by Gordon Hamilton

Created on: December 19, 2008

Uh-oh! Wakey, wakey! It 06:30 hours, you both have work to go to and a nourishing, healthy breakfast for two has to be on the table in five minutes! What do you do in these circumstances? Panic?

No need! Follow this incredibly simple, time efficient routine and your breakfast times can be free of stress and confusion for evermore! That last sentence sounds like a line from a tacky TV commercial for soap powder or the likes, but please allow me now to demonstrate. Start the clock!

Go to the kitchen and get the coffee on to brew. Either that, or cheat and put a kettle of water on to boil for making instant coffee. Put two slices of bread by the toaster but don't put them in it yet.

Take a large serving or dinner plate and a small ramekin from your cupboard. Take one apple, one pear and one banana from your fruit bowl. Quarter both the apple and the pear down through the centre and cut away the pieces of core in both instances. Peel the banana and quarter it cross ways. Arrange the pieces of fruit alternately in a circle around the edge of the plate. Take some low fat natural yoghurt from the refrigerator and fill the ramekin which should then be placed in the centre of the plate to essentially serve as a dip.

Pour some wholewheat cereal in to two bowls and put them on the table with some milk. Fill two glasses with fresh fruit juice such as orange or grapefruit and place them on the table. Pour the coffee and put the bread in to the toaster. Two spoons, two knives and two side plates should now be added to the table setting. Summon your other half from their slumber to the kitchen and add some milk to the cereal. Enjoy your cereal and the fruit dipped in yoghurt before fetching the by now ready toast to the table, and if they are required, putting another two slices of bread in the toaster. Spread your toast with olive or sunflower oil based spread as opposed to butter or margarine and enjoy at leisure.

More toast? If appropriate, serve and enjoy, perhaps with a refill of coffee, then place all the dishes in the dishwasher - or the sink for your other half to attend to in the evening! - and get yourself ready to face the day, suitably fuelled up.

We are not counting the eating time here, merely the preparation, so be honest, how long did it/would it take? Considerably less than five minutes, I suggest. I therefore hope I have successfully demonstrated that even those of us with the most hectic and demanding of lifestyles can and should make the time to start each day with a healthy, nourishing and satisfying breakfast.

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