Oatmeal, revisited

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FarmerHal
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Oatmeal, revisited

Post by FarmerHal » Thu Feb 10, 2011 4:28 am

I have been craving hot cereal lately, and with my recent low carb escapades, have been avoiding grains like the plague!

Anyway, how do you do your oatmeal?

As an aside, I feed my dogs a natural diet, and part of it is a porridge meal, which is grains ground into a flour with some nuts and seeds and such.
Today's batch was quinoa, oats, flax, pecans and OMG, it smelled SO good. I took a taste, and I believe they'll be sharing their porridge mix with me in the morning!

What should I top it with? raisins? Dates? hot milk or water? How do you do yours?
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Re: Oatmeal, revisited

Post by Kevin » Thu Feb 10, 2011 10:18 am

Oatmeal is pretty low on most glycemic indexes, rating in the low 40s. It's a "good" carb. I like it with cinnamon and raisins.
shamrockmommy wrote:I have been craving hot cereal lately, and with my recent low carb escapades, have been avoiding grains like the plague!

Anyway, how do you do your oatmeal?

As an aside, I feed my dogs a natural diet, and part of it is a porridge meal, which is grains ground into a flour with some nuts and seeds and such.
Today's batch was quinoa, oats, flax, pecans and OMG, it smelled SO good. I took a taste, and I believe they'll be sharing their porridge mix with me in the morning!

What should I top it with? raisins? Dates? hot milk or water? How do you do yours?
Kevin
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Post by coffee » Thu Feb 10, 2011 12:17 pm

Not as good for you as the healthy stuff like nuts and fruit, but when I was a kid, I used to put a tablespoon or so of strawberry jam and stir thoroughly to get evenly strawberry flavoured porridge (which I guess is what the USA calls oatmeal). Yum! :) I wonder if that counts as a sweet? :D
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Post by sarah.grace » Thu Feb 10, 2011 12:30 pm

I eat oats pretty much every day for breakfast. I love to add dried fruits- the way I make my oats is just pour boiling water over them in a container, throw it in my bag, and eat it once I get to work. This method plumps up the dried fruit in a delicious fashion!
Today- dried cranberries, chopped almonds, and a bit of brown sugar. MmmM! :) I like raisins, but not in my oatmeal- they get too sickly sweet when they're reconstituted.
Another option I like is to mix different kinds of oats together for different textures. I don't know if you have Bob's Red Mill brand, but they make a 5-grain hot cereal, and an Oat Bran hot cereal- I add about 1 Tbsp of one of these to my regular rolled oats to change the texture/taste.
Pretty much any fruit- dried or not- (except maybe citrus fruits :|) would be good- and any nut. Mashed bananas mixed in is a fairly common one.
I'll have to keep an eye on this thread for inspiration!

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Post by Over43 » Thu Feb 10, 2011 2:17 pm

I eat steel cut oatmeal. I can chew it. I put milk and sugar on mine. Not a big fan really.
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Post by FarmerHal » Thu Feb 10, 2011 2:19 pm

After some second thoughts, I am going back to low carb (stickign with noS though) because I felt/did much better. This means no oats.
No starches (grains/potatoes) and sugar.
Thanks for your oatmeal ideas though :) :oops:
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Post by DaveMc » Thu Feb 10, 2011 3:15 pm

Off-topic, but I'd just like to thank you for not following the recent trend and making the subject into two sentence fragments. If this were an ad on a billboard or in a magazine, it would almost certainly have been "Oatmeal. Revisited." Drives me nuts! (Every time I see one of those, I think, "Sentences. Fragmented. Why?")

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Post by amake616 » Thu Feb 10, 2011 5:38 pm

I'm pretty flexible so long as it's not made with milk. Oatmeal with milk :( Not terribly delicious IMO.

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Post by idontknow » Thu Feb 10, 2011 6:47 pm

Off-topic, but I'd just like to thank you for not following the recent trend and making the subject into two sentence fragments. If this were an ad on a billboard or in a magazine, it would almost certainly have been "Oatmeal. Revisited." Drives me nuts! (Every time I see one of those, I think, "Sentences. Fragmented. Why?")
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

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Post by Nichole » Thu Feb 10, 2011 6:55 pm

I like my oatmeal so many different ways.... I eat it almost every single morning, even on the weekends.

