We all enjoy a spot of morning tea; whether it’s an elaborate pot of tea with scones, jam and cream or an on-the-go take-away coffee and biscuit, a mid-morning snack is often needed to give us an energy boost and get us through the busy morning.

Unfortunately morning (or afternoon) tea can be a point of downfall in the pursuit of a healthy diet. Commercially cooked and purchased cakes or biscuits are often high in fat and lacking in overall nutrition, and some home cooked items can be just as unhealthy. Sounds a bit depressing doesn’t it? The good news is that you don’t have to give up morning tea in order to have a healthy diet. Rather, treat morning and afternoon tea time as a chance to boost your intake of healthy food, whilst indulging in the less-healthy options only occasionally.

For the on-the-go morning tea, fresh fruit is an excellent option! It requires little or no preparation and will give you a handy boost of fibre and vitamins. Nuts and seeds are also a good mid-morning snack as they are a good source of fibre and unsaturated fat and also require minimal fuss.

For those of you who enjoy being prepared, try cooking some healthy muffins. You can make a couple of batches at a time and freeze them individually so they are ready to go. Try adding oats, seeds, bran or diced fruit into the muffin mixture as this will greatly improve the nutrient profile of the product.

Now if you are part of a workplace morning tea roster, you have more of a challenge to provide a morning tea which is healthy as well as popular! A good theory to test is that if you put food in front of people, they will generally eat it — try it. Instead of only buying or making a cake, try cutting up some fruit and presenting it on a platter. Or if you’re very brave, try making a healthy dip and cutting up some vegetable sticks. There may still be a few people who will only eat the cake, but there will be many more that will appreciate the chance to choose something healthy.

I hope you enjoy this low-fat morning tea option.

Healthy Recipe
ORANGE LOAF 20 mins prep + 35-40 mins cooking, serves 8
Ingredients Olive or canola oil spray 2 cups self-raising flour ½ cup caster sugar ½ cup sultanas (or 1 cup chopped dried apricots) Rind of 2 oranges, grated cup freshly-squeezed orange juice 2 eggs ¼ cup low-fat milk 1 tablespoon margarine, melted
Topping (whip together until smooth) 125g reduced-fat ricotta Rind of 1 small orange, grated 2 teaspoons freshly-squeezed orange juice Preheat oven to 180°C. Lightly spray a loaf tin. Combine flour, sugar and sultanas in a mixing bowl. In another bowl mix remaining ingredients. Add wet ingredients to dry, stir and spoon into tin. Bake for 35-40 minutes until cooked and golden. Turn onto wire cooling rack. When cool, spread with ricotta topping. Store in refrigerator.