Smooth and Delicious

There is not enough written about breakfast. Look at the food sections in your Sunday papers and the foods discussed are almost invariably at home in lunches and suppers - especially on-trend (vile vile phrase, individuality is precious) suppers (darling everybody in London is going mad for Herzogovian these days). Given we all trot out the cliche about breakfast being the most important meal of the day, that seems somewhat odd.

I have a small collection of books about breakfasts, none of recent vintage however, so their ideas tend towards the heavier and the more complicated. Of late we, by way of contrast, as part of our sickeningly successful health regime (for which read pre-hols weight-loss regime), have gone pretty simple - wholemeal toast with some protein and/or preserves, coffee, and either a fruit yogurt plus a fruit platter, or the last two combined in a smoothie.

When did the smoothie hit these shores? Not milkshakes with a bit of fruit, but the full-on smoothie (a delightful misnomer given any interesting ones have bits aplenty in them). My wife, not normally allowed in the kitchen, made a wonderful new variant the other day without any milk, the flesh of a sizeable slice of watermelon providing the liquid. The rest was a load of grapes and one peach yogurt. The result was runnier than normal, but down-in-one delicious.

On the GI front that would be a bit frowned on, as strangely watermelon is high GI, and blending fruit breaks down the fibre so moves everything up the scale regardless of where it starts. But the toast and protein balance it out, and anyway I wouldn't care as it tasted great and provided at least one of our 103 each a day. These things are complicated though: watermelon per an article noticed the other day helps speed fat through ones system (though not with the occasional distressing effects of certain tablets if the stories are true). I'd rather eat watermelon than take tablets. Especially if it tastes as good as that smoothie did. And anyway, I'd rather watch Ipswich than use tablets like that.