Back in my early school days, I had a teacher who would repeatedly drill into our obnoxious ten-year-old heads that breakfast was by far the most important meal of the day. How – and why – she managed to fit this into every and any subject class, I still don’t know. Of course, most of this was lost on my young, cheese-on-toast-fuelled mind; but my wiser, older student self has found a grain of truth here.

It’s not that I have converted into a great believer of the nutritional values of a proper breakfast and all the keep-full-and-work-efficiently until lunchtime nonsense. Rather, I’ve discovered that there is nothing like the promise of a yummy breakfast to get me out of bed instead of hitting snooze once again.

Cambridge has all the options for a brilliant start to the day. I’ve been told that the eggy bread with maple syrup and bacon at Michaelhouse Café is well worth forking out £5.75 for. I enjoy the touristy vibe at The Copper Kettle on King’s Parade, and I love people-watching down the street at Nero’s with an apricot croissant and a hot chocolate complete with whipped cream. I also have a wholehearted admiration for the religiosity with which a friend of mine starts his day with a fresh baguette and four different types of cheese (a French student, obviously).

Sadly, though, neither my clothing size nor purse can afford any of these options as a regular alternative to an alarm clock. Now, one of my teacher’s recurrent breakfast topics involved the superiority of porridge over all other breakfast foods. I’m a great lover of porridge, but I simply don’t have the time – read: self-discipline – to be Nigella on a daily basis and rise before dawn to boil my oats to perfection. For a while I survived off the microwaveable variety, but having gone through different makes resembling everything from water to glue – not so much actual porridge, funnily enough – I gave up on the queen of proper breakfasts.

This was until I started hearing whispers of the new vogue, that is – overnight oats. It was not long before all the trendy and hip food bloggers were posting artsy, vintage-filtered shots of their equally trendy and hip creations they had put together the night before in a matter of minutes, ready to emerge from the fridge as pure perfection in the morning. Initially, I cringed: what could be worse than cold porridge in the darkness of January in a room suffering from your college’s decision to stop global warming by saving on heating? Yet, as with all trends, my resistance eventually failed and I found myself googling recipes for the perfect porridge. It turns out that you can have pretty much anything in porridge form: carrot cake, peanut butter, and brownies are all featured in food blogs dedicated to oats. However, for once, I got my sugar addiction under control, and settled for a healthy fruity recipe that I adapted to a Sainsbury’s and budget friendly version.

Shopping for my porridge ingredients made me feel more trendy and hip, just like the food I was about to make, than I have ever felt before on a Sainsbury’s run. There I was, reaching for soya milk instead of the standard semi-skimmed, placing it into my basket to keep my oh-look-at-my-cool-food Greek yoghurt company. The high was not to last, however: back in my gyp room, the mix of oats, yoghurt and soya milk was rapidly turning into, well, something resembling a toilet in Life rather than an up-to-the-minute breakfast choice. I hid in the corner with my sorry bowl of porridge-to-be so as to avoid my neighbour witnessing my fall from grace.

Understandably, the next morning I did not crawl out of bed full of anticipation, as intended, but rather full of fear. A great deal of very advanced photoshopping would have been needed to make my porridge blog material, but I braved a taste. And soon it was all gone (eaten up, not in the bin). I had found an unlikely new breakfast best friend. I bring to you, Gets-You-Out-of-Bed Banana Overnight Oats.

For a big bowlful, you will need:

One banana
1/3 cups oats
1/3 cups Greek yoghurt
1/3 cups soya milk

Mash up the banana, and mix in all the remaining ingredients.
Cover up and leave in the fridge overnight.

For extra taste and aesthetic appeal, in the morning top your porridge with blueberries, raspberries, maple syrup, pecans, or granola–basically anything that takes your fancy! For the visual side of things, using a pretty bowl or a glass jar will guarantee you a much more bloggable breakfast than my initial attempt.