Popular Porridges
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Oatmeal Enthusiasts: Meet Tiffany!
Happy 4th of July to my American readers! I hope everyone’s month is off to a fantastic start. This July marks the 3rd anniversary of the first post in the Oatmeal Enthusiast series, which featured Brittany and her artistic designs! Now, three years later, this month celebrates Tiffany, whom we’ve met before on her Glühwein Red Grape Porridge a year ago.
Dearest Fellow Oatmeal Addicts,
What is more ideal than on a grey winter’s day, curling up in bed with a warm, comforting bowl of oats while the rain and wind storms outside? Not much, that’s what. And that’s exactly what it’s like here in Melbourne right now, Australia’s very own Windy City. It’s perfect porridge weather!
My name is Tiffany and I am honoured to be your Oatmeal Enthusiast for this month. You may have come across my recipe for Glühwein Red Grape Porridge that Lauren so graciously let me share with you last year. Hello again! I am an aspiring editor and avid reader, meandering my way through the world and eating my way through Melbourne’s oh-so-hipster brunch cafes. Breakfast dates are where it’s at, people. If I’m not ordering smashed avocado (seriously, how can something so simple be so darn tasty?), then I get a beautiful bowl of oats with all kind of fancy-pants ingredients – and typically, edible flowers.
But when I’m at home, breakfast is almost always a soul-soothing bowl of porridge. When rain batters against the window and frost covers the world outside in her thick, damp blanket, my oats are the only thing that help me crawl from beneath the covers and face the bitter chill of another Victorian morning. I enjoy coming up with new recipes and trying different combinations of flavours. I love fruit and my porridge recipes typically involve seasonal fruits, some natural sweetener and nuts or seeds for crunch.
I haven’t always been such an oatmeal enthusiast. Believe it or not, as a kid I loathed porridge. It was a textural thing, I think. But thankfully, my tastes have since changed and my life is so much better with oatmeal. For me it’s among the joys of adulthood, along with red wine, mushrooms, and mornings when I don’t have to set an alarm. I discovered this love for the wholesome oat around the time I became a vegetarian, approximately six years ago. I was becoming very aware of what I put into my body and the nutrients I needed, as well as understanding the ethical ramifications of my food choices. I started out with basic oatmeal combinations – banana and berries, apple and cinnamon etc – and from there my love for oats and my experiments with ingredients took off. And now I’m a lifelong convert.
Since those early days of my porridge journey, my recipes have become increasingly more interesting. Some experiments have turned into my favourite combinations, while others not so much. But it’s all an adventure! Some of my unexpected successes include: Banana, Ginger and Fig Porridge with Toasted Pecans; Summer Apricot and Salted Peanut Porridge; Grilled Nectarine and Blueberry Porridge; Purple Carrot and Cardamom Porridge with Toasted Hazelnuts; Sugar-Roasted Grape and Cinnamon Oatmeal; Maple-Glazed Pear and Almond Baked Oatmeal; Golden Gingerbread Porridge with Bananas and Blackberries; Coconut Passionfruit Overnight Oats with Rockmelon and Banana.
And, of course, some of my all-time favourite recipes are: Peanut Butter Banana Porridge with Fresh Strawberries; Mango Banana Overnight Oats topped with Granola; Baked Pumpkin and Almond Porridge; Passionfruit and Banana Porridge with Toasted Coconut … Did I mention peanut butter and banana?
It’s pretty safe to say that oatmeal has become a major food group in my life. So, without further ado, here is My Week in Oatmeal!
MONDAY
Coconut Persimmon Porridge
This recipe has to be among my favourites. Coconut milk lends creaminess to the oats and the persimmons are so juicy and sweet that I find no need to add extra sweetness. Toasted coconut adds warmth, texture and a nutty flavour. So good! (more…)
Oatmeal Enthusiasts: Meet Kat!
Happy June, oatmealers! This month’s Enthusiast, Kat, came to me through my “This Week in Oatmeal” series. This weekly tradition brings me joy every week because the designated themes allow me to see how many of you actually read my blog on a regular basis. I actually imagine people visiting TOA by accident after finding me on Pinterest or Google, and then never coming back. However, when I set weekly themes like “unique toppings,” and suddenly I find dozens of you throwing animal crackers on your morning porridge, it hits me that some of you actually read this thing.