I always start with Quick 1-Minute or Old Fashioned. No instant here!
And I usually use water because I get plenty of calcium from other sources. I add enough water so that it's about a 1/4 inch above my oatmeal, if you know what I mean. Then I carefully microwave in 30 second increments or less.

- Pumpkin puree, pumpkin pie spice, a little brown sugar (but usually no sugar!) (ABSOLUTE FAV) Sometimes I'll even add a tsp of natural pb.

- Frozen blueberries and cinnamon

- Just cinnamon

- Cinnamon and Raisins

- Mashed Banana

- Raisins and peanut butter

- Sometimes if I am "being bad" I'll add some brown sugar and some unsweetened cocoa powder - delicious! This is usually a weekend treat.
Last edited by Nichole on Fri Feb 11, 2011 12:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Over43 » Thu Feb 10, 2011 8:37 pm

McDonald's is now selling oatmeal in the morning. I might give it a try tomorrow. My wife says it is tasty. I find oatmeal and "tasty" in the same sentence as almost a challenge. :shock:
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Post by NoelFigart » Thu Feb 10, 2011 9:23 pm

I love good oatmeal. But oddly enough, I don't like the goopy sugary stuff. I like it with salt and butter.
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Post by Kevin » Thu Feb 10, 2011 9:24 pm

You. Stop being so picky. :emoticon(':P')
DaveMc wrote:Off-topic, but I'd just like to thank you for not following the recent trend and making the subject into two sentence fragments. If this were an ad on a billboard or in a magazine, it would almost certainly have been "Oatmeal. Revisited." Drives me nuts! (Every time I see one of those, I think, "Sentences. Fragmented. Why?")
Last edited by Kevin on Tue Feb 15, 2011 1:15 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by reinhard » Fri Feb 11, 2011 2:45 pm

Getting decent rolled oats makes a big difference.

It used to be hard to find these, but thanks to the magic of the internet, anyone (that amazon ships to) can have the best:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/ ... aysyste-20

A 12 pack is a fair amount of oatmeal, but for $29 (free shipping with amazon prime!) a year's worth of lunch (or breakfast) is a pretty sweat deal. Although I can get it myself locally, I recently ordered through amazon myself because they sometimes run out (and amazon has a slightly better price). Charming video of my daughter building towers out of the oatmeal canisters pending. :-)

Since I originally formulated "optimize your oatmeal," I've made another simplifying optimization. Instead of buying nuts and dried fruits separately, I usually buy a pre-mixed trail mix (trader joes has lots of interesting options). Saves brainpower and exposes me to a little more variety (possibly at some small financially cost, but we're talking pennies a meal). Otherwise I still prepare my lunch oatmeal as described in the podcast.

from:

http://www.everydaysystems.com/podcast/ ... .php?id=23
I'm going to talk about one particular intelligent default that's been working well for me for years, I call it "optimize your oatmeal." Optimize is another computery term. And on one level, it's meaning is obvious, "to make better." But it also has the connotation of "optimize for what?" There's this implied question. And there's a whole science of optimization that has to do with managing and balancing competing concerns. I think optimize your oatmeal does this rather brilliantly. And I'll get into that in a minute. Let me just explain quickly what it is exactly that I do.

For one thing, I eat my "optimized: oatmeal for lunch at work, not breakfast. I'll get into why in a moment. It's rolled oats, not instant, but the way I prepare it is more or less instant. I pour some oatmeal in a bowl, mix in some kind of nuts, some kind of seeds, and some kind of dried fruits. Then I go to the hot water water spigot by the coffee machine and cover it with hot water. By the time I'm back at my desk it's ready to eat. The oats don't really cook much. They just get sort of warmed up and a little softened. I like them this way. It gives you something to bite on. In fact the kind of oatmeal I buy, "Old Wessex Scottish style oats," advertises itself as "chewy chewy chewy" on the box. And I buy it for that reason. Other varieties of rolled oats don't necessarily stay chewy enough for me, even with this very mild warming up.

