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Oatmeal Enthusiast: Meet Wendy!
Although I often resort to Instagram to find my Enthusiasts (so many beautiful pictures to choose from!!), I occasionally stumble upon other readers and oatmeal lovers that I simply must invite into the Enthusiast club. Such is the case with Wendy. This “traveling vegan” was constantly commenting on my posts and tweeting my recipes on Twitter. Not only was she a BA vegan traveler, but she liked my recipes! She did a great guest post this summer, but I always knew I wanted to invite her back to be an Oatmeal Enthusiast. So here we go . . .
Hello fellow oatmeal lovers! My name is Wendy Werneth, and I’m thrilled to be back here at the Oatmeal Artist. And this time with the extra honour of being chosen by Lauren as the Oatmeal Enthusiast of the Month! If you caught my guest post “How to Make Oatmeal Anywhere” back in June, then you already know that I love to travel. I mean, I really love to travel. When you add it all up, I’ve spent about five years on the road and have so far visited nearly 100 countries.
My love affair with oatmeal is more recent and really only flourished in the last year or so. It was part of a general interest in healthier eating, which ultimately led me to adopt a vegan lifestyle. I was hesitant to make that leap at first because I thought being vegan would make travel difficult, but it hasn’t! In fact the truth is, it has made travel even more fun.
I love seeking out naturally vegan foods wherever I go, and it really gives me the chance to delve deep into the local cuisine and food culture of the places I visit. Eager to show the rest of the world how wonderfully fulfilling vegan travel can be, I started my own blog, The Nomadic Vegan, where you can follow my adventures and get insider tips on the best vegan dining experiences around the world. If you have any questions about travel as a vegan, please get in touch, I’d love to help!
I have to admit that when it comes to oatmeal I’m generally not as adventurous as I am in my travels – I usually just make one of Lauren’s recipes for my daily bowl of oats. For my week as Oatmeal Enthusiast though, I thought it would be fun to make recipes highlighting some of the countries I’ve travelled to, using ingredients typically used in those countries’ cuisines.
So pack your bags, because we’re about to take off on a whirlwind tour of oatmeal around the world!
Monday: Italian Oatmeal
This savoury bowl of steel-cut oats flavoured with tomato paste is chock full of some of my favourite Mediterranean ingredients: artichoke hearts, sun-dried tomatoes, roasted red peppers, cherry tomatoes and black olives, with pine nuts sprinkled on top. It’s like a gourmet pizza in a bowl! (more…)
Oatmeal Enthusiasts: Meet Cassie!
Although I have discovered many previous Enthusiasts on Instagram, Cassie was a special case. I love seeing my recipes duplicated on Instagram, but another thing I love is receiving comments on my posts. Cassie was consistently posting enthusiastic responses to my new recipes, and it didn’t take long for me to notice and start to recognize her name. I couldn’t wait to invite her to be August’s Oatmeal Enthusiast, and I’m so happy she accepted.
Wow, I cannot even begin how exciting it is to be the Oatmeal Enthusiast of August! I was beyond ecstatic since I comment on Lauren’s posts regularly and cannot get enough of her amazing concoctions. I tend to put the most effort into breakfast since it is my favorite meal of the day as well!
My name is Cassie, otherwise @superfitbabe on Instagram, Twitter and Tumblr, and I am an 18 year-old health and fitness blogger, foodie and traveler who loves trying new things. Oatmeal tends to be an exception since I frequently go back to making it, but I always discover creative recipes—including my favorite banana PB&J oatmeal and banana chocolate chip oatcakes from Lauren’s blog!
Growing up, my mother usually made my oatmeal for me. My first favorite oatmeal was the “Magicolor Cinnamon Crunch” Quaker instant oatmeal I had every day for breakfast before I would leave for preschool. I slowly grew out of rainbow sprinkles and grew to love cold cereal, especially the most popular kid brands such as Frosted Flakes and Lucky Charms.* It stayed that way for a long time until eighth grade when I saw I needed to make healthier choices and switched to whole wheat bran flakes and fruity granola. The problem with cold cereal was that I was never full after one serving and would end up eating more than seven bowls in one sitting!
*TOA: I can’t help but interject that these were my favorites, too!
Eventually I researched that oatmeal was the main alternative to cold cereal and asked my mother to buy me my first large canister of rolled oats—yes, none of that pre-packaged instant oatmeal stuff! Later as I became more expertise in making oatmeal, I found amazing recipes and add-ins that thicken and volumize my oats—my favorites became egg whites, coconut flour and vegan protein powder!
I’ve been hooked on oatmeal ever since developing a healthy lifestyle and relationship with food—it’s so hard to get bored! If you don’t believe me, hopefully you’ll find so otherwise when you take a look at my week of oatmeal eats below!
Sunday: Salted Caramel-Glazed Oatmeal
I decided to use one and a half spoonfuls of coconut flour as my main oatmeal thickener. After sprinkling some cinnamon on the oats, I topped it with a golden plum, a strawberry, raspberry, some Evoke Healthy Foods Athletic Fuel muesli (with pumpkin seeds, flax seeds, cashews, almonds, and raisins), Nature’s Path Qi’a chia cranberry buckwheat cereal, and a healthy salted caramel glaze topping I made by stirring some Quest Salted Caramel protein powder with a few splashes of water. I loved the sweetness of the glaze and the fluffiness of the oats—it was basically eating a giant cinnamon bun with a bunch of my favorite toppings! (more…)
Oatmeal Enthusiasts: Meet Taigen!
Happy July! I hope all my American readers had an excellent patriotic birthday and enjoyed some awesome guacamole . . . I know I did! I picked July’s Enthusiast a month and a half early. I found her pictures on Instagram and was immediately smitten. I couldn’t help but ask early!