Anyway, Kat is one of the many Instagrammers who regularly participates in my fun but arbitrary themes. I am so pleased to present her as the Oatmeal Enthusiast for June 2016!
I sat silent on the stage as a few hundred strangers tried to give me a nickname. They asked me my favorite food, most embarrassing moment, favorite color, and most memorable family vacation.
Suddenly, a boy jumped onto his chair and shouted, “I’ve got a name! Answer me this: what is her favorite food?”
Everyone yelled, “oatmeal!”
“That’s right!” The boy said, “Rolled oats. And what does she sometimes put on her oatmeal? Thai spices, so I say that we name her ‘Let the Good Thai’mes Roll!” The crowd erupted into applause, and the name stuck. For the rest of the summer, I was referred to as “Good Thai’mes” in honor of my love of oatmeal with Thai spices.
When I affirm that oatmeal is my favorite food, people stare at me in disbelief. They glance at the cafeteria serving line with its lumpy porridge and decide that the cafeteria staff must be slipping a little something extra into my oats. They aren’t—I truly love oatmeal that much. My friends just don’t realize that the cafeteria’s plain oatmeal is my canvas every morning. I paint it with yogurt, adorn it with bananas, and sprinkle it with nuts. Making oatmeal is truly an art.
I have not always been so fond of porridge. Before college, I rarely ate cereal at all—hot or cold. My breakfasts usually consisted of a few iced oatmeal cookies and a glass of chocolate milk. But one morning at the beginning of freshman year, I heard my mouth ask the cafeteria worker for oatmeal. I took a bite…and I was not impressed. Plain oats were a letdown to my ubiquitous sweet tooth. A few weeks later, I asked for a bowl of oats again, and I added some jelly to the steaming cereal. Slowly, I realized that oatmeal is made to be decorated. Later that year, I found The Oatmeal Artist’s blog, and I started creating my own works of art whenever I was home. Below you will find a week’s worth of breakfast creations; to see more, check out my blog.
Sunday: Cinnamon Microwave Oats with Strawberries and Peanut Butter
When I first started making oatmeal, I meticulously measured everything, and my bowl would overflow every time I tried to make microwave oats. Now I just eyeball the amount of water that I add to a scoop of oatmeal and microwave for one minute; it’s delicious every time! (more…)
Oatmeal Enthusiasts: Meet Whitney!
Whitney may have joined Instagram fairly recently, but her photos instantly caught my eye. Her bowls of oatmeal always seem to include a pop of colorful berries and melty peanut butter and puddles of berry sauces. Combined with her trademark white rug and glass bowl, her oatmeal is a treat for the eyes!
Hello, everyone! It is my great honour to be your host today for May’s Oatmeal Enthusiast installment. 😉 A big thank you to Lauren for allowing me to put this piece together for you guys! Her blog is beautiful and her recipes never disappoint, so I only hope that I can do the Oatmeal Artist site the justice it deserves.
My name is Whitney, and I am a 19 year old biology student residing in the hopelessly dazzling Pacific Northwest region of Canada. Spring here has finally sprung, and I can’t help but feel at peace among the rows of emerald-leaved trees and glowing flowers. I love to spend my evenings down at the beach on campus, watching the waves roll in as the sun sets behind the endless mountains. I am always blown away by the sheer beauty of my home when the rain starts to fade and blue skies roll in.
I am very new to oatmeal – in fact, I had my first bowl since early childhood less than 6 months ago, and I’ve only been experimenting with it since late February! You can see some of my progression on my Instagram, @wholewhit. Nowadays, I look forward to the next morning’s oat-y creation nearly every night. I guess you could call me a real dev-oat-ee. (sorry [not really])
My later meals are typically filled to the brim with veggies and healthy proteins, but as a self-professed lover of dessert as well as my entire friend circle’s one-woman bakery, I can’t go a day without eating something sinfully sweet and indulgent. These days, I turn to oatmeal for a healthier version of my favourite treats. I love how filling it is; I am never hungry before lunch. It’s also full of good nutrients, especially when loaded up with fruits and cooked in vanilla cashew milk, my liquid of choice.