OK, first off, this is quick. Most of the prep time is walking back and forth to the hot water spigot. It's so quick in fact that I have a good 45 minutes left over on my lunch break to walk around outside and practice my urban ranger system. It's convenient. I don't have to store anything in the nasty communal refrigerator at work. All the ingredients are dry, I can buy them way in advance, and store them in a drawer at my desk. I don't even have to use the nasty communal microwave, cause it's just the hot water spigot. The reason I eat this for lunch at work rather than home is because at home I've got all these great resources: a non nasty communal refrigerator (well, it's kind of nasty, but it's my own nastiness at least), an oven, pots pans. I might as well save the resource intensive eating (which I do like) for when I actually have these resources, and the quick convenient stuff for when I don't.

Oatmeal is cheap. They feed this stuff to horses. Oatmeal is horse food. I mean that's cheaper than cat food. Yes, the dried fruits and nuts can add up, but we're still talking less than a dollar a day for lunch.

Oatmeal is healthy. It's whole grain. It's relatively unprocessed. I guess the steel cut kind would be better, but it loses too many points on convenience. I tried it. I tends to explode in the microwave, which does not make you popular with the communal kitchen crowd. Dried fruit may not be as healthy as fresh fruit, but hey, it's still fruit. And I have plenty of fresh fruit with other meals.

Oatmeal with seeds, nuts, and dried fruit tastes reasonably good. It's not the most delicious thing in the world, but it's OK. Yes, it would taste better if I cooked it properly in a pot and poured in some cream or slathered it with butter, but again, consider the convenience. Does it get too monotonous? Not if you vary the fruits, seeds, and nuts, which I do. If you have a trader joes near you, they are fantastic for this. Get Blenheim variety apricots, if you do. They're much tarter than ordinary dried apricots, which can be sickly sweet, to my taste. And dried gooseberries are another unusual nice and tart fruit you can find at trader joes.

Oatmeal is filling. It's like eating cement. The first time you prepare oatmeal like this you won't be able to finish it because you'll have made too much. No S dieters in particular pay attention here: if you eat oatmeal for lunch, you will not be hungry until dinner time.
Reinhard

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Post by wosnes » Sat Feb 12, 2011 3:40 pm

Over43 wrote:I find oatmeal and "tasty" in the same sentence as almost a challenge. :shock:
I'm with you!

This sounds disgusting to me, but Mark Bittman has made oatmeal a more savory dish and eaten it like congee/jook -- with soy sauce, sliced scallions, nori and sesame seeds. Serious oatmeal (and other grain) lovers may enjoy this.
"That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do. Not that the nature of the thing itself has changed but our power to do it is increased." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Post by Lorelei » Sat Feb 12, 2011 4:46 pm

My standard oatmeal is regular rolled oats + water, in the microwave for 2 minutes. Stir in peanut butter and honey, add either prunes or dried cranberries, and voila! Sometimes I throw in a half apple (chopped) before cooking, instead of the dried fruit. I am all about PB in oatmeal though. YUM!

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Post by Over43 » Sat Feb 12, 2011 5:12 pm

I have just seen jook on a travel show (Globe Trekker?) on PBS. The show was highlighting a San Francisco Chinese restaurant. (I know DiMaggio's, Scoma's and the House of Prime Rib...) It looked good, possibly be made with the oatmeal eh? I'll try it some morning...
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I made myself be hungry, then I would get hungrier. - Frank Zane Mr. Olympia '77, '78, '79

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Post by wosnes » Sat Feb 12, 2011 5:44 pm

Over43 wrote:I have just seen jook on a travel show (Globe Trekker?) on PBS. The show was highlighting a San Francisco Chinese restaurant. (I know DiMaggio's, Scoma's and the House of Prime Rib...) It looked good, possibly be made with the oatmeal eh? I'll try it some morning...
Just use lots of water -- about 5-6 cups water per cup of grain. Bittman suggests cooking it overnight in a slow cooker.
"That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do. Not that the nature of the thing itself has changed but our power to do it is increased." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"You are what you eat -- so don't be Fast, Easy, Cheap or Fake."

laurahill

Post by laurahill » Wed Mar 02, 2011 11:22 am

I love oatmeal. Oatmeal is have good nutritional value which help to lose weight.it is the high source of fiber.I always made oatmeal in adding nuts,walnuts,almonds and some fruits.Oatmeal is the good and healthy breakfast.