Hey guys! My name is Taigen, I’m 20 years old and I live in Sydney, Australia. I grew up in rural New South Wales and was a real country bumpkin (I’m talking tom-boy who refused to wear shoes type) until my family made the move to the city when I was nine. I grew up very differently to my peers: riding horses, mustering sheep, fixing fences and building tepees took up most of my childhood. I am the youngest of three, with two older brothers. I’m currently in my final year of university and will soon be a qualified journalist! I have spent most of this year studying abroad in London, England, which was such an amazing experience! I got to travel all over the UK and Europe and even had my brother fly over to do some travelling with me. I returned to Australia in late May, just in time for my second winter of the year! Which isn’t as bad as you may think. Cold weather only means warm, hearty foods. And I don’t doubt everyone here is a foodie as I am. One food we love in particular – oatmeal!
[trigger warning]
I’ll start by admitting that, like some of Lauren’s dedicated readers, I am also ED recovered. I was never hospitalised or forced into recovery; instead I chose to recover on my own. I had a hard look at my lifestyle and saw that I was destroying mind and my body, all for the sake of feeling the useless satisfaction that came from seeing a certain number on the scales. I fell victim to orthorexia, which is an unhealthy obsession with being healthy by over-exercising and eating a super ‘clean’ diet. My weight dropped 12 kg (26lbs) in 6-8 months and kept going. I had always carried a little extra weight while I was growing up, so the contentment of finally seeing the scales drop only made me more obsessed with continuing.
[end trigger warning]
No matter what, I had oatmeal for breakfast every single day. In hindsight, breakfast was where my recovery started and still remains the place I can take solace whenever those thoughts return. Throughout falling victim to an eating disorder, recovering and now pursuing a passion for health, wellbeing and happiness, my oat recipes have changed at each phase respectively. In other words, and by my own verdict, they have only gotten better and better!
Last year I made a small but incremental change to my oats that drove me to start an Instagram account and get experimental with all kinds of flavours and combinations. I added zucchini. Yup, you read that right! I grated up raw zucchini and cooked it with my oats. On the 9th of March 2014, at around 6am, I had my very first, very hesitant, bowl of zoats! Since that day I haven’t gone back. They are my favourite discovery to date and I am always looking for new and inventive ways to have zoats, and to inspire others to try them as well!
I couldn’t tell you the last time I didn’t have some kind of oats for breakfast; even while travelling I still managed to source them out somewhere. I also can’t tell you how hard it was to choose just seven flavours to share with you! It racked my brain because I wanted them to be the flavours that I always go back to and love, without them being mundane or unexciting. But in the same way, I have so many flavours that I love and thoroughly enjoy only having once a month. So I mixed it up and went with my cravings each morning!
Monday: Vanilla Cappuccino Zoats with Cacao PB2 Sauce
Adding granulated coffee to my oats has been one of my most favourite things to do! I don’t drink coffee, I eat it, and it’s amazing. I use about 1 teaspoon of Nescafe Intense coffee granules. The vanilla flavouring comes from my protein powder and I use in it all of my recipes. I find vanilla is a great base flavour and sweetener. As for the cacao pb2, all I did was mix pb2 with raw cacao power and hot water – I say always use hot water because cacao mixes with hot water far easier than cold and the consistency it creates is just like melted chocolate! (more…)
Oatmeal Enthusiasts: Meet Cathy!
By way of introduction my name is Cathy and in looking over your past featured bloggers I must say I’m a bit older than quite possibly all of them – I’ve been married over 30 years and have two grown daughters. I am also a life-long Michiganian and lived through many long snowy frigid winters (and I am NOT a fan of cold weather by the way!) where you would think I would have gotten on board with something as yummy as oatmeal quite some time ago. Of course I have known about oatmeal all my life – I cooked bowls of it for my family, baked plenty of cookies and apple crisps with it – but just never got into eating it myself (& growing up I was much more of a Cream of Wheat gal). Thus I am much ashamed to say that it just wasn’t my thing back then. I remember one time when my husband brought home this ginormous two-pack of oats (it was from Cost-Co, right?) and I felt just like Estelle Costanza – “What am I going to do with all this paella?”. Then suddenly the light went on! It was just over two years ago – March of 2013 to be exact. So I am most definitely a late bloomer when it comes to getting on board the oatmeal train but now I am 110% ON BOARD!!!! Let this be a lesson to any possible naysayers out there 😉
I currently work as a weight loss leader & counselor and have been in this field for just over 10 years. About fifteen years ago I lost 35 pounds and have kept it off. However, in springtime of two years ago my co-workers and I decided to have a little in-house contest to see how much weight we could lose over an eight week time period. I was very happy to lose “those last 10 lbs.” over those two months but I had a very serious personal goal during that time in addition to the weight loss & that was to give up my long-standing sugar addiction. (With cookies being my own personal worst offender!!)That being said I do still use a little bit of mini chocolate chips in some of my recipes (Hey – what can I say I’m a female) but now I get my sweet fix from fruits and while I never thought I would be able to say this a few years ago – believe it or not – I do not miss or crave it at all!! You know how you always hear how it takes three weeks to formulate a habit? Well a while ago I read an article that said it can take anywhere up to some 260 DAYS or so – that’s more like 8 to 9 months but I’m living proof it can be done!
Prior to “discovering” oatmeal I had been eating frosted shredded wheat for my breakfast for many years and still feeling ravenously hungry a very short time after eating it . It was time to TAKE ACTION!!! Having been a recipe hoarder for several decades I turned my attention to both the Internet and Pinterest and came up with my first three beloved oats recipes – I’ll call those my “Triple Crown” of oats dishes that got me off to a very good start on my current oatmeal addiction. These three include: Banana Oat Cups, Oatmeal Casserole and Summer Porridge (also known by several different names, probably the most common being Overnight Oats). I am not trying to plagiarize anyone here because I definitely want to give credit where credit is due – I have not created any of these recipes on my own, however I have found them from so many different sources that I really don’t know exactly where they all originated from. That being said, after I read about the overnight oats recipe the woman who posted it said she had never expected the response she got to this recipe – she said some 600+ people commented on it! After seeing that I figured she must REALLY be on to something and I started on my merry oatmeal way!