For my 15 minutes of fame, I decided to share with you my most favourite creations. From these, you may draw a few things; 1) I love fruit; 2) I have a nut butter problem; and 3) damn, that girl can really put away a lot of chocolate.
SUNDAY
I decided to kick things off with my most favourite flavour of all – dark chocolate raspberry. I cooked this baby down with lots of cocoa powder & frozen raspberries, as well as my usual salt, vanilla, and mashed banana. I topped it off with hot raspberry “sauce” and fresh raspberries (plus chocolate and PB, of course). Those little guys sure are expensive, but as soon as I get home and crack open the container, I never regret my decision. (more…)
Oatmeal Enthusiast: Meet Sandra!
It’s April! My favorite month of the year. Today I’m happy to introduce you to Sandra, whom I “met” last fall when I did the comment contest. Sandra was one of my top commenters, leaving a response on every post. She continues to be a regular visitor to the blog and leaves the most enthusiastic comments! I could not wait to invite her to be April’s Enthusiast.
Hello Oatmeal Connoisseurs!! Sandra here. I’m a 21-year-old college student. Besides school, my life revolves around cooking, nail art, fashion, leisurely walks, celebrity obsessions, scientific curiosity, writing, photography, Cappuccino, my cat/mountain lion, friends, and family.
In the past, I neither loved nor hated oatmeal. It was just there, for it was either blandly healthy or chemically enhanced. I lacked the time and appetite for hearty breakfasts on early school mornings, yet I’d long for weekend brunches prepared by my parents or at my favorite restaurants. Daily nourishing breakfasts are pretty new to me because of how my life evolved. (more…)
Oatmeal Enthusiasts: Meet Emily!
It’s March! Spring is just around the corner. Like many of you, I did not get into oatmeal until recently, meaning I spent two decades missing out on precious porridges. This month’s Enthusiast has been enjoying oats since she was six–maybe sooner! I must say, I’m a little jealous. 🙂
My name is Emily and I am an avid biker, hiker, surfer and long distance runner.
I was introduced to oatmeal from a very young age. My first memories of oatmeal are from when I was 6 years old on my family’s 40 mile back packing trip in upstate New York. Me being the picky eater I used to be, survived for a week on peanut butter and jelly and packets of Quaker oatmeal. Every morning I’d wake up to two packets of oatmeal, then hike to the next destination. Once back in civilization, we went to a diner to feast on everything we’d missed out on for the past week and what did I order? Oatmeal. My sisters still like to give me a hard time about this and looking back on it now it’s so silly.
Oatmeal has been a part of my life ever since. I’ve graduated from those Quaker packets to homemade oatmeal concoctions. I love how it is filling, makes you feel good, and is so fun to make. I look forward to waking up every morning and creating a masterpiece consisting of basically anything I want: veggies, fruits, eggs, you name it. It prepares me for everything I love to do and I know it will keep me full and energized.
For me, being healthy is not eating the foods with the least amount of calories, checking the labels for grams of sugar, and all of that nonsense. Being healthy and living a healthy life is having an honest connection between your mind and heart. It is recognizing that a delicious salad and a chocolate chip cookie can be equally as “healthy” depending on what your heart wants. Listening to yourself and being so grateful for food and where it comes from is essential. It is essential to be mindful that food is the product of the earth and designed to fuel you.
I love oatmeal because it makes me happy and that embodies everything I believe to be a healthy lifestyle.
This is banana, plain oats, original almond milk, flax seeds and honey.
Apple, banana, plain oats, original almond milk, peanut butter, vanilla protein and nutmeg
Chia seeds, plain oats, apples, almond butter, vanilla protein, and graham crackers
Some oatmeal/date/ coconut cookies 🙂
Hemp milk, plain oats, pears, granola, honey, dates, flax seeds, vanilla protein
Cashews, sunflower butter, flax seeds, plain oats, granola, vanilla almond milk, protein and banana
Vegan/sugarless pb and oatmeal cookie w/ a pb cream filling
Raisins, oats, pears, original almond milk, vanilla protein, honey and peanut butter
Chocolate protein, granola, peanut butter, plain oats, original almond milk, bananas and chia seeds
Plain oats, original almond milk, mashed banana, egg whites, chia seeds, granola, sunflower butter, vanilla protein, chia seeds
Oatmeal Enthusiasts: Meet Kelsey!
