This progressive breakfast around Melbourne's beautiful Tan Track, around the Botanic Gardens, was sponsored by Diabetes Australia - Victoria. The 5 stations of food were created by Healthy Byte, the healthy eating catering company of Bright Young Things. To keep recipes healthy and appropriate for those living with diabetes, all dishes were created with the input of Scoop Nutrition. The Mushroom Lovers Club were one of the sponsors and a highlight for the kids was meeting Mighty Mushroom. I couldn't resist a selfie with him either!
Unfortunately the weather in Melbourne this morning was rather cold, so it wasn't the glorious Autumn walk I was hoping for! Rugged up in jackets, with the kids on their bikes, it was still a lovely way to spend the morning.
We started with Acqua Panna water and a pear at the first stop. A hot coffee probably would have been a much better idea to warm up!
Next, a beautiful tub of Jalna Greek yoghurt and Goodness Superfoods Barley Clusters. This was delicious and one of my favourite courses. For a non-breakfast eater, this was right up my alley.
Next up was the only hot dish on the menu - Boston baked beans with balsamic mushrooms. The beans were warming and filling and the mushrooms added some acidity. This was a great, hearty dish, and being hot, was perfect on a cold morning. I'm certainly going to look up the recipe for the beans from the Healthy Byte website to make at home. Served with La Madre sourdough, it was a meal in itself.
The fourth course was a lovely sweet potato and ricotta frittata. Unfortunately this was served cold too, as it would have been much nicer hot. The sweet potato was beautiful and soft and matched really well with the slightly salty cheese. This would be a winner if served warm with some baby spinach and smoked salmon. Now there's a brunch idea for you! We also received a small bottle of Rauch ACE juice, which was delicious.
The final course was a barley wrap with omelette, avocado, baby spinach and tomato. Again this was served cold and on a hot day, would be fine. On a cold and grey morning, a bit of warmth and toastiness would have been fantastic. The flavours were still great and it was easy to eat on the go.
To finish off the 4.2km walk, we were given a glass of the Maggie Beer Ruby Cabernet non-alcoholic sparkling. It was slightly sweet, but with a nice acidity and bubble to it. The perfect refresher at the end of a long walk.
All in all, it was a lovely morning. You can't do much about the weather and Melbourne really is so fickle at this time of year. Yesterday was 30 degrees after all!
Healthy Byte did a wonderful job catering for so many people. At least 700 people were fed over the course of the morning. It would have been nice to have a few more hot dishes, given the cold weather, but I understand that the logistics of this can be difficult. Hot tea and coffee around the track would have gone down a treat too!
Thanks to the fantastic people at the Mushroom Lovers Club, I have a giveaway for you. Yippee!
To enter, all you have to do is comment below with your favourite way to enjoy mushrooms. Easy!
Competition starts now and closes on Sunday March 22 at 10pm. Open to Australian residents only.
Get your thinking (mushroom) caps on and get entering!!
Looks fantastic. A great way to inspire exercise too.
ReplyDeleteMy favourite way to enough mushrooms is cooked in heaps of butter and balsamic vinegar and piled onto sourdough :)
Looks like a fun day!
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