As the saying goes “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.”   Breakfast gives you the much needed energy to conquer the day ahead.   Even though I cook breakfast every morning I’m not a huge fan of traditional breakfast meals.   Depending on my mood, breakfast ranges from the simple scramble eggs and toast to the more time consuming ackee and saltfish and bake.    With the exception of bake and saltfish, I usually make breakfast for one.   While my husband dines on bowls of porridge or crepes, I have a bowl of pineapple or just a simple pear.


Most days I keep it pretty simple, but lately I have been porridge crazy.   It all started with a conversation between my hubby and I.  Jamaicans love porridge, that is a fact.   So I asked him how come he doesn’t eat much porridge, his response was “because you don’t make it.”


So I decided to make porridge, until he was sick of it.  I bought oatmeal, cornmeal, banana flour and tapioca, I was going to cook porridge every morning, every day of the week.    Needless to say, Jamaicans love their porridge.  I was sick of making it before he got sick of eating it, I was defeated.

Porridge is a very popular item on the breakfast table in Guyana and many Caribbean islands because it is a cheap, hot meal that stretched.  An entire family could have a filling meal for just a few dollars.   It usually consisted of a grain that’s cooked in sweetened milk flavored with a dash of nutmeg and essence.

There are many varieties of porridge; banana, plantain, sago(Tapioca), cornmeal,barley,  rice, balgo(rice mar) and dulpiti, just to name a few.  I was never a fan of porridge. I hated Tapioca the most because as a young girl growing up in the Amazon I saw many frog  eggs in the drains and Tapioca looked just like it.  There was no way to convince me to eat something that looked like frogs eggs and was a bit slimy.  I’ve grown up a bit and have since tried tapioca and needless to say those childhood fears are a thing of the past.   Originally I was going to post recipes of a trio of porridge but forgot to take pictures.  Hey, it’s hard feeding a husband and two feisty dogs, sometimes you just forget.   I only managed to document the Banana Oatmeal Porridge.   Enjoy!


Banana Oatmeal Porridge

2 cups milk

2 tbsp banana flour

4 tbsp water

1/2 cup quick oats

1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk

1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

dash of nutmeg

Serves 2

Over  medium fire, heat milk.  Place banana flour in a small bowl and add water gradually to the banana flour while stirring.   Add mixture to pot while stirring.  Add oatmeal, stir.   Cook for 5 min.   Porridge will thicken.

Remove from heat and stir in sweetened condensed milk, vanilla and nutmeg.  Serve immediately.