Does Kelsey really need an introduction? ? You may know her from her two guest posts, Cookies N Cream Overnight Oatmeal and Spiced Parsnip Oatmeal, or perhaps from her frequent appearances in the “This Week in Oatmeal” series. I have collaborated with her so often that I just assumed I had already featured her as an Oatmeal Enthusiast–turns out I hadn’t! Thus, it is my great pleasure to pass the keyboard to Kelsey and let her tell her story.
Hi there!
My name is Kelsey, but you might know me as @fortheloveof_pb on Instagram. I’m beyond thrilled to be your Oatmeal Enthusiast for February!
At 23, I’ve finally gotten to the point in my life where I’ve made health and fitness a priority. I exercise daily (swimming with a masters’ group, Blogilates videos, and hot yoga are current favorites), and I eat an incredibly “clean” diet: vegan, unprocessed foods with minimal added sugar and oil.
It wasn’t always that way. My favorite food used to be boxed mac and cheese, and for the first two years of college my fridge was regularly filled with frozen mozzarella sticks, cookie dough, and chocolate frosting. And you know I wasn’t baking those cookies.
Right after I turned 21, I contracted an H. Pylori infection, but I wouldn’t know that for almost four months. It was like, overnight, my digestive system just turned on me. I was battling constant heartburn and nausea that kept me up every night. It took four months to figure out what was wrong, but even after the infection was eradicated, I spent another year dealing with the lingering symptoms from this infection.
I realized, in order to combat these lingering symptoms, I needed to overhaul my diet.
Over a couple months, I cut out most processed foods and started eating more fiber. One of the first swaps I made was eating oatmeal for breakfast in place of frozen waffles. I can’t tell you how many bowls of strawberry and peanut butter oatmeal I ate my senior year of college because it was about the only thing that never made me feel ill.
This past May, I decided I was tired of taking medication to manage my symptoms. I had heard stories about people with digestive issues that were cleared up by a vegan diet, so I decided to try it. And it worked. I no longer take any medication and have been symptom-free since July.
Throughout my recovery, oatmeal was a constant in my diet because it was one of my “safest” foods; no indigestion or nausea here, ever. Over time I began to expand my oatmeal repertoire and discovered Lauren’s blog. From there I got inspired. There was so much more you could do with oatmeal than just add strawberries. It was something you could put vegetables in!
And I do – every day. Oatmeal is actually where I get a lot of the veggies into my diet. I love that oatmeal offers the opportunity to “sneak” more fruits and veggies into my diet in delicious ways. Sometimes I think about how ridiculous it is that I’m having, say, chocolate carrot cake oatmeal for breakfast. It tastes like dessert, but its really just fruit, veggies, whole grains, and of course some peanut butter.
The funny thing is, even though I eat more adventurously than I ever have, I still eat oatmeal more than anything else. Although, let’s be honest, my oatmeal is often pretty adventurous too. It’s easily my favorite food, and I’m so excited that I get to share it with my family (my Dad posts about my oatmeal on Facebook every time I come home to visit), my friends, on Instagram, and with you all this week! With that in mind, I tried to line up a week of oatmeal that highlights everything I’ve ever considered to be a favorite. I hope you enjoy it and get inspired to try out a new oatmeal flavor!
Saturday: Strawberry PB Oatmeal with Parsnips
I figured I would start the week off with my first oatmeal love, strawberries and peanut butter. Back in the day I would have made this with instant oats and frozen strawberries in the microwave, but today I stepped up my game. I still made instant oats, but I added some shredded parsnips to add some volume and cooked everything on the stovetop. And, because I’m excessive, I made some PB2 to stir into the oats and then topped them with my all time favorite peanut butter from Trader Joe’s. Side note: look how beautiful those berries are! I mean, its January, how did this even happen?! (more…)
Oatmeal Enthusiasts: Meet Elnè and Claudine!
It’s time for my first Enthusiast duo! I have often admired the oatmeal photos shared on Elnè and Claudine’s Instagram account, @happyhealthyhangry, and after finding out it was run by a sister pair, I couldn’t think of a reason why they both shouldn’t have the spotlight together this month.