With giving up refined & processed sugars I have to say how totally amazed & pleasantly surprised I am by the fact that one of the top most crucial ingredients involved in so many oats recipes is the smushed banana!! It works amazingly well as both a natural sweetener and excellent binder to hold everything together. The first time I made the banana oat cup recipe I really had to hold myself back from not eating the whole darn dish in one sitting!! The other thing I have discovered and am so very pleased with is the fact that with my busy work schedule all these dishes freeze beautifully – meaning I can cook up several batches of different dishes when I do have a little extra time to spend in my kitchen & then I am good to go for a week (or more !!)without having to spend time cooking every single day.
I am also a very firm believer that oats are most definitely not just a breakfast time food – my recipes here will show you that I enjoy my oats all throughout the entire day. Let’s begin then with the very first part of my ‘triple crown’ of oats goodness: the banana oat cup.
And now that I have called it ‘the cup’ I always cook it in an 8×8 pan & just cut them into bars. These are good either hot or cold and also for an on-the-go treat if you are running out the door and don’t have the time to sit & enjoy them. The thing that is a little different with this dish is that you whip the oats in a blender for about 10 seconds so it gives it a much smoother texture for the finished product.
Part 2 of my ‘triple crown’ is Oats Casserole.
I will never forget the first time I made this dish – about the last five minutes of cooking I had the most delightful wafting fragrance going on in my kitchen & all I could think was “my house smells just like a bed & breakfast!!!” When I took this little gem out of my oven I just had to breathe DEEP!!! Good thing the only one watching me was my Derby dog because I’m sure anyone else would think I was crazy but I have been eating this for over two years now & have yet to tire of it!! (This is an 8×8 pan that makes six portions of total YUM!!!)
Part 3 of my ‘triple crown’ is my other love-of-my-life oats dish known as summer porridge, a.k.a. overnight oats.
When I first found this recipe I had NEVER heard of it a ANYWHERE and just like anything else, now I see it all the time & absolutely everywhere! ( I guess it’s like when you buy a certain color car & you suddenly notice there are a plethora of people driving cars in your exact same color, correct?) The first time I stirred all the simple magic ingredients (with no cooking involved) together I thought to myself ” How is this going to be tomorrow morning?” Well NOT to worry for any of you who may be unfamiliar with it. The recipe says it can be served either hot or cold & honestly I’m so in love with O.O. Cold I have never even once attempted to warm it up!! I guess I should try it warm at least once just to say I tried it that way but I’m sticking to the old ” If it ain’t broke don’t fix it” line here & that’s my story!
The special ingredient in this dish is the lemon zest which gives it just a fantastic light flavor!
Proof that I really do eat my oats all day long is in my next three items: I got this recipe from my sister who lives in Florida. Their official name is “no bake energy balls” but she made them for us when we were visiting her & it was getting to be rather late in the evening. Well she misspoke as she was offering me one and said “would you like to try a no energy ball?” After we got done laughing about them I tried one & discovered a whole new way of oats deliciousness! So now their unofficial name around my house is ‘no energy’ balls.
However if you are making these late and do not feel like taking the time to roll them into cute little round balls, they taste equally as delicious just pressed into a pan & cut into squares.
As I mentioned earlier, in my previous sugar addiction I suffered from for so many years, cookies were at the TOTAL top of my list. So when I discovered this recipe ( and it comes in many varied forms, all basically the same & yet many extra optional add-in choices) this my dream-come-true answer to having my cookies and yet avoiding all the extra white and/or brown sugars that used to be found in my cookies.
Again, the smushed banana provides the secret key ingredient. Sometimes I bake them into actual cookie shapes but doing it as a bar cookie works equally as well and these too can be frozen for an on-the-go treat for all ages.
This last one is from a blog where I actually wrote down the author – It is Chocolate Covered Katie and people always seem to laugh & find this name rather funny but she had to call it something, right?
It’s known as “Boatmeal” and I make it either with or without cocoa powder depending on how my chocolate mood hits me. Anyhow, it’s delicious either way and another very portable version of oats you can take with you wherever you go. I always bake this recipe in a pie plate which explains why my pieces look like this but after I took the pic I couldn’t help but notice that it looks somewhat like the symbol in a nuclear power plant…??
A highlight of my year last year was when I discovered that October 29th is N.O.D.!!! Yes, you guessed it – National Oatmeal Day!! My younger daughter came over earlier that day and helped me with the cooking. Pretty much everything we prepared (except for the salad) was totally OATS!! There were 10 of us total together to celebrate the day & a good time was had by all! I scoured the Internet and it was so much fun planning out the menu-we had an herbed oatmeal scone for our appetizer, a chicken vegetable pot-pie with an oatmeal crust topping, and piping hot oatmeal bread. One friend brought an oatmeal mushroom risotto side dish and I even found an oatmeal beer! Another friend had a drink one night at the bar called “the oatmeal cookie” so she brought the ingredients for that & made shots for everyone for our dessert – way to end our fun celebration! This friend also really got in on the oatmeal spirit by starting our meal off with not one but two “pop quizzes”. The first one was 10 questions about oatmeal in general and the next one was 10 questions about me & my obsessive love of oats! The door prizes were,of course, you guessed it – two large cartons of oats! Another friend brought me a hostess gift of oatmeal soap & oatmeal scrub so everyone got in the spirit! As I was getting everything ready for that evening I got a few quizzical raised eyebrows from my hubby as if to say ‘how are you going to pull this one off?’ However I am happy to report plans are already in the works for the second annual N.O.D party for this coming fall.
