I’ve become a bit obsessed with my gut microbiome recently. In fact, my family has started eye rolling and edging out of the room whenever I begin talking about it.

It is fascinating stuff. The gut microbiome affects much more than just digestion. I won’t bore you too much here but I really recommend having a listen to Dr Rangan Chatterjee’s podcast where he talks to Tim Spector of ZOE → The Latest Science on Gut Health Podcast

I've had to drive across to see my parents a lot recently, and I find the drive goes much more quickly with a podcast playing. The ZOE podcast is also on my playlist and is one of my favourites  ZOE Podcast

As a result of all of this new found information, I’ve been aiming to eat at least 30 different plant based foods a week and some fermented food like yoghurt and kefir daily. 

In this instance plant based doesn't refer to a vegan diet, but is all about eating more plant based foods such as vegetables, fruit, nuts, seeds, legumes, wholegrains, herbs and spices.

To help me get in more of these foods, I've gone back to one of my favourite breakfasts. I’ve always loved my Bircher Muesli recipe. And my guests loved it too.

It was a breakfast food many people hadn’t tried before they stayed with us, and I lost count of the number of people who asked for the recipe.

This is a great breakfast recipe for your B&B guests who want something a bit healthier.

I always thought it was quite a healthy recipe, but I’ve recently changed it just a little to make it even healthier, according to today’s science anyway!

If you serve it with 2 types of berry, you’ve already eaten 6 plant based foods and 2 types of fermented food. And a lot of fibre towards your daily fibre allowance.

You can make it a couple of days in advance, so it’s a great breakfast if you don’t have much time in the morning. You can put it into small jars and take it with you if you have to go out.

I invariably forget to soak it overnight and it’s fine with just a couple of hours of soaking.

You could make it vegan by replacing the kefir with oat milk kefir and the yoghurt with your choice of plant based yoghurt such as coconut.

You can also get an extra shot of plant based foods by sprinkling some whole mixed nuts on the top.

Kefir does take a bit of getting used to but I love it now. If you really don’t like that slightly sour taste, you can replace the kefir with full fat milk, but of course then you’ve missed out on some of those probiotics. You’ll still get some from the yoghurt.

Ingredients

½ cup ( 50g ) oats ( as unprocessed as possible - I love Pimhill rolled oats )
1 tablespoon chia seeds
¾ cup ( 175 ml ) Cows milk kefir
½ cup ( 140g ) full fat natural Greek yoghurt
1 apple, washed well, then grated with the skin on, discarding the core and pips
1 tablespoon of pumpkin seeds

Method

Mix all the ingredients together and leave for at least 2 hours and up to 3 days in the fridge.

You can see all of my recipes here >> Bed and Breakfast Academy Recipes