Sunday 30 September 2012

Breakfast for 10 and Change from a Tenner

BREAKFAST FOR 10

It's Scotland, it's cold, it's wet, it's windy, it's a PORRIDGE BREAKFAST DAY!

Porridge oats currently cost around £1 per kilo retail and one kilo is supposed to make approximately 22.22 portions (weird number) if you follow the guidelines for a 'recommended serving'. I don't, I use 50g. Besides, if we all stick with the 'recommended serving' of just 45g, there's nothing to deter the companies from reducing the weight of their kilo bags to 990g and still charging us £1.00! I AM WATCHING FOR THAT!

I'm very cynical about recommended serving sizes, as these, in my opinion, cannot possibly be true; there are far too many different lifestyles to cover for anyone to make such a generalisation with regards to calorific intake. You're still going to get fat if you eat more than you burn and you're going to starve yourself to death if you follow the recommended 2,000 or 2,500 per day when your daily lifestyle is burning up over 3,000+ calories!

But back to the porridge breakfast...

Per person

1 x small cup (~50g) of porridge oats
2.5 x small cups of water
Good pinch of salt

I cook mine in the microwave, takes only about 6 minutes, but this timing will depend on how powerful your microwave is. Don't forget to stir the porridge halfway through and let it stand for a minute before serving.

Serve with a little milk and a sprinkle of sugar (if prefered).

Allowing 8p for the salt, milk and sugar, this amounts to approximately 18p per serving in grocery costs.

My microwave is a 700w. A 5 minute blast with this costs approx 1p, so the REAL cost of a bowl of wholesome, homemade porridge is only 19p.

If you have a handful of dried fruit with this, rather than sugar, you can easily add on another 10p, so maybe best save the fruit for a mid-morning snack if your budget is tight.

So there you have it: you can feed 10 people a warm and filling breakfast for less than £2. If you just happened to be charging them £1 each for the luxury of having their breakfast made and provided for them, that's shown a profit of over 400%

Would you pay £1 for a bowl of freshly made porridge?  Or perhaps you already have, if you've paid 99p for one of those boil the kettle and 'just add boiling water' concoctions that the supermarkets now sell. (And they're only 48g including whatever additives they may use,)

Shona Prophett
www.shonaprophett.co.uk