If before breakfast was just another meal, with A Year Of Breakfasts it will become a ritual.
Porridge, fruit waffles, oatmeal pancakes, cookies, açai bowls, avocado toast, biscuits, smoothies... From the first moment your eyes pay attention in the A Year Of Breakfasts Instagram profile feed , your foodie radar knows that you are not dealing with just another usual account. This has all the characteristics to become a machine for generating likes and followers in equal parts: from the care of the smallest detail, through the presentation of the dishes, the retouching of the photographs, up to the recipes in themselves that are the most appetizing and creative.
More than 30,000 users -at the time these lines are being written- have already fallen for this project created in 2016 by Sandra Santacana , a 32-year-old from Madrid “ Passionate about breakfasts and everything beautiful in general ”, as she herself admits to Traveler.es. But, how and why did this account that today makes delights of healthy palates and of course, more enjoyment? This is his story.
365 days a year, 365 different breakfasts... Do you accept the challenge?
'A YEAR OF BREAKFASTS', A BREAKFAST FOR EVERY DAY OF THE YEAR
Sandra Santacana's passion for breakfasts did not come from her childhood, but rather as she grew older, she learned to enjoy this moment of the day in all its versions until, in the end, it ended up becoming her most favorite hour: “ As a child I did not like breakfast at all, it seemed like a real boredom , but over the years, that changed, I began to appreciate that first meal of the day a little more and breakfast became my favorite meal . I could eat breakfast at all hours!” Said and done.
After studying Audiovisual Communication and Advertising and after working for a few years in a digital agency, Sandra decided to become an entrepreneur and launched herself, along with two university classmates, into the bridal world as a photographer and videographer in the Muy Muy Felices project. “After several years of wedding to wedding, I became interested in gastronomic photography and I began to experiment taking advantage my newly released passion for healthy breakfasts . From there I started create recipes and photograph them also for other brands ”, says Sandra Santacana.
That interest started purely by chance by browsing through her own Instagram profiles. “ I kept seeing recipes for avocado toast, smoothies and bowls that looked great and, sometimes ingredients that were quite unknown to me, so I started to try and make my own recipes. I used to take a photo of breakfast, it was like a kind of ritual before I had it , but without major pretensions.
It was two of her friends who recommended her open a specialized Instagram profile and share her morning creations. This is how A Year Of Breakfasts came about . And why that name? “As I know myself and I am very fond of starting a thousand things and leaving some along the way, I decided to consider the account as a challenge: a different breakfast a day for a year . After thinking about some names, this one seemed very successful and I decided to call it that. After 365 breakfasts, once the challenge had been overcome, as the profile began to have a little more impact, I wanted to continue sharing foodie ideas and until today ”, indicates Sandra.
In her feed we can find a wide variety of gastronomic proposals . And the best of all, quick recipes with the intention of not having to spend hours to create a dish - most of them they prepare in 10/15 minutes -and her ritual when creating content for the quintessential social network is to prepare breakfast, take several photographs and then eat it. It is later when she retouches the photos and uploads them to her profile.
“The truth is that I improvise a lot during the day, I don't usually plan recipes as such. Unless you have scheduled a collaboration with a brand, I try to prepare a breakfast with what I most want at that moment or according to the products I have at home . I have a good pantry, loaded with my favorite ingredients , so it's pretty easy for me to create the dish,” she tells us.
Her photos and recipes are capable of hypnotizing anyone who looks at her Instagram.
For the perfect photo play with foods loaded with colors and textures in which creativity is the key factor . Also, the crockery plays a fundamental role in creating the composition and Sandra admits to having a large collection of plates, cups and glasses that help and inspire many of her shots. “Also, I have always loved crafts, being able to do things with my own hands . A few months ago I rode with my sister a small online store of ceramic objects (crockery and jewelry) that we make ourselves, ”she indicates.
FROM INSTAGRAM PROFILE TO RECIPE BOOK
Once Sandra fulfilled her challenge of a healthy breakfast for each day of the year, she began to think about the following: capture and collect all her recipes in a book with which to enjoy the first meals of the day . “It was an idea that she had in mind, but she did not know very well how to carry it out or how to approach the project. About two years ago they contacted me from the Oberon publishing house and they offered me to publish a book with my recipes , so I didn't hesitate for a moment and got down to work”, she tells Traveler.es Sandra Santacana.
Her recipe book is not only a source of inspiration, but a sight for sore eyes!
This is how in May 2019 she saw the light her book entitled What breakfast today? under Oberon's seal and in which they can be found a total of 100 recipes both from her Instagram classics and new ones , totally unpublished: “they are varied and quick recipes, most are done in less than 10 minutes . I have also included many preparation tips and ingredient substitution ideas for allergies and intolerances. There is also a shopping list with my favorite ingredients Y a food index where you can search what recipe you can make with a specific product that you have at home”.
SANDRA SANTACANA'S FAVORITE RECIPES
For Sandra, the perfect breakfast could be presented in the form of some oatmeal pancakes with lots of fruit, an avocado toast or a multi-ingredient porridge . But if I had to choose right now among all the great variety of recipes that she has created in the last few months, she would stay with two and they are the following . In case you dare to recreate them at home these days when we are all taking out the 'kitchens' that we carry inside!
Hundreds of recipes to make in 15 minutes and enjoy the first meal of the day to the fullest.
Toast with peanut butter:
Ingredients: wholemeal bread, peanut butter, homemade strawberry jam without sugar, banana and cocoa nibs.
1. Both the jam and the peanut butter can be made homemade . To make our own peanut butter we only need 250-300 g raw or roasted peanuts (no fried or added salt). If the nuts are raw, we toast them in the oven or in the pan, it is important that we do so so that the peanut butter binds well later. Let the peanuts cool and grind them with the help of a food processor until we have the texture of cream that we like.
two. For the strawberry jam, we cook 250g of chopped strawberries with a splash of lime juice . Cook over low heat and stir so that the strawberries dissolve. If we like it very sweet, we can add a couple of tablespoons of panela.
Oatmeal and cocoa porridge:
Ingredients: 3 tablespoons of oat flakes, 1 glass of unsweetened almond drink (or any other vegetable drink / milk), 1 tablespoon of unsweetened cocoa powder, 1 teaspoon of ceylon cinnamon and 1 tablespoon of honey (optional).
1. Put all the ingredients in a saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring, so that it does not stick to us. We cook for 6-7 minutes , until we have the desired consistency.
two. We serve the porridge with fruit and our favorite toppings.
As you can see, all the ingredients used are without a drop of added sugar in its healthiest version . “I am not a nutritionist, but I like to take care of my diet, investigate and try new recipes or trendy ingredients ”, says the creator of A Year Of Breakfasts.
Colors, textures, flavors... This account is a work of art!
THE FUTURE OF 'A YEAR OF BREAKFASTS'
For Sandra, she would like the next years of life of this very personal account to be as they have been up to now: "I love the project as it is, it's entertainment for me".
The only thing on his mind is to do breakfast workshops in addition to taking out a collection of cups with its Kuus brand . “And above all I would like to be encouraged to do more recipes in video format , which is something I have pending, but I can't find the time to make them as I would like”, says Sandra. And the truth is that we can't wait for that moment to come one day!
In the meantime, we settle for continuing to enjoy their breakfasts almost daily. Shall we start to recreate your exquisite, healthy and 'Instagrammable' recipes as soon as possible? The like promises to be guaranteed!
Sandra proves that healthy breakfasts can be just as (or more) delicious than any other.