We’re Elnè and Claudine, two sisters living in South Africa who have slowly but surely developed an obsession with oatmeal. About two years ago we both decided to start living healthier lifestyles. The first thing we cut out was sugar. So, no more breakfast cereal. This is where oatmeal, especially quick oats, came into play. It was a convenient and healthy breakfast perfect for Elne, who is a university student without a stove, and Claudine who needs to get up early for school.
We started experimenting with different flavor combinations and cooking methods. The first of which was simply adding a heap of peanut butter to oats, which is still a favourite. We became more and more adventurous and after discovering The Oatmeal Artist’s blog our horizons have broadened even further and we find inspiration in the loads of recipes she has on her blog. Sometimes our crazy combinations work (can anyone say Bovril and banana?) and sometimes they don’t. We take full advantage of the end of year holiday in South Africa which provides us with more than enough time to experiment and fine tune our oatmeal baking skills.
As of 2016 Claudine will start a new chapter in her life by joining her older sister Elnè, now in her fourth year of studying medicine, at university. Claudine plans on pursuing her love of cooking by becoming a food journalist. We plan on staying oatmeal enthusiasts for the rest of our lives.
Saturday 26 Dec 2015: Peanut Butter and Chocolate Smoothie
After the massive amounts of food consumed on Christmas, neither one of us felt like having a heavy breakfast. Cue the smoothie. A bit of oatmeal keeps you full, without that heavy, sluggish feeling. Making this smoothie is very simple; just blend about 2 tablespoons of uncooked oats with frozen yogurt, Peanut butter, cacao, milk and any sweetener you prefer (we use a low kilojoule sugar substitute). (more…)
Oatmeal Enthusiasts: Meet Christina (again)!
Hello again! My name is Christina (I post under the name Christine). As winner of the comment contest, I am thrilled to be back as Oatmeal Enthusiast. I was also Oatmeal Enthusiast for May 2015. That was not long ago, but my oatmeal style has evolved since then. The recipes that I featured in May were all quick oats made in the microwave. I have since ‘branched out’ to old fashioned (rolled) oats, overnight oatmeal, baked oatmeal, and other breakfast foods made with oats. I’ve been experimenting a lot over the past several months. One reason: I joined Pinterest in July. It serves as an unlimited source of inspiration. Another reason: the comment contest. I like feeling goal-oriented. I knew that every time I tried a new recipe, it would give me something substantive to comment on. In the end, I posted about 200 comments.
Being named Oatmeal Enthusiast for December excited me because it’s the best month for food. You can still get away with fall flavors (pumpkin, apple, pear, etc.), plus there are holiday flavors to choose from – gingerbread, peppermint, egg nog, hot chocolate. My inclination was to do all seasonal recipes based on Christmas cookies and Starbucks drinks. But when I was officially announced as Oatmeal Enthusiast, Thanksgiving was over a week away and I wasn’t quite in the mood for Christmas yet. Instead of doing all seasonal recipes, I decided to channel the holiday spirit of giving back. As much as I love the Oatmeal Artist’s recipes, I wanted to introduce readers to favorite recipes from other sources. I also wanted to share cooking tips and tricks.
First, I couldn’t help but notice the absence of carob recipes on the Oatmeal Artist blog. Carob seems like a natural fit for a blog focused on heathy eating. After leaving a comment to that effect, the Oatmeal Artist replied that she does not like carob. I wanted to fill the void with a post on carob for those who do like it or are interested in trying it.
On Carob
There was a food co-op on campus where I went to college. That was before stores such as Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods became mainstream. One day, I picked up a bag of carob peanuts. At the time, I’d never heard of carob. The clerk at the food co-op explained that it’s a chocolate alternative that does not have caffeine. I bought the bag of carob peanuts and a box of carob-chip granola bars out of curiosity. The carob tasted smooth and sweet. I told myself it tasted like mild chocolate.
Unfortunately, there’s not a food co-op or even a Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods convenient to where I live. In the intervening years, I’d sometimes linger in the natural foods section of the grocery store, hoping to find carob-flavored something. I never did. This fall, I decided to get some carob. I found a website that sold it, and was going to place an order except for one night when I happened to stop by a Whole Foods. Carob! I bought a canister of carob powder and a bag of carob chips.
