Saturday 15 August 2015

Breakfast Oats in Modified Texture Die

It seems there are many factors to take into account in our humble porridge breakfast. I understand the importance of the whole grain perspective with low glycaemic index (GI) keeping our insulin levels at bay.
The new steel cut oats (I chose to buy the Uncle Toby product) has the lowest GI so I decided to give it a try. I thought that being cut up would provide a smaller particle at less than 0.5 cm to maybe make it suitable for a minced and moist diet. Well I missed the toasted label and no matter how long I cooked it the particles remained “nutty” true to the advert. The bits would be a nightmare for anyone with dentures and remained around the mouth to maybe cause problems for swallowing accidents later in the day.

Steel Cut Oats illustrating the “nutty” texture
The other consideration of particle size prompted me to try “steel” cutting in my food processor to create smaller pieces of my traditional oats (the next lowest GI option). I had no idea whether this would raise the GI but I guessed it would make it easier to digest. The results were superb! Easy to eat with no lumps lowered cooking time for 2 serves (3 mins in the microwave instead of 4-5), and a cheap product from the local brand of supermarket. (99c for 750g as opposed to over 5 dollars for the steel cut oats).
Now I was on a mission! How could I improve the protein and fibre of my breakfast to meet the nutrition requirements for the elderly of at least 20g of protein and 10g of fibre. This would be a helpful recipe for aged care homes as well as for modified texture diets at home.
I trialled making the porridge with all milk, adding extra skim milk powder and oat bran before cooking and a teaspoon of honey with a heaped tablespoon of Greek Yogurt to serve. The result was very popular, was suitable for Soft and Minced & Moist diets, and almost met the nutrition goal. The mixed meal using milk would lower the GI and addition of oat bran improve fibre and mineral content. The fibre content of the meal can be further increased by addition of fruit as desired.

Breakfast Porridge
Ingredients                                        Serves 2
60g Rolled Oats
20g Oat Bran
330 ml Skim Milk
25g skim milk powder
2tsp honey
60g Greek Yoghurt

Method
  1. Process rolled oats in food processor until pieces < 0.5cm.
  2. Mix skim milk powder into the milk before adding it to the processed oats and oat bran.
  3. Cook in microwave on high for 2 mins, stir and cook again for 1 further minute.
  4. Serve with a teaspoon of honey and a heaped tablespoon of yoghurt.

These may need to be mixed in at the table to minimise mixed texture. The yoghurt will also minimise the slightly cohesive nature of the porridge.

Nutrition Information per serve: Energy1260kJ, protein18.6g, fat 4.2g, sat fat 0.8g, carbohydrate 45.7g, sugars 21.8g, fibre 4.0g, calcium 419mg, magnesium 100mg, iron 1.9g, zinc 2.2g.

Breakfast porridge with small particle size oats