TOA: Happy first day of September! It’s also Labor Day, which means I have the day off. 🙂 Today, I’m happy to share with you the work of Yasmin, whom I know better as @binilein from Instagram. While searching through the #oatmealartist hashtag, I was immediately smitten by her gorgeous, cozy photos of oatmeal. She and I share a love for aerial food photography, bananas, and peanut butter. I could not wait to feature her beautiful photos on my blog!
Hello fellow oatmeal lovers,
My name is Yasmin and I am in the proud position to be the Oatmeal Enthusiast for September. I got so excited when Lauren asked me because I have been a fan of her blog for quite a while. I love oatmeal, and breakfast in general is my favorite meal of the day. Let me tell you some facts about myself.
I am German and I lived in northern Germany until the age of 18, when I started to study Journalism which took me to the other end of the country. Since then, I haven’t lived in the same city for more than a year. I finished my BA studies last year and continued with my masters shortly afterwards, which will take me to London this fall. When I am not trying out new oatmeal recipes, I like to run, read and travel.
I don’t really know anymore how I discovered oatmeal, but I remember my first attempt to make oatmeal. Thinking it was enough to just heat up the milk, I ended up having some kind of oatmeal soup with a sliced banana in it. This was in the fall of 2011, and since then my oatmeal skills have improved immensely. How I found Lauren’s blog I don’t know anymore either, but it has been bookmarked on my list of favorite websites from the day I found it.
You have to know about me that I have suffered from an eating disorder for years and years. But no matter how bad it was, I always would have breakfast. Breakfast was the only meal I never ever skipped. Days ahead I would plan what I would eat for breakfast (and lunch and dinner) and I always would look forward to my morning oats. I would come up with new combinations and would add more fruits, nuts, and nut butter after a while. Oatmeal became and still is to this day my favorite breakfast. There are so many flavors to add, different kinds of fruits to put into it, that it never gets boring. Luckily, today, I am way better and healthier.
I am a firm believer that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It gives you fuel to get through the day. I could eat breakfast foods all day long, to be totally honest with you. Oatmeal is so nutritious, healthy and filling that it makes the perfect breakfast. Especially on cold winter mornings, a hot bowl of oatmeal is the best way to start a busy day.
For the week I documented I decided to try out a lot of new recipes. I always bookmark new and interesting looking recipes I want to try, but then I tend to be too lazy or I am just too busy to really try them. But since I have summer break now, I didn’t really have an excuse not to try all these recipes – and I really was looking forward to every one of them and enjoyed every bite I had.
Day 1: Quinoa Flake Porridge
I love trying new recipes and experiment with other grains than oats such are buckwheat and quinoa. I recently purchased a bag of quinoa flakes, so I was looking forward to have them for breakfast. I used the quinoa flake porridge recipe from superfoodsiobhan.com and it was delicious. Apart from the banana the recipe requires, I added blueberries, dried white mulberries, almonds and almond butter. It’s a great alternative to my usual oatmeal, very nutritious and filling!
Day 2: Elvis Oatmeal
After my morning workout, Lauren’s recipe for Elvis Oatmeal sounded perfect. Recipes that include a banana are always great and worth a try to begin with. Not only did I swirl in some peanut butter, I also topped my bowl of oats with some more. There is no such thing as too much peanut butter, if you ask me. The recipe is totally worth a try – it’s delicious and super filling!
Day 3: Quinoa Overnight Oats
This morning I had a super delicious bowl of overnight quinoa, which I topped with a banana, blueberries, almonds and almond butter. I used this recipe.
Day 4: Baked Banana Bread Oatmeal
While in Paris I bought a single serve casserole dish from Le Creuset in my favorite color lilac. To inaugurate my cute little dish, I decided to make baked oatmeal. I didn’t have it in a long while, so I to make baked banana bread oatmeal with blueberries and crunchy pb, using another recipe from superfoodsiobhan.com which can be found here.
Day 5: Coconut Chia Overnight Oats
This morning I had overnight oats, coconut chia overnight oats to be precise. I find that overnight oats are perfect if it has to be quick in the morning or if it is too warm during summer to have a hot bowl of oats. My recipe requires the following: ½ cup oats, 150ml coconut-rice milk, 50ml coconut milk and 1tbsp. chia seeds – simply mixed and put in the fridge overnight. I added mango, blueberries, almonds and almond butter in the morning and thus was perfectly fuelled for a day of work ahead of me.
Day 6: Banana Oat-Quinoa Porridge
As you might have guessed so far, I am a huge fan of quinoa. It’s not only a great grain for lunch recipes, but cooked in milk for breakfast it is super yummy as well. Which made Lauren’s recipe for banana oat-quinoa porridge just perfect. I added some blueberries, walnuts and peanut butter.
Day 7: Creamy Quinoa Porridge
For my last day, I tried another new recipe – again, I had quinoa porridge, this time from naturallysassy.co.uk. I also like this recipe to which I added banana, blueberries and cashew butter, but to be honest I like the recipe I used on my first day way better.
There you have all my recipes for this month’s edition of the Oatmeal Enthusiast. If you want to see more of my oatmeals and other meals, check out my blog iloveoatmealandpeanutbutter.tumblr.com and my instagram @binilein.
TOA: If you’re interested in becoming my next Oatmeal Enthusiast, be sure to show your enthusiasm by tagging your oatmeal pictures with #oatmealartist on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook! Thank you for all your love and support!