I purposely let myself run out of cocoa powder so that I could start using the carob. When I opened the canister of powder, it smelled like a shoe. I didn’t remember it smelling like that. I went ahead and used carob powder in lieu of cocoa powder in a recipe. Do not try that. Carob tastes nothing like chocolate. I understood why some people do not like carob.
Meanwhile, I had an entire can of carob powder and an unopened bag of chips to use. I wanted to like carob. A search of Pinterest yielded two overnight recipes and one baked oatmeal using carob.
Here’s the link to the first recipe I tried – Carob Banana Chia Overnight Oats by Oh-She-Glows.
I was skeptical when assembling the recipe: I couldn’t get over the smell of the carob. When I took the lid off the oatmeal the next morning, the carob still smelled funny. The taste was a different story. Carob powder is not as bitter as cocoa powder; I liked how the chopped banana provided bursts of sweetness between bites.
Oh-She-Glows’ recipe calls for more chia seeds and fewer oats than I normally use in overnight oatmeal. It’s more of an overnight oats/chia pudding hybrid. Her recipe inspired me to create an overnight recipe more along the lines of the Oatmeal Artist’s.
Carob Banana Overnight Oatmeal:
½ cup old fashioned (rolled) oats
½ cup milk
Dash salt
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon chia seeds
1 tablespoon water or milk
1 tablespoon carob powder
1 overripe banana
Carob chips to taste (optional)
Put all ingredients except banana and carob chips in a container with a lid. Contrary to what you see on Pinterest, you do not need a mason jar to make overnight oats. Any container with a tight-fitting lid will work. I used Tupperware, but have made overnight oats in empty peanut butter jars. A 1:1 ratio of liquid to oats generally works best. I learned from the Oatmeal Artist that for every teaspoon of chia seeds you use, you need an additional tablespoon of liquid for the oats to reach their proper consistency. Chia seeds soak up liquid and make the oatmeal fluffy.
As for the banana, you can either mash it all, chop it all into small bits, or mash half chop half. I chose the latter.
Add the banana to the rest of the ingredients. Mix well. You do not necessarily need to shake the container. Stirring with a spoon works.
Put the oatmeal in the refrigerator overnight. Top with optional carob chips. Tip: If you heat the oats in the microwave, add the carob chips after you heat the oatmeal to prevent melting.
Wednesday, November 18th: Carob Banana Overnight Oatmeal
I debated whether to heat the oatmeal or eat it cold. Since I liked Oh-She-Glows’ recipe cold, I decided to have mine that way too. Tips: If you heat your overnight oats, make sure you do so in a microwave-safe container. You may need to add a little water before you put them in the microwave.
This recipe tasted great! It was more like oatmeal and less like a chia pudding. Another thing I appreciated was that it was a simple recipe made with few ingredients. As much as I enjoy the fancier (i.e. more tedious) recipes, I don’t have time for them on weekday mornings.
I would recommend this recipe to anyone who has never tried carob or who thinks they do not like carob. Tip: Carob is best enjoyed in its own right. Don’t expect carob to taste the same as chocolate. Carob is a chocolate alternative, not a chocolate substitute. (more…)
Oatmeal Enthusiasts: Meet Charlotte A.!
Most of my Enthusiasts are found through the #oatmealartist tag on Instagram or the Oatmeal Artist Facebook page. However, Charlotte was a friend of mine before TOA. In fact, if my memory serves me correctly, she even helped me name it! After posting several oatmeal recipes on my first blog, I told her that I thought I had “found my calling.” She agreed. I then threw out a million possibilities for new blog names, and she helped me narrow them down. So yeah, we go back. Anyway, recently Charlotte’s been telling me about all the oatmeal she has been eating, and I immediately began begging her to be my Enthusiast. 🙂
Hello! My name is Charlotte, and I love oatmeal. I first met Lauren online about 10 years ago because we were both massive fans of Sasha Cohen, and over the next 10 years we discovered many other common interests, the biggest of which is that we both have careers involved in education, and both absolutely love food – oatmeal in particular. I remember the earliest days of Lauren’s blogging, before she created The Oatmeal Artist, and I remember the early days of The Oatmeal Artist as well. Watching it become a huge success has been a lot of fun, and I am so incredibly proud of her!