Just in the way of a small cooking tip – a lot of recipes say you can substitute plain applesauce in place of the banana and although I do use that in place of the brown sugar in my Oats Casserole dish (and it works just fine) in most cases I definitely prefer the banana. I have also discovered a type of cinnamon known as ‘Saigon cinnamon’. I don’t know if that’s where it really comes from but I do recommend it because I have found it to have a much more cinnamon-y flavor than just the regular kind. To wrap this all up, as much as I dearly love all kinds of fruits in my oats I do see myself moving forward and branching out in further ways and new recipes like at my party. I plan to make your red lentil recipe very soon and also try your zucchini with oats recipe too! Well Lauren I just wanted to let you know how much I have enjoyed being your featured artist for the month and also to sincerely commend you for all your delicious recipes and all the good work you put into your fantastic blog – please keep up the excellent job!!
P.S. I just had to let you know that I feel that I have been completely exonerated just over a week ago. Over the past two+ years I have been teased, ribbed, picked on, etc. by many people over my extreme oats fanaticism – however, my husband just recently participated in his first Iron Man Triathalon in Texas. On the morning of the 140 mile event of swimming, bicycling and then running a marathon, guess what he was instructed to eat at 3:00 AM???? Drum-roll here please – TA DA!!!!! Oatmeal & a banana!!!! I loved it!!
Oatmeal Enthusiasts: Meet Christina!
Hello everyone! My name is Christina, and I am honored to be named as Oatmeal Enthusiast for the month of May. It is my birthday month, after all! I was born and raised in Maryland, where I still live today.
As a child, I ate oatmeal from the Quaker packets on an occasional basis, but my go-to breakfast was cold cereal. I LOVED cereal! Not only would I eat several bowls for breakfast, but I would have cereal as an afternoon snack, and again after dinner. There was a segment on Sesame Street called “Cereal Girl,” as opposed to Madonna’s “Material Girl.” My mom called my sister and me “cereal girls.”
My cold cereal addiction continued through my first two years of college. I was a regular poster on a website for cereal connoisseurs called the “Empty Bowl.” (The Empty Bowl went defunct around 2006). I borrowed a book called Cerealizing America: The Unsweetened Story of American Breakfast Cereal by Scott Bruce and Bill Crawford from the university library, and read it in the study lounge instead of studying for my exams. A couple semesters later, in an English class, we were given an assignment to write a personal essay with a research component. I wrote about my love of cereal, and used Cerealizing America and the Empty Bowl (among other sources) for my research.
By the spring of 2004, my cereal addition began to wane. I do not know what triggered it. Maybe my body had had enough of the processed food and begun to crave healthier alternatives. There were several convenience stores on campus. One day, I bought a couple boxes of oatmeal packets – one box of regular and one box of Apples & Cinnamon. My issue with the oatmeal packets was that one did not make for a very filling breakfast. I had previously tried making two together, which provided a more generous serving of oatmeal. However, I wanted to do something to cut back on sugar and calories. I mixed one packet of regular and one packet of Apples & Cinnamon. The flavor was surprisingly good! The Apples & Cinnamon packet provided sufficient flavor and sweetness; I didn’t even miss having two of those packets together. My first oatmeal experiment was born.
We had a large canister of Quaker quick oats at home. That summer, I began to experiment with the quick oats. One of the first flavors I tried – and still haven’t been able to get right to this day – was applesauce. I added ½ cup applesauce to plain oatmeal. The applesauce added texture, but not flavor. I tried it again with cinnamon applesauce, but was still disappointed. I realize that applesauce is a popular oatmeal add-in, but I’ve never been able to come up with a recipe that satisfies me. Another early oatmeal experiment was adding hot chocolate mix to oatmeal. The smell was right, but the oatmeal did not taste chocolately enough. I gave up on chocolate oatmeal until 2013, when I came up with a version that worked, based on the hot chocolate recipe on the Hershey’s cocoa can.
One glorious success came from a user on the Empty Bowl site. Make plain oatmeal and add a dash of salt, a couple teaspoons of sugar, and a tablespoon or more of peanut butter. I tried it and was dazzled! I got so hooked on that recipe that I did not do much experimentation after that, save for adding a banana to plain oatmeal.
Another early favorite was inspired by a friend who made delicious oatmeal using whole milk, cinnamon, and sugar. I normally made my oatmeal with water, so the milk was a novelty to me. Her oatmeal was the basis for one of my own creations. I used ½ cup quick oats, a dash of salt, ½ cup milk, ½ cup water, two packets of Splenda, and a generous amount of cinnamon. I have mixed feelings about artificial sweeteners. Much has been written about their safety, or lack thereof. There used to be a warning on the Sweet ‘n Low packets that saccharine could cause cancer. I do not care for Equal because it has a strong aftertaste. I am partial to Splenda, and believe – like other food additives – it is okay to use sparingly. I tried making the cinnamon oatmeal with regular sugar, but had to use way too much to get the same sweetness I did with the Splenda. I credit the Oatmeal Artist blog with helping steer me away from refined sugar and artificial sweeteners. A ripe banana, maple syrup, or honey provide sweetness, and I don’t even miss the sugar/Splenda. It’s still fun to put candy or cookies in oatmeal, though. I also am a big fan of flavored yogurt (even lite versions). My oatmeal creations use all of those ingredients, although I do keep additives in mind. Everything in moderation.
My oatmeal recipes tend to have a few things in common:
- I use the microwave, not the stove. The microwave is faster.
