perfectly into my patented BREAKFAST IN A CUP regime. Oh yes. Let your child eat breakfast out of a cup in the car, and you can shave up to six minutes off your morning routine. Or – to put in another way – spend an extra six minutes in bed.

What’s not to love?