It's been chilly in Central Texas all week. Chilly even by my Utah standards. We have been waking up to below freezing temperatures with wind chills in the teens. This week has been a great day to experiment with oatmeal. I grew up eating oatmeal with a splash of milk and some brown sugar. To be honest, I don't really love it. But that's all I knew. Until I discovered Pinterest! It was there that my eyes were opened to about 452 different oatmeal recipes. I knew you could put oatmeal in cookies and facial scrubs, but that was about as far as I imagined. I have yet to try the overnight refrigerated oatmeal, but I came across a blog with a bunch of oatmeal recipes and had to try some. Mainly because one was chocolate. It's from Chocolate Covered Katie so of course she'd have chocolate. And she has lots with chocolate!!! I tried the 5-minute Chocolate Oatmeal and had a wonderful, chocolatey breakfast. I didn't love the banana in it (too healthy I guess) so I made it a few days later and it was fantastic! Later, I came across another oatmeal pin (among literally thousands) and was intrigued by the Peanut Butter and Jelly Oatmeal. Sorry, I don't remember the site I saw it on, but I just did an image search on Google and oh boy... Basically, you make oatmeal and add a spoonful of peanut butter, and a spoonful of jelly. Or jam. Or preserves. Or whatever you want to call it. Then I got creative. This morning, I added peanut butter and CHOCOLATE!!! I only needed a tablespoon of semi-sweet chocolate chips (0 PointsPlus) to get a great chocolate effect.
I have been having a great time experimenting with oatmeal. My favorite by far has been this morning's chocolate peanut butter oatmeal. I love no bake cookies and that's pretty much what this tastes like. Only it's 5 points and keeps me full til lunch. I am now fully entangled in a love affair with oatmeal. If you have a favorite, leave me a comment. Or try some of these and let me know if you like them. I think I'll venture to baked oatmeal next!
Erika, these are great ideas! I'll definitely have to try the PB and chocolate. I love pumpkin oatmeal - you could google it or just let me know if you want my recipe. So good!
ReplyDeleteIf you live near a good natural foods store, you have got to try steel cut oats. They have them at regular stores too, but they are super expensive---about $4 a pound. At a store where you can get them in bulk they should be less than $1.50 a pound, which is much less than dry cereal costs and about the cost of regular rolled oats. The texture is amazing!
ReplyDeleteAlso, dried cranberries, brown sugar (optional) and chopped pecans. Tastes gourmet!