- I use quick oats. I’ve tried old fashioned oats, but they took too long to cook, and I did not like the texture as much. The same was true for steel-cut oats. Even the “quick” variety took entirely too long to thicken.
- No weird, expensive, specialty ingredients. I like to make oatmeal using pantry staples – cinnamon, honey, vanilla extract, etc. – that can be found at any grocery store. I don’t want to pay for a fancy ingredient from Whole Foods, and then end up not liking the one recipe that uses it.
I’ve adapted many of the recipes from the Oatmeal Artist blog, and have also found (and posted) recipes on the website Mr. Breakfast. Other recipes are inspired by desserts or snack foods, combine elements from existing recipes, or completely made up on my own. I have so many favorite oatmeal creations that it’s hard to pick which seven to share. Nevertheless, I tried to include a variety in my selections below, and use whatever ingredients I had on hand.
Sunday: Strawberry Shortcake Oatmeal
This recipe was inspired by the Strawberry Shortcake oatmeal recipe on the Oatmeal Artist blog. For the base, I used ½ cup quick oats, a dash of salt, ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract, ½ teaspoon honey, and a dash of cinnamon. On top of the oatmeal, I added six strawberries, cut in to small pieces. The white fluff on top is Yoplait Greek 100 whipped yogurt in vanilla cupcake flavor. I’m conscious of additives, but the oatmeal tasted so good! It was like eating strawberry shortcake with whipped cream.
Oatmeal Enthusiasts: Meet Erica!
It was easy to choose Erica (@missoatstagram) as my Oatmeal Enthusiast this week. Take a look at her gorgeous photos!
Hi fellow oatmeal lovers!
My name is Erica, and I’m a 19 year old college student studying dance, finding my way in NYC, and of course eating a daily bowl of oats! (When not roaming the streets of the big city, I can be found on Instagram @missoatstagram).
Growing up, my mom has always been an incredible and avid baker and cook (following in the footsteps of her Italian mother and grandmother), and I guess the gene was passed down to me as well. I especially love baking, and find it incredibly soothing. In high school (and even now when I go home for breaks), I can always remember asking my mom “what can I bake?” Don’t get me wrong, baked goods are wonderful, but at some point your mom cuts you off because the flour supply is constantly low and there’s only so many baked goods a family can eat. Well, with a desire to bake, but a limit on how much I could, I found this blog. You mean I can make a single served baked oatmeal for breakfast? I was sold, and from there my casual, every once in a while oatmeal breakfast turned into a daily ritual and well, obsession.
Although I was originally drawn here for the baked oats, I slowly started trying other recipes on the blog, and have since discovered the beauty of stove-top oats. I may still have baked (and overnight) oats on occasion, but I have since transitioned to the beauty of a big bowl of warm stove-top oats each morning. My “base” is typically the same with 1/2 c old fashioned oats, 1/2 c water, 1/2 c almond milk, 1 T chia seeds, and from there I get creative.
Oatmeal is “me time.” In this insanely busy and tiring college life filled with lots of dance, academics, a social life, and all the craziness NYC has to offer, I find the whole process incredibly calming from stirring the oats to sitting down with a big bowl of deliciousness. I think my roommates are now used to my morning oatmeal cooking, but for a while they were intrigued and perplexed I would spend so much time in the morning preparing oatmeal.
This could seem like an exaggeration, but oatmeal, most importantly, is currently saving me. I’d prefer not to go in depth with my personal difficulties, but I will admit I have also been struggling and am in the process of overcoming many mental hurdles I have temporarily covered by over-controlling my intake and exercise. But I’d rather focus on the positives here, and how oatmeal is really a key component in my recovery. Skip oatmeal? NEVER. Oatmeal (and all the wonderful things you can do to it) has been so helpful in re-teaching myself how to properly nourish my body.
So thank you to oatmeal to giving me the fuel to dance and do what I love. Thank you to oatmeal for calming me when I’m stressed. And thank you Lauren for choosing me as this months Oatmeal enthusiast!
Day 1: Pumpkin Pie Oats
I am often confused when it turns fall and everyone suddenly becomes obsessed with pumpkin. Pumpkin should be enjoyed all year round! Not only is pumpkin delicious, the creamy consistency you get when pumpkin puree is added to oats is too good! I was also lucky enough to find some pumpkin morsels hidden in the pantry from October, so added them on top along with greek yogurt, almond butter, banana, and dried fig (too many yummy toppings to chose from!)
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Oatmeal Enthusiasts: Meet Rochelle!
Every month as I select the Oatmeal Enthusiast, I try to find variety. However, after searching on Instagram for the last year, I was only finding the ladies in their teens and 20s! (Thanks for using the hashtag, ladies! ^_^ ) I knew that wasn’t an accurate representation of my blog. I realized that if I wanted to find some diversity in my Enthusiasts, I was going to have to look at my other platforms–not just Instagram. That’s how I found Rochelle. She is a frequent poster on Facebook and a commenter on my blog posts. Hooray for change!
Hi! I’m Rochelle! I have two wonderful children, I work two jobs, I’m in school to get a degree in the medical field, and I dedicate any extra time to exercising and eating healthy. I love reading and learning new things. (Who takes an American Politics class for fun?! I DO!) I enjoy doing anything outside: swimming, basketball, biking, rollerblading, running, snowboarding, or sledding. I will be building some snowmen this weekend. (I’m from Chicago and we just got another 3 inches.) I might be brave and take on the Polar Plunge at Lake Michigan too! The family and I try to take advantage of the wonderful city we live in by heading to the Brookfield Zoo, Museum of Science and Industry, Navy Pier, and of course, the beach in the summer!
