Sweet Banana Rice Brekkie

I almost just wrote 'sweet banana rice oatmeal' in the title box of this post - but I thought that that might be a bit TOO MUCH of an oxymoron. Can you have an oatmeal made out of... not oats? I did play around with porridge briefly - but that brought up scenes of gruel and austere meals. Which is weird - I grew up with 'porridge' - now it just sounds... so... 19th century.

I think I've driven my friend mad though. She's not a fan of how she has started calling porridge oatmeal. Apparently it's too much exposure to me and my weird vocabulary and my love of oatmeal. What can I say? Oatmeal's awesome. 

Yeah. We'll just have to go with Brekkie. I mean. It's not even a real word. 

But it's the best of a lot of bad options. And sometimes that's all that we can ask for. I make it sound like I'm talking about a life and death. Well.... sometimes breakfast can seem like a life or death situation. 

It was my birthday a few weeks ago. It was great. I had so much work to do. What could ever be more fun? Nothing right?

I also went to see a movie with my friends and the day after we went to IKEA. Obviously - IKEA was brilliant. 

The hilarious story about the plate I bought is ALREADY broken? Not so hilarious. It was put on the stove top so that food could be spooned onto it... but the stove-top was hot and...

Exploding plate.

 Yes. I mean literally exploded. As in - dinner and place going everywhere. And a bang. And a mess to clean up...

And a reminder to remember that stoves that have just been cooking for will be HOT and so you should NOT place plates on them. 

But for my birthday - my parents gave me an Internet grocery delivery. They gave me a limit and I was allowed to put whatever I wanted into the virtual grocery cart, and it was delivered to me at my flat at college... (at 9pm the Friday night of my birthday.)

I'm a student. Its free food. It was the best birthday present ever (or up there at the top of the list in any case...). My Nana also gave me a gift card for the grocery store near where I live. Thanks Nana!!! So far I've got Nutella, Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chips.... all important student living essentials...

But I tried to think carefully about what I got in my Internet delivery. First to consider was what I couldn't get near to where I am... I'm looking at you Purple Laughing Cow triangles, Itsu hot sauce and black beans.

Next was almond milk - because its heavy and cheaper to stock up when they're selling it for a £1... so I got a dozen cartons...

Then came the stuff that's kind of expensive and I would probably spend way too much time deliberating over and then possibly still not end up buying.... the grapes, the pecan nuts.

And then some stuff that I was simply curios about like rice porridge flakes. I was looking in the 'free from' section for something else (vegan mayonnaise) and saw it and thought it looked interesting. If a little expensive (£2.50 for a 450g bag). It's my birthday (or was) - why not try something new - right?

When my parents saw what I'd chosen - as well as commenting on the lack of tinned tomatoes and 3 packets of cheese triangles (you can't get the right ones here ANYWHERE. Unless I walk 2 miles) they commented on my rice porridge flakes. My Dad did that thing people do where they say they simply name of something and in the process convey a spectrum of slightly confused and other, more prominent negative judgements. My Mom just pointed out that I loved it as a baby so I'd love it now.

Sigh. Eye roll. Resist the urge to hit them (gently of course) with the packet.

Well... if I'm eating baby food I might as well do it properly. So I went super simple here - just rice porridge, milk, bananas and sugar. Although I'm actually against babies being given sugar....

It doesn't matter cause I'm not eating baby food. Tak very much Mom.

Sweet Banana Rice Brekkie

Serves 1

• 1/2 cup rice porridge flakes
• 1 cup milk
• 1 banana, sliced
• 1 teaspoon sugar 

• Place the rice flakes and the milk together in a pan. You can cook this for a lower time on a higher temperature as the package suggests - but I found that it sticks way too much cooking like that; so I cook it for about 20 minutes on the lowest setting for the stove-top - stirring fairly regularly. You know it's ready when all the milk has been absorbed and the porridge has become thick, like a smooth rice pudding.
• Transfer to a bowl and top with the banana slices and sugar.