I can’t remember the first time I tried one of her recipes, but I know it was when she was still writing that earlier blog, and I remember being amazed by her ingenuity. As she transitioned over to The Oatmeal Artist, I began trying her ever-increasing variety of recipes on and off throughout the years. I started telling all my college friends to look up The Oatmeal Artist and try her recipes whenever they were lamenting their inability to make decent breakfast food. I remember that many of them would laugh, and then come back a few days later to tell me how utterly amazed they were that you could do so many things with oatmeal!
For the last two school years, I had an incredibly stressful job that left me feeling overwhelmed, exhausted, and angry all the time. I gained 20 lbs while I worked there. At the end of June, I left, and in August started a new job doing what I love most – teaching choir to middle schoolers. I’m much happier now, and when I started the job on August 3rd I also started a new diet and exercise plan to get rid of all the excess weight (and hopefully go even further!). Whenever I start over again on my on-and-off health crusade I always go back to oatmeal, because it works. A bowl of oatmeal in the morning is not only healthy and filling, but incredibly delicious. I never feel like I’m missing out when I eat oatmeal, and I’ve always felt that that has to be the key to make life changes that actually stick.
Lauren’s always been very supportive of my attempts to be a better me, and I’m endlessly grateful for that. Below are the bowls I made during this week. You’ll notice that I’m not very innovative, or fancy. They all look very similar. I mostly just really like nut butters and berries. When I taught in China for a year, the only American food I could consistently find was peanut butter, so I always had a jar on the counter for bouts of homesickness. I never really realize how much I loved peanut butter until it became my American touchstone.
Monday – Triple-Almond Oatmeal
I eat this a lot. It’s simple and it works. Almond milk, almond butter, and slivered almonds with some maple syrup (my sweet tooth is much larger than Lauren’s and I’ve never been able to totally skip sweeteners the way she can), salt, vanilla, and lots of cinnamon! I absolutely adore cinnamon and add much larger quantities of it than is normally listed in recipes on TOA. Also, you’ll notice a cup of tea in all of these, somewhere in the background. Earl Grey is my favorite thing forever. (more…)
Oatmeal Enthusiast: Meet Victoria!
I have actually known Victoria for a while now. I met her when she lived in New York for a while, and she recently did a guest post for Sweet Potato and Date Oatmeal. Considering how beautiful her oatmeal is, it’s about time she gets the well-deserved opportunity to be October’s Oatmeal Enthusiast! Yay!
Hello everyone !!
My name is Victoria (@healthymonkey_ on Instagram), I’m 19 and I’m thrilled to be your oatmeal enthusiast this month! I’d like to thank Lauren, because not only has she asked me to write this post during my favorite time of the year (yep, cold weather fan right here), but she’s been an inspiration for my daily bowl of oats for the past two years!
So here’s a little more about me, I recently moved from France to Canada where I am now studying International Development, Anthropology (Omgg this is an amazing subject to study, I highly recommend!) and environment at McGill University. I’m absolutely loving it here; Montreal is such a nice city, and winter being my favorite season, I am beyond excited to finally put my rain boots back on and have snow on my doorstep in a few months’ time .
I also live with my cat, Dartagnan, the cutest little fur ball I’ve ever seen (yes I’m a proud crazy cat lady, but we all know they make, hands down, the best companions ever, so no shame whatsoever).
Anyway, I’m rambling here. We’re here for oatmeal, right?
So my love story with oatmeal started on my path to becoming a vegan and wanting to get healthier, well, just healthy given my past. This was two years ago and I’ve been totally addicted since. Lauren’s posts were the best thing that had ever happened to my breakfasts. It actually got me into cooking, baking and all that fun stuff.
The reason why I fell in love with oats is because of its versatility. You can literally make everything you want with it.