I didn’t always enjoy oatmeal as much as I do now. When I was younger I was told I had to eat breakfast and it mostly consisted of high sugar cereals. When my mother passed away 2 years ago, I was a heavy drinker and smoker. My dinner consisted of ramen noodles (yuck!) at 10 o’clock at night and some days I would only eat one meal a day. (I want to clarify that I did not smoke in my house or in my car and what I ate for dinner, didn’t mean my children ate that.) My kids knew I smoked and my son had been asking me for months to quit, but at that time in my life, my bad habits spiraled out of control.
Four months after my mother passed away, right after my 28th birthday, and a thousand nags from my son to quit smoking, I did. At the same time, I quit drinking. (I figured if I was going to do it, go big) I realized I had 2 amazing children that needed me… alive. I knew I had to change my lifestyle because I had heard so many times that people that quit smoking gain weight. This is when I decided to try yoga to help me relax and gain control of myself in times that I would get upset or stressed and usually had a cigarette. I fell in love with it. Then I started running and I could tell such a huge difference in my breathing.
People started noticing a change in my weight and this inspired me to change the way I ate. I have been a vegetarian for 20 years and kind of a crappy one at that. There are so many options out there for protein and I shoveled pasta, breads, and cheeses into my mouth. I know breakfast is the most important meal of the day. (I hear my mother telling me every morning.) So I wanted to start with changing the first meal of the day.
When I discovered Pinterest from a friend, I couldn’t believe all of the recipes there were. I knew oatmeal was good for you, but I didn’t want the instant packets or plain boring oatmeal. I was searching for something exciting. This is when I stumbled across Lauren’s Oatmeal Artist page and I was in oatmeal heaven!! I couldn’t believe there were so many possibilities for oatmeal! My breakfast didn’t have to be boring, but adventurous and filling at the same time. Who knew zucchini would taste so good in oatmeal?!
There are times I have oatmeal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. In place of ramen, I make oatmeal with paprika, garlic and onion powder, topped with shredded cheese and sliced scallions. For dinner, sometimes I make a vegetarian meatloaf with oatmeal or have an oatmeal burrito for lunch. I love how versatile oatmeal can be. There’s savory or sweet, old-fashion or steel cut, baked, overnight, and stove top.
I feel so much healthier now that I have changed my lifestyle and eating habits. I have yet to get my kids to eat oatmeal, but I won’t stop trying! I love when I eat oatmeal in the morning, I’m not hungry for hours later. If I eat something else, I’m hungry in less than an hour. I have lost 37 pounds since I started my journey and I couldn’t be happier. A huge thanks to Lauren for her oatmeal page that I turn to religiously every day. Thank you for letting me be a part of your blog and sharing my story.
Day 1
This is Lauren’s Berry Cream Cheese Baked Oatmeal. I used a mix of frozen cherries, blueberries, and strawberries. I did use a whipped cream cheese instead of a regular kind. This was my first time making this oatmeal and I’ve made it 2 more times since. The cream cheese and berries are perfect together. I like how baked oatmeal turns out, but the downfall is how time consuming it is.
Oatmeal Enthusiasts: Meet Queena!
It’s my birthday month, everyone!! Hooray for February. Recently I was browsing #oatmealartist photos on Instagram, and I came across some bright, lovely aerial shots from a user that I had not seen before. I was instantly in love with her shots and couldn’t wait to ask her if she’d be February’s Enthusiast!
Hello, everyone—from oatmeal lovers to those who have yet to see the light!
I’m Queena, hailing all the way from the Philippines, who is in love with music, art (I wouldn’t call myself artistic though—I’m more of a viewer) and literature. With just one semester left, I’m about to graduate with a degree in secondary education, majoring in special education. After a year of work experience, I’ll be entering law school. I know my bachelor’s degree doesn’t really match with being a lawyer, but to be one has always been a dream, yet I wanted to spend college dealing with kids and people in general, to do something that would help me get out of my shell before I bury myself in thick, massive books on constitution. Basically, I just wanted to make the most out of everything. And I guess that’s already a sneak peek into the kind of person I am.
I have to admit, I wasn’t very athletic in the past. I didn’t care about physical activity except for the good ol’ games Filipino children typically played on the streets. Later on, in high school, I stopped playing with neighbors; I focused on academics and reading for pleasure. It was also during this time that I discovered all sorts of stereotypes through the Internet, and from this, I learned that I was, for all a label’s worth, an introvert. I lived up to that since I enjoyed the quiet and being on my own anyway, but I still belonged in a circle of friends, except that when I got in university, it was literally a whole new world. I saw all kinds of people there, and that was when I became too self-conscious, constantly thinking that I’ll never be as attractive as that girl across the cafeteria, and wondering when I, too, will have someone walk me to class and make after-school plans with me. Along with the heavy academic load came the realization of all my flaws, particularly how I have always been a chubby girl. I then remembered all the times I was teased about my baby fats and my round cheeks—I guess I just didn’t care at the time—and without even any preparation or notice, I started to go on a diet. What type, you ask? Starvation diet.
To read more about Queena’s struggle with an ED, click here (TRIGGER WARNING).
Then leading to the last quarter of 2014, through Pinterest, I was introduced to Lauren’s blog. I was amazed. I didn’t know that you could do all this stuff to the oats I only used to drench in water! At first, I kept it to myself, without taking it to Instagram (@queenamarticio), even though I ate a different, beautiful bowl every single morning (and sometimes even for dinner!). I think it was because I did not want to tamper my identity as a foodie, deceived by the thought that being one meant trying out every restaurant in the city. But then, December came and so did the the traditional Misa de Gallo that transpired on the nine days before Christmas, and I “monitored” my attendance by posting a photo of a different oatmeal recipe everyday. To my surprise, friends whom I feared would criticize me for being obsessed with healthy eating actually said that they would love to have breakfast with me! (My niece once slept over just so I could make oatcakes for her.) I also recently became fond of yoga, and it was beautiful. I learned to listen to my body, and I got back to healthy eating. On the 23rd of December, I took it up a notch by going vegetarian (lacto – ovo), inspired, of course, by the likes of Lauren and other people over the Internet as well as a couple of people I recently made friends with, which made me believe it was possible in a country like ours. What I like about it, as opposed to all the other restrictive diets I tried (i.e., 3-day military diet, 7-day fruit, veggie, chicken and turkey diet, juicing, etc.) was that I could still eat food I liked such as pasta and fancy desserts sans the carb coma and sugar rush.
