The Truth About Granola, Breakfast Pots & “Wholesome” Bars

Healthy Spring Breakfast

When breakfast starts to look like dessert in dressed in healthy packaging

There’s something that never ceases to amaze me, even after decades in professional kitchens: how many ingredients can be squeezed into foods that should be beautifully simple.

Granola. Breakfast pots. Protein bars. Breakfast biscuits. All sold to us as virtuous, balanced, a good start to the day.

And yet, when you turn the packet over, you’re often met with a list that reads more like a chemistry lesson than a recipe.

Healthy Eating Tracking

When “Healthy” Becomes Complicated

Take shop-bought granola. Most people assume it’s just oats, nuts and maybe a little honey. But many versions are closer to a dessert than a breakfast with sugars layered on sugars, syrups, oils, flavourings, stabilisers and sweeteners, all before you even add yoghurt or milk.

And then there’s the portion size.

When I was working as a private chef in Essex a few years ago, I decided to weigh out the recommended serving of cereal for my clients. I laid it out on a plate.

The silence said everything.

It was tiny. Shockingly so.Most people were eating at least triple or quadruple — without realising. Not through greed or carelessness, but because the bowl looked empty otherwise.

Instant porridge pots are another one. Oats themselves are a wonderfully nourishing food — slow-release energy, grounding, comforting. But once processed, flavoured, sweetened and shelf-stabilised, that humble oat becomes something entirely different.

The same story repeats with breakfast bars and protein bars. Clever branding. Earthy colours. Words like fuel, natural, energy, wholesome.But often they’re bound together with syrups, sugars and fats that tip them firmly into “cake in a wrapper” territory.

Ultra-Processed Creep and How Easily It Happens

Chocolate Cereal

One of the biggest shifts I’ve made in my own cooking — both personally and professionally — has been quietly reducing ultra-processed foods. Not with rules or restrictions, but by returning to foods that look like food.

It’s surprising how UPFs creep in. A bar grabbed on the go. A pot tipped into a bag. A breakfast eaten standing up because it’s “healthy enough”.

And yet, when clients start swapping those foods for something warm, simple and made with intention, the difference is always the same: steadier energy, fewer cravings, and a sense of being properly fed.

Not deprived. Nourished.

Porridge with blueberries and almonds

Simple Swaps That Actually Satisfy

This isn’t about perfection. It’s about choosing breakfasts that do what breakfast is meant to do — warm you, ground you, and carry you through the morning.

• Porridge made properly: oats, a pinch of salt, seeds, a knob of butter or splash of cream, and something seasonal stirred through.

• Overnight oats made at home, where you decide what goes in.

• Homemade bars that are honest, filling and not pretending to be something they’re not.

Real food doesn’t need shouting about. It just quietly does its job.

Overnight Oats with Seasonal Fruit & Seeds

Pot of overnight oats

This is my antidote to shop-bought breakfast pots. Gentle, adaptable and deeply nourishing.

Serves 2

You’ll need:

• 80g rolled oats

• 250ml milk (dairy or unsweetened oat milk)

• 2 tbsp natural yoghurt or kefir

• 1 tbsp chia seeds

• 1 tbsp mixed seeds (pumpkin, sunflower, sesame)

• Pinch of sea salt

To finish (choose what’s in season):

• Stewed apples or pears in winter

• Berries in summer

• A spoon of nut butter or drizzle of honey, if needed

Method:

1. Stir everything together in a bowl or jar.

2. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

3. In the morning, loosen with a splash of milk if needed and top with seasonal fruit.

Why it works: slow energy, no sugar spike, and enough fat and protein to keep you steady until lunch.

Honest Granola Bars (Not Pretending to Be Dessert)

Garnola Bars with nuts and seeds

These are filling, not flashy. They travel well and don’t collapse into crumbs or sugar highs.

Makes 10–12 bars

You’ll need:

• 200g rolled oats

• 60g chopped nuts (almonds, hazelnuts or walnuts)

• 40g seeds (pumpkin, sunflower, sesame)

• 60g butter

• 60g honey or maple syrup

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• Pinch of sea salt

Method:

1. Heat oven to 170°C. Line a small tin with baking paper.

2. Toast oats, nuts and seeds on a tray for 10 minutes until lightly golden.

3. Melt butter and honey together gently. Stir in vanilla and salt.

4. Combine everything, press firmly into the tin.

5. Bake for 20–25 minutes until just set.

6. Cool completely before slicing.

These are breakfast bars, not sweets. One is enough — which tells you everything.

Healthy Options

A Quieter Kind of Breakfast

Good breakfasts don’t shout. They don’t need claims, slogans or tiny portion guidance hidden on the back of the packet.

They’re warm. Or gently cool.They taste of real ingredients.They leave you feeling looked after.

And once you start there, it becomes surprisingly easy to spot the foods that are simply wearing a health halo.

Healthy Food Spread

Ready to Cook More Like This?

If this way of cooking speaks to you — simple, seasonal, properly nourishing — you’ll find more in my cookbooks, my classes, and my catering menus.

👉 Explore the books

👉 Book a cookery class or Thermomix demo

👉 Sign up to the newsletter for seasonal recipes and kitchen wisdom

Let’s make breakfast honest again.

Until next time

Meg x