Pear and Banana Breakfast Loaf

This makes a delicious, nutritious and satisfying weekend brunch. Lovely on its own, or served with jam or honey and some plain soy (or dairy) yogurt. It's best served warm and fresh out of the oven, but we discovered it's still really tasty cold - if you're lucky to have some left over for afternoon tea!

Adapted from a recipe in the trusty ol' NZ cooking bible, the Edmonds Cookery Book, it uses barley malt extract to sweeten which provides slow release energy.

Ingredients:

1 3/4 c self raising flour

1/4 tsp baking soda

pinch salt

2 tsp egg replacer, mixed with water (or I used apple juice) according to the packet

1/4 c rice milk

70g vegetable margarine, melted

1/3c barley malt extract

1 large banana, mashed

1 medium pear, peeled and finely chopped

rice milk to brush

sunflower seeds to scatter

To make:

1) Turn the oven to 180°c and grease a loaf tin.

2) Sift the flour, baking soda and salt into a large bowl and mix.

3) In another bowl, whisk the egg replacer mix, milk, barley malt extract and melted marge until well combined. Mix in the mashed banana and pear.

4) Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients. Fold together until just combined.

5) Spoon the mix into the loaf tin (it'll be quite a sticky mix) and brush with rice milk. Scatter sunflower seeds over the top and bake in the oven for 50 minutes, until it comes away from the edges and is slightly golden.

6) Let it sit in its tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.

Sunday brekkie - healthy eggs bene

This is a vegetarian, low fat alternative to Eggs Benedict. Obviously it doesn't have Hollandaise sauce, but personally I find this too rich anyway. The soft cheese adds creaminess for those who would like it, or a little soy / natural yoghurt would serve a similar purpose.

Eggs are high in protein and spinach is rich in antioxidants and fibre.

Ingredients:

2 eggs

2 English Muffins (split)

Low fat cooking spray

4 mushrooms

3 large handfuls of baby spinach

Salt and pepper

A little low fat soft cheese if you like

Chopped parsley

To make:

1) Bring a pot of water to a simmer to poach the eggs.

2) Chop the mushrooms into fairly thin slices. Heat a small pan with a little low fat cooking spray and add mushrooms.

3) Put the muffins spilt side up under the grill. They'll take about 3 minutes.

4)Add eggs to water. If you are using the traditional poaching method make sure that water is at a very slow simmer and add about 1tsp of white vinegar before adding the eggs. Personally, I use silicone egg poachers - you just crack the egg into them and pop them in the boiling water where they float. Easy. I like my eggs very well cooked, but about 3 minutes will see an egg that's cooked through the white with a runny yoke. Perfect to my partner's taste.

5) Add the spinach to the mushrooms at the very end, cook until it's just wilted.

6) To assemble, spread a little of the soft cheese on the muffin if desired (I left this off my one as I don't eat dairy) and top with the mushrooms and spinach to cover the muffin. Slide the egg on top and sprinkle with chopped parsley and some freshly ground black pepper.

7) If you are very hungry, you can serve 2 eggs per person and double the veg (my partner always has 2) or the remaining halves of muffin can be had with a sweet topping, like marmalade, to finish off the breakfast.

Serves 2.

P.S, if you are interested, from my calculations, each 1/2 muffin with the veges and egg, no cream cheese, is 3 Weight Watchers points.