Thursday, March 3, 2011

Oatmeal

Oatmeal might just be the most amazing food ever. It has tons of fiber, it's good for your heart, it fills you up, it's fast, and it's cheap. But, it's sort of gross plain, which turns people off. Plus, those little pre-packaged flavored oatmeal servings are not nearly as good as the real thing. I eat oatmeal almost every day. Here are a couple of my favorite ways to do it.

The basics:
Pour about 1/2 or 1/3 cup of quick cooking oats in a microwave safe bowl.
Put just a bit of salt over the dry oats.
Cover the oats in water, just enough so that there are no dry oats and there's some water pooling on top.
Microwave for just over a minute (depending on your microwave). If I go much over 75 seconds the oatmeal starts to cook over the top of the bowl.
Let the oatmeal sit in the microwave for 30 seconds.
Now you're ready to add stuff in!

Peanut Butter and Cranberry
This is my go-to recipe. I have this for breakfast most days.

1 or 1 1/2 tablespoons of peanut butter (or almond butter, apple butter, etc.)
handful of dried cranberries

That's it! It's so good!

Blueberries and Spice
I made this one this morning because blueberries were cheap at the store.

1/2 tablespoon of brown sugar
a bit of cinnamon (1/2 teaspoon?)
1/8 cup of soy milk
handful each of blueberries and dried cranberries

When I add in soy milk I usually microwave the oatmeal again for about 10 seconds to warm it back up. I also meant to crumble a ginger snap over the whole thing for some crunch, but I forgot.

2 comments:

  1. Yay, oatmeal! I do steel-cut oats; soak overnight, then cook for about 20 minutes over med-low the next morning. Add in a splash of milk, then serve with a dollop (~tbsp) of apple butter.

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  2. Cinnamon is my new go-to item. It goes well with berries (as in your recipe) and chocolate and... everything. Cinnamon is like the peanut butter of spices.

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