an amazing life starts with an amazing breakfast
While in graduate school, I worked the early shift at a local cafe—wake up time: 5:00 a.m. A slice of fruit galette or a warm scone suits me for a leisurely weekend morning nosh, but I require a breakfast of slightly more substance when I must stand, make semi-decent lattes and smile for eight hours.
In search of the perfect pre-dawn bite, I jotted down a list of my requirements.
- • Quick and easy to prepare (or ready when I rise)
- • Warm (to combat chilly morning air)
- • Whole foods (to power me through)
- • Delicious (because why eat anything that isn’t?)
Rachel’s porridge method is life changing–it’s healthy, incredibly tasty, very easy, super cheap, and fun. Wake up to something wonderful in your slow cooker every morning. With almost no time investment, you can ditch the packets of bland, instant oatmeal and truly nourish yourself with delicious whole grains.
– Vanessa Barrington, Cookbook Author & Writer
I recalled seeing an episode of Alton Brown’s Good Eats – Oat Cuisine, to be exact – in which he slowly cooked steel cut oatmeal overnight. The idea of having a warm breakfast ready and waiting for me upon waking sounded heavenly and the fact that it would fuel me for the entire workday (or at least until my lunch break) made it even better.
As you’ll see, for me, Alton’s oats sparked something much bigger and more exciting than simple oatmeal. Now, many years after my first bowl, porridge has become a part of my life. It’s a way I care for myself and nourish others and a way to practice my own modern-day ritual.
I am a porridge skeptic turned addict. I now eat it almost every day and have been feeding it to my daughter daily from the age of six months. My 83-year-old grandmother adores it as well. I make it once a week and just reheat in the morning. It’s loaded with nutrition, easy to customize, tasty, and so satisfying. It neither loads you down nor leaves you hungry an hour later. It truly is the breakfast of healthy champions.
– Bonnie Powell, Director of Communications for Bon Appetit Management Company
In the pages of The Porridge Manifesto, I hope to inspire you – how you live and what you eat. It makes a wonderful gift for yourself, for new moms, for those who need some breakfast inspiration, and for those who want to eat more whole foods or more homemade foods or more tasty foods.
To give you a glimpse inside, here is the table of contents:
1. Introduction
2. Special Equipment
3. Preparation
4. Enjoying
5. Ingredient Musings
6. 8 Reasons Porridge Will Rock Your Day & Your Life
7. My Incomplete Ingredient Lexicon
8. Resources
9. Porridge Recipe 1.0
10. About Rachel
To grab your copy of The Porridge Manifesto, visit my shop.
Here’s to welcoming the sunrise and endless bowls of deliciousness.
- Rachel
The Porridge Manifesto is a short and sweet book that gave me a starting point to overhaul my oatmeal eating habits. I have oatmeal nearly every day for lunch because it’s easy and delicious. I’ve already tried mixing in a few different things, but I never would have thought to add prunes! I’ve also been narrow minded and have restricted myself to simple oatmeal. This book opened my eyes to the idea of using spelt berries (which have been in my cupboard waiting to be used for something), mixing in legumes, and making a whole crock of porridge rather than a single serving. I commend The Porridge Manifesto for its wonderfully simple approach and captivating phrases. I would recommend this book to any porridge lover!
– Jen
The Porridge Manifesto is a clever but intuitive look into breakfast. It brings bright new ideas to your bowl. The author takes you through the tools to make a fantastic bowl of porridge. She illuminates the bottomless bowl of possibilities beyond oats and flakes. After seeing through the author’s eyes, porridge will never be boring again. I have been a routine oatmeal eater for several years. 1/2 cup oats, 1 cup water, pinch of salt, microwave, brown sugar, cinnamon. I now know how dreadfully boring that is. While I haven’t fully attempted the author’s method yet, I have incorporated some different additions to my bowl that have made it both more nutritient-rich and more exciting. This book is not a cookbook – but a jumping off point. It includes guidelines and ideas for what might make it into your bowl.
– Amanda
One of the great pleasures of being Rachel’s mom is discovering how much she has to teach me. One of the many things that Rachel has taught me (or reminded me, because I think I already knew it) is that “When you go to bed at night, if you’re not excited about what’s for breakfast, you are not eating the right breakfast.” Rachel’s Porridge Manifesto is a rich philosophy of life much more than it is a recipe. It reminds me of the importance of finding joy in the simple pleasures of daily activities, like eating a delicious breakfast. It is a simple, but powerful little guide to caring for ourselves one bowl of porridge at a time.
– Martha Ware (My Mom & Kitchen Mentor)
I just received my Porridge book and it’s simple to follow and I can’t wait to try it. Finally a healthy option for breakfast that is easy to make, with ingredients that are tasty! Sometimes the best things in life are the simplest ones, and author Rachel Cole seems to have nailed it…And now I am going to go get out my slow cooker and give it a whirl.