On the first day of the new year, seriously, I woke up feeling good in my own skin, which I haven’t done in a long time, and I attribute it to the lifestyle I have chosen, among others. So far, so good. Although my family is not 100% okay with vegetarianism because aside from the fact that the Philippines is not exactly a haven for people like me (excluding a few select specialty places that I love, which include vegetarian / vegan restaurants and a really accessible grocery), they think it’s my way of going back to my underweight self. Also, I read an article on the science of simplicity, explaining why successful people such as Steve Jobs didn’t spend that much time with supposedly simple decisions like what to wear and eat. But I am glad about my choices, and honestly, I have learned in this crazy and long process of finding myself that it doesn’t matter what other people say about you, as long as you’re happy. Good thing my mom and my grandmother would choose that over my self-starvation in the past, so yes, I cling to them for support. With that, here’s my week of oats for you! Everything’s from Lauren’s blog since I intend to try everything I can from there before I start experimenting on my own. It’s a long way to go, what with her gazillion ideas, but so what? Each and every bowl is always wonderfully delicious.
Day 1: Tropical Oatmeal
Living in a tropical country has its perks—we are famous for our sweet mangoes! I used to prefer Lauren’s dessert-like oatmeals, but now they’re in a tie with all the others just like this refreshing bowl! Every time it says coconut milk in the recipe, I use coconut water. I’ll probably get my hands on coconut flakes right after I finish this pack of desiccated coconut.
Oatmeal Enthusiasts: Meet Abby!
Happy 2015, oatmeal lovers. I searched long and hard for the first Enthusiast for the new year, and I am pleased to introduce you to Abby. She’s an avid oatmealer (obviously) and a fellow fruit and veggie lover. Yay!
Hello Everybody!!!
I’m Abby, a oatmeal-lover with a passion for theatre and an obsession with running! You can find me on Instagram @bananas.plus.oats, or over at my new blog http://misssweetiepotato.
I adore living a healthy, plant-based lifestyle that keeps me energized, strong, healthy, and happy. Oatmeal, sweet potatoes, bananas, and peanut butter are my favorite foods in the entire world- I eat at least three out of those four things daily (Anybody else have skin a slightly orange tint?)! I am thinking about one day pursuing nutrition as a career, and spend a lot of time learning about what really is healthy- and not what people trying to sell you a quick fix say is healthy (grrrr I hate the diet industry).
Theatre is my other half, getting on stage, analyzing scripts, and making unbreakable bonds with amazing people is something I also want to do for the rest of my life! But, lets go back to the reason why everybody is reading this post: Oatmeal!!
My first oatmeal experience?
Well, it involved disgust. I can easily say the thought of oatmeal, for the longest time, was not an attractive one to me. It conjured images of soupy flavorless mush; an unappetizing and “less fun” cousin of jello.
I first tried those instant packets, but little 5-year-old me didn’t understand the directions, and just added water thinking it would magically cook in one minute. It didn’t, surprise surprise! It reminded me of vomit- it was just chunks of stuff in murky water ew ew ew. So, oatmeal was rapidly replaced with Fruit Loops. How nutritious.
A few years later, I gave oatmeal another go; my mother made it for me one chilly morning before school. I love my mother, but she could not make oatmeal to save her life. Needless to say, I was thoroughly disappointed; I gave up oatmeal altogether, sticking instead to the more classic American choices of toaster waffles and Yoplait yogurt. Maybe it wasn’t as bad as Fruit Loops, but it was certainly not healthy.
So what changed? Well, I rediscovered myself, I discovered of a magical little blog that I am featured on right now (excuse the informality but OMGGGG), and I felt the powerful desire to change.
I won’t go into too much detail, but almost a year and a half ago, I drastically changed my lifestyle and became obsessed with an idea of “healthy” and “thin”. Don’t get me wrong here: being healthy is wonderful. Exercise is wonderful. Dodging social events, crying over excess calories, and going from overweight to underweight in a minimal amount of time is not wonderful. To say the absolute least.
However, as cheesy as it sounds, food saved me again. And it started with oatmeal. Strange, I know, but I eat oatmeal in some form every single day, and have throughout my recovery. It gives me something to look forward to, something to create. It allows me to try new things, to achieve new flavors, to experiment. It began healing me, bowl by bowl. I know it sounds ridiculous, but that’s how I feel about oatmeal! I love it so much, sometimes I will eat it for dinner or lunch as well as breakfast. Now that is dedication!
I started checking food blogs daily, and really challenged myself to try new things. I started liking food again- and started cursing the disease that made me scared of things I should enjoy. It limited me socially and personally, and was utterly exhausting. So, I started to recover. It didn’t happen overnight, but it slowly got better and better for me. My doctors and family were overjoyed, as you can imagine. And I was thrilled to be living a life again. To be alive is one thing, but to live is another.
I consider myself fully recovered from my eating disorder at this point in time, but those who suffer know that the thoughts still creep in. So, I regularly challenge myself to kick those nasty voices down! And I usually do so by sneaking fears into my oatmeal. Somehow oatmeal makes things less scary for me.
Wow that was cheesy. I need to marry oatmeal ASAP, apparently.
