Oatmeal

I remember the first time I had oatmeal. It was over 10 years ago when I had hired a trainer and he gave me a meal plan to go with my training and oatmeal was the first thing I had to eat in the morning. My first attempt was anything but delicious. One-minute oats mixed with hot water with a pinch of salt. Well, I was a good sport and I stuck with it for a while and you know what? I eventually got used to the texture and the taste but I still wouldn’t say that I liked it one bit. After 2 months though I’d had enough of the bland stuff and went back to eating the way I did before the meal plan. I wanted flavour. I wanted texture. I wanted variety. I wanted yummy stuff.

A few years later I started eating oatmeal again. Once again, one-minute oats mixed with hot water (no salt). I just ate it out of the comfort of not having to think about what to have for breakfast. What could be easier? All I had to do was scoop 1/3 C of oats with hot water from the water cooler and let it sit until the water was absorbed. I enjoyed them much more than I did way back then. But then I stopped eating it when I got married and had kids. With the lack of sleep and time, eating breakfast was the last thing on my mind and I would eat mindlessly all day long.

Last year I ventured into blog reading and I came across Kath Eats. She loves oats so much so that she even did a tribute. I never knew that oatmeal could be jazzed up except for when you purchase them in boxes of instant packets of flavoured oatmeal which I never liked. So I’ve tried her banana oatmeal and I use it as a basis for oatmeal. Here’s my favourite combo:

1/3 C large flake oats
1/3 C water
1/3 C milk
1/2 ripe banana

topped with:
1 Tbsp dried cranberries
1 Tbsp semi-sweet chocolate chips (blooming from being in the pantry too long)
1 spoonful natural almond butter

This bowl is so satiating. I find that if I have a bowl of oats for breakfast my sugar cravings are controllable for the rest of the day, which is a good thing, especially when there are still Halloween candies laying around.