A funny thing I noticed while I was learning Spanish abroad, is how your breakfast can seem extremely unappealing when you explain it to people who’ve never tried it before (and particularly to those who usually eat processed stuff for breakfast, if any). When you start learning a new language, you usually begin with simple conversations like “What did you have for breakfast!?”. And so you try to explain. With basic words. In a foreign tongue. That makes for very confused and skeptical faces from the person you’re talking to, I’m telling you. To be fair, oats and water (or even plant-based milk), a banana and some cinnamon, doesn’t sound really appetizing, I’ll admit.
That’s the only problem with oatmeal, you can NEVER do justice to oatmeal, unless you have an Instagram worthy picture of it, then people start to believe it actually tastes good.
So here’s a week worth of oatmeal in Instagram worthy pictures so you can actually believe oatmeal is delicious. But I guess we’re all oatmeal lovers here so we don’t really need further proof of how incredible oatmeal is.
(Note that I used “oatmeal” 4 times in just two sentences. Can’t-Get-Enough.)
Warning : I’ve been extremely addicted to peanut butter lately.
Monday : Banana-cacao oatmeal
This was a post-workout breakfast, I wanted something quick but still delicious so this did the trick, basic banana oatmeal with a cacao twist! Cooked in half water/half almond milk, some cinnamon because even with cacao I can’t help myself, a mashed (over-overripe haha) banana and I added raw cacao powder at the end of the cooking process! It was a rainy and gloomy day so picture’s not that good but I promise the oatmeal was ! And I may or may not have thrown some PB in…
Tuesday : Apple Pie Oatmeal
I had made homemade applesauce just a few days before so apple pie oats seemed a good idea for a chilly morning just before school. This is one of my favorite recipes ever, I got it from Angela Liddon, the amazing cook behind the Oh She Glows blog and cookbook (cookbook you should definitely buy btw!). This recipe features diced apple, applesauce, almond milk, spices and chia seeds which give it an incredible texture. I really recommend!
Wednesday : Banana-Cinnamon Oatmeal
This is pretty basic I know, but sometimes all you want is cool toppings, right? Cinnamon and banana oatmeal is still the bomb.com don’t get me wrong, but I was feeling like peanut butter in my oatmeal, and strawberries, and banana, chia seeds too, but that was more for the aesthetic haha #thethingsyoudoforInstagram Anyway, this didn’t disappoint, and curiously, cinnamon and PB is super good!
Thursday : Stewed Date and Apple oatmeal
Okay so you’ve got to try this! I’m serious. This oatmeal was born out of despair (don’t ask me why because now that I think about it, I actually had amazing ingredients). I had just arrived in Montreal, and my dad and I were in an Airbnb apartment. Breakfast time arrived and the only ingredients I had were dates, apples, dark chocolate and peanut butter. You’d think those couldn’t go together in the same bowl (…or, maybe yes…) but I tried anyway just for the sake of experiment. And boy! I’m glad I did! So, you stew a diced apple and date pieces in a saucepan until it’s kind of mushy and smells amazing, and in the meantime you cook your oats (add some more date pieces there!). When this is all done, pour oatmeal in a bowl, and top with the stewed apple/date mix, peanut butter and dark chocolate! And voilà ! Delicious.
Friday : Banana oatmeal with maple-nut sauce
Again here, it was mostly about the toppings. The most important one being the maple-nut sauce. I discovered it here on The Oatmeal Artist, I usually put it on my pancakes, and also usually do it properly by making the peanut butter melt in a sauce pan but I was feeling very lazy so that part went a little out the window. I love this sauce though! Maple syrup + peanut butter is a match made in heaven ! But don’t be lazy like me and make it on the stove top it’s worth the extra dish to clean!
Saturday : Grated apple oatmeal with berry coulis
This was actually lunch, but I mean, oatmeal is so good I could have it three times a day so who cares. For this one, I was inspired by Deliciously Ella. She had posted that same day a recipe with berry coulis on top of oatmeal so I thought I’d give it a shot. I must admit I’m actually not a fan of berries in oatmeal because it gives it an acidic taste but this was good, can’t compete with a creamy oatmeal though, but that’s just my taste.
Sunday : SWEET POTATO FUDGE OATMEAL
All time favorite. Hands down. I just HAD to end the week with this. It’s insane how good this oatmeal is and I will never thank Lauren enough for creating the recipe.
Let me emphasize this again. BEST. OATMEAL. EVER.
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