Some of my oatmeal experiments from this week are as follows:
Day 1
Oh excuse the lighting- my 6 AM wakeup call for school does not allow for natural lighting. But, I can assure you, the oatmeal was still quite wonderful. Friday brought me a wonderful bowl of strawberry vanilla oatmeal, topped with sliced pear, a banana, pomegranate arils, and walnuts. There should be some PB on that baby, but I was all out. Trust me, the sadness was real.
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Oatmeal Enthusiasts: Meet Kia!
It’s December. Hooray! I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving weekend and is ready to dive in headfirst to the holiday season, no matter what you and your family celebrate. For December, I found Kia, also known as @nuts_for_energy. She caught my eye months ago with her lovely aerial photos and glorious globs of nut butters. I couldn’t wait to read her story and see her week of (super nutty) oatmeal!
Hello Fellow Oatmeal Lovers!
My name is Kia. Well my full name is Kiarra but I get called Kia by everyone as it is easy to say and pronounce. I am currently in my final few weeks of year 11 at a private school in Australia. My day to day life consists of my desire to being healthy, fit and the best I can be. I train 6 days a week and some of those days I train twice; as I am a distance runner; who runs both road, cross country and athletics. But my day cannot be complete with of cause eating huge bowls of delicious oatmeal!
Well I am sorry but I will have to go quite deep to explain how I discovered oatmeal and what I think about health and nutrition.
My Story
In this world, sport to most is a way of life; everyone has self-desires and goals that they hope to achieve. Sport is like that to me and I have always wanted to strive and improve my ability in anyway necessary. My desire was to improve my fitness, strength and health. So even though I played a lot of netball I increased my exercise. I also began only to eat healthy foods. I thought I was on the right track but I was terribly wrong.
The internet has the strongest influence on people especially teenagers; if you ask anything about health, it links everything to weight loss for adults. I didn’t realize this so I did what the media said to do. I began to completely over exercise, having no rest. My food took a dramatic change as my calorie intake was too low as I cut out junk food. But then I started cutting my meals as well and would never tough sugar or fats, even though I know fats are an important nutrient for the body.
I was constantly stressed about what I ate, how much I ate, if I missed a workout etc. This developed a dishearting relationship with my family. I was always yelling and screaming at them, especially if I miss out on my run or I ate something I didn’t like. My brothers got scared, I didn’t want to see my friends on the holidays and my mum and dada couldn’t trust me anymore. At dinner, I would hide my food or feed it to the dogs so my mum wouldn’t see it or I lied about what exercise I did, as I would sneakily exercise so that no one would know.
Though I didn’t realise how much I affected everyone. My brother’s friends, my friends, mum and dad’s friends and people we barely knew would ask if I were ok because I looked sick. This made me angry because I was supposed to look fit and healthy. My mum got annoyed as everyone would tell her to find me help because I looked sick, which she had. This lead too many fights and many tears, even from my dad and family friends.
It went too far, I was sent to the paediatricians as my weight was too low and I had also lost it too fast. I lost myself, this lead me to develop the eating disorder of Anorexia and an obsession with exercise, getting me involved with frequent visits to the doctors for blood test as I was malnourished and appointments to a psychologist for my mental health. My food was increased and my exercise decreased to gain weight. But the thought of gaining weight was too much; I continued to lose weight as my mind wasn’t right. Slowly after seeing the psychologist I began to realize what I was doing to my body. I was always tired and it started to take effect on my sport. Soon I began to eat just enough to maintain my weight. Though school came and I was so scared of what people would think of me. So I lost even more weight as I was self-conscious of how much I ate compared to others and some comments really got to me. Though my friends were really concerned about me, I had the thoughts that they would judge me and when I told them what happened they cried with me. I told myself I had to concur this, because it was destroying not just my life but everyone around me. I had also lots what it means to be healthy and happy.
So I turned myself around focused on my running which was my saver and I then discovered Oatmeal!
It was a nutrient packed breakfast with combinations that are endless; it made me look forward to food! It helped fuel and recover me from my runs and satisfied my tastebuds! And now I can’t live without it!
I recovered halfway through 2013.
I constantly think of oatmeal, I am always dying to wait for breakfast in the morning but sometimes I might even have it for lunch! It is the best when you spoon Nut Butter on it!
I make my oatmeal with the base recipe of; ¾ cup of rolled oats, 1 cup of water, dash of cinnamon, 1 egg white,1/8 cup of milk (stir in at the end), ½- 1 mashed banana. I cook the oats with the water and cinnamon first then add in the mashed banana and milk. Then I add anything else of desire. For example, vanilla, pumpkin or sweet potato puree, fruit, dried fruit, nuts, nut butter, coconut, maple syrup, honey, coffee, Questbar, cocoa/cacao powder, maca etc. and I always top my oatmeal with a spoon of one of my nut butters (nut butter addict) and more of the foods listed.
I also love overnight/refrigerator oats, baked oats and oatcakes!! Oatmeal is too good! Well that’s me and my love for oatmeal so here is my week of my Oatmeal recipes. I picked some of my favourite recipes, so I hope you enjoy.
Monday: Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal
Most people hate Mondays but I love them! Because it is my chance to start a new fresh week and look to the present and future and forget the past. So I woke up ate half and Questbar and banana and went to swimming for my cross-training session. I got home and hungrily made this delicious bowl and Oats! The tastebuds, stomach and muscles were satisfied with my favourite bowl of Oatmeal which is Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal. This flavour combination is mouth-watering and never gets old. The banana and peanut butter mixed throughout the oatmeal, turns it into a creamy heavenly concoction! I topped it withmore sliced banana, granola, the other half of my White Chocolate Raspberry Questbar and Justin’s Honey Peanut Butter. Both melted into perfection on top of my oats. It was double peanut butter goodness!
