When it comes to breakfast, I’m as lazy as it gets.

I’m not a morning person so when I first get up in the morning, the last thing I want to do is make food . . .but I know for me to wake up and get myself going, I’ve got to eat pretty soon after getting up or I’ll be in foggy sleep land for hours. The best thing ever is that John stopped hitting starbucks on his way to work and now makes coffee before he leaves so I now wake up to a hot delicious pot of coffee waiting for me. Wake and pour! haha!

Anyhow, breakfast for me is often a smoothie, some sort of fast egg and vegetable hash, granola, oats! Maybe some smoked sockeye, avocado and greens. Nothing too complicated. I do, however love to use whatever leftovers I have in the fridge – this girl hates waste and also gets tired of food prep.

This week, I had some leftover arborio rice from dinner and a big apple that was calling my name so I decided to make a rice porridge with it. I’ve never actually looked up what constitutes a porridge so you’ll have to forgive me if I’m calling this dish the wrong thing. I tossed in a diced apple, some spices, the rice and some almond milk in a pot, cooked it for a few minutes and then served it with butter (oh yes) and maple syrup for a warm, satisfying and easy breakfast. You can toss in some hemp or raw pumpkin seeds for a little protein boost.

As a side note: You’re probably surprised to see a white rice like arborio here! While most of the time I’m a big fan of whole grain rices – like brown, japonica or wild – I do think variety is important and occasionally make room in my life for white rices (like in sushi or risotto!). One reason I include it in our diet occasionally is because white rice is a form of resistant starch. Resistant starches are interesting in that instead of being digested and released into the blood sugar as glucose like most other types of starch, resistant starch makes its way all the way to the large intestine (undigested) where it gets fermented and feeds the bacteria that is directly responsible for keeping the cells in our colon functioning their best. Making resistant starch a part of your diet can be a good thing for your digestive system – green bananas, cooked and then cooled potatoes and rices, cashews are a few good sources of it. So while I won’t eat white rice every time I have rice – I feel good about eating it occasionally.

Ingredients
3/4 cup leftover rice
1 large apple, diced
1/4 tsp ground cloves
dash of ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch of salt
1/8 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 -3/4 cup water or milk of your choice (I used unsweetened almond milk)
1/2 tbsp butter and 2 tsp real maple syrup for serving

Directions
Put everything but the butter and maple syrup in a small pot and warm over medium heat, stirring occasionally until liquid is absorbed and apple is tender, about 5-10 minutes (this will depend on your stove – I have a slow cranky one). Serve warm with a little butter and maple syrup stirred in.

For a faster version – you can microwave the rice, apple and water/milk together for about 2 minutes and then stir in your spices at the end but I’m not a super fan of the microwave and just prefer the stove for most of my cooking.