favorite oatmeal

not the favorite but one of my favorites:

oats, curry powder and spinach.   easy to make in your hotel room but good enough to eat at home too.   Tomorrow's will be oats, strawberry, bananas, blueberries, and cinnamon.

oatmeal

I've tried different ways of making oat breakfasts and this is one I like (which also means it's pretty easy).  

Ingredients:

1/2 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup soymilk

1 prune

a small piece of fruit (or half a large one).  e.g., peach, apricot (in season right now), banana.

cinnamon

two methods to make this:

1)   chop the prune.  soak the oats and prune in the water and soy milk overnight.  heat in microwave for a couple minutes until hot, (time depends on your power setting).  Chop the fruit and add, along with cinnamon  If it's a hot summer say, you don't have to heat it much.

2)  chop the prune.  combine the oats, prune, water and soy milk.  heat in microwave for a few minutes until very hot.  wait about 5-10 minutes.  heat again.  Chop the fruit and add, along with cinnamon.

Here's this morning's with a peach:

fun Oatmeal recipes

This is from Healthy girl's kitchen ,who I believe is joining our 6-week challenge, yea!
http://healthygirlskitchen.blogspot.com/2011/08/breakfast-duel-green-smoothie-vs.html

fruity oatmeal

I had this today and tomorrow.  Then I'll run out of oatmeal and will do some experimentation with kamut berries and oat groats.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup long-cooking oats
2 small figs or 1 medium fig, chopped (optional)
3-5 fresh sweet cherries, chopped
1/4 cup frozen blueberries
1/2 banana, sliced
note:  substitute any fruit available:  strawberries, blueberries (can be frozen), dates, raisins, mango, etc.
1/2 cup water
1/2-1 Tbsp seed mixture (optional)

Combine and soak overnight in fridge (except for the blueberries).  Heat in the microwave for a minute or 2 (until hot).  Let sit for a few minutes.  Add the blueberries and heat up until they are warm.  enjoy!

If you didn't think of this idea until breakfast time (like me this morning), heat everything except the blueberries and bananas in the microwave for a minute or 2; let sit while you do some other things; heat again; let sit.   do this until it's the consistency you like.

Here's tomorrow's breakfast, soaking in the fridge:

Here was today's breakfast:

oat groats!

What are oat groats? They are whole oat grains. They look a lot like brown rice. This article describes a little more about them, and how to cook them. I didn't bother to find out before making them. I soaked 1/4 cup overnight in 1/2 cup water, then cooked them in the microwave for about 10 minutes over all. I'd separate 2 minutes with several minutes of soaking, then repeat 3-4 times. I wasn't in a hurry. This saves dirtying a pot. This seemed to work fine. Then I added some frozen blueberries, mango, and sliced banana. I microwaved some more to thaw the fruit. I enjoyed it. If you want it sweeter, you can add chopped dates or raisins or date syrup. You can also add chopped nuts.

oatmeal #2

This tasted perfect to me.   I don't think I want to change it for a while.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup steel cut oats

0.5 oz raw walnuts, chopped

1.5 oz spinach, chopped

1 Tbsp goji berries

1 dried fig, chopped

1 small apple with skin, chopped

I added about 3/4 cup water, and the berries and chopped fig to the oats, heated it up to boiling and then let it sit for a while.  Then I came back and added the other stuff, heated it up to boiling and let it sit for a while (so I didn't have to watch it).  I think I ended up adding another 1/4 cup water.   It ended up sitting for more than an hour.  Of course, you can just cook it all at once.  It probably takes 20-30 minutes.  Add the spinach  in the last few minutes.  I also had some fresh local sorrel which I chopped and added.  That is really good stuff--very lemony.

hmm, I should try frozen blueberries too...

Total calories 395, protein 10 g (10%), carbs 62 g (61%), fat 12 g (29%).

oatmeal #1

1/4 cup steel cut oats

1/4 cup quinoa

1 prune chopped

1 Tbsp goji berries

1/2 oz chopped raw walnuts

Rinse the quinoa, soak everything in 1 cup water, or start cooking.  Mine needed 30 minutes cooking even after soaking for an hour or so.    it was yummy

total calories:  465.  protein 14 g (12%), carbs 67 g (59%), fat 15 g (29%).  

This is pretty high-calorie and filling so if you want less, you can oats or quinoa instead of oats and quinoa.  I'll try that next time.

oatmeal

Ingredients for 1 serving (increase as needed for more):

1/2 cup oats

water (usually about twice as much as the oats).

chopped walnuts  (say, 1-2 Tbsp per serving)

chopped apple or pear if you have one (optional)

raisins or chopped figs for sweetening

soy milk or other non-dairy milk (optional)

berries (optional)

chopped spinach (optional--yes, it is good!)

Cook the oatmeal until it tastes how you like it.  I like it well-cooked so I often go 30 minutes for the steel cut oats.  Or better than that, if you have time, let it get hot or boil, then soak for 20-whatever minutes, and then it will cook quicker and taste better.   Add more water or soy milk as it gets too thick.  Stir a lot at the beginning to prevent clumping.   About half-way through you can add the fruit and nuts and raisins and soy milk and spinach.  When the oatmeal is done, add the berries---if frozen, add them earlier.