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Post by Becoming » Wed Mar 02, 2011 8:45 pm

Porridge (oatmeal) is a breakfast staple for me, but I'm very particular about how I like it. Rolled oats (not quick) are a must, just covered with water, add sultanas (raisins?) and cinnamon, cook for 1 minute in the microwave. It has to have a goopy, thick consistency. Pour over milk and a tiny bit of honey. It definitely keeps me going until lunch time!

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Re: Oatmeal, revisited

Post by BrightAngel » Wed Mar 02, 2011 9:57 pm

shamrockmommy wrote: Anyway, how do you do your oatmeal?
Image Hi shamrockmommy,
I mix my oatmeal with egg whites and make pancakes.
Here's me in my kitchen doing that.

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Oatmeal

Post by bluebunny27 » Thu Mar 10, 2011 7:59 pm

I know oatmeal is becoming more popular now. There was an article in the newspaper the other day about this and they even started sellin' it at McD. (They probably add a lot of SUGAR there though, so it makes you want to get it all the time, like an addict, you know !!) ;-)

I eat oatmeal almost every day. No fancy toppings. I don't add anything to it. I could add a lil' bit of BROWN SUGAR I guess but I never think about it ... :-)

I usually eat it with yogurt mixed with pieces of fruits on the side (in a smaller bowl, on the side). I take a tbsp. of oatmeal and dip it in the yogurt/fruit mix.

Since I eat oatmeal every day, I make a big 'POT' of oatmeal once a week, let it cool down and then keep it in the fridge. I only reheat in the microwave the portion I am 'fixing' to eat. That's more convenient for me then to make oatmeal from scratch every day too. This way I only have to prepare oatmeal once a week.

If you are strapped for CASH, oatmeal is really inexpensive so that's a bonus, a portion costs me about 15 cents I believe. Fills you up nicely, doesn't add a lot of calories, inexpensive ... it's a super food for you.

I also make my own yogurt once a week, should do that later tonight as I am almost out now actually. It doesn't take long. I make 4 big containers and those last me a week (I have yogurt twice a day usually) Making it myself saves me big money since I eat a lot of it. Plus I know it's 100% natural, no additives, etc. Been making my own yogurt once a week for nearly 2 years now.

Marc ;-)

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Re: Oatmeal

Post by BrightAngel » Thu Mar 10, 2011 8:22 pm

Image Marc, it sounds like you have a really good plan.
I love homemade yogurt and oatmeal also.
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Post by sarah.grace » Thu Mar 10, 2011 9:20 pm

My most recent oatmeal 'adventure' was topping plain oats with a spoonful of strawberry jam, and a spoonful of peanut butter. Yum! They both melted beautifully onto the oats. :)

I also read recently about mixing grated sweet potato into oats- I think I would have to cook on the stovetop for this to work out. (Usually I just pour boiling water over my oats and wait 30 min to eat.) I feel like this would add some good nutrition to breakfast- though oats are a pretty good start on their own.

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Re: Oatmeal

Post by wosnes » Thu Mar 10, 2011 9:37 pm

bluebunny27 wrote:I know oatmeal is becoming more popular now. There was an article in the newspaper the other day about this and they even started sellin' it at McD. (They probably add a lot of SUGAR there though, so it makes you want to get it all the time, like an addict, you know !!)
Mark Bittman wrote about the oatmeal at McDonald's: How to Make Oatmeal...Wrong. There's a lot more wrong with it than tons of sugar. Be sure to read Further Reading on Alternatives to McDonald's Oatmeal and watch this.
"That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do. Not that the nature of the thing itself has changed but our power to do it is increased." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"You are what you eat -- so don't be Fast, Easy, Cheap or Fake."

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Post by bluebunny27 » Thu Mar 10, 2011 11:52 pm

Thanks for the info, Wosnes .. that's one of the reasons I like making a big *POT* of oatmeal, this way there's no mess and it's super quick ... I just make enough for one week and all I have to do is reheat my portion in the microwave, takes seconds instead of ... minutes ... cuts the dishwashing to a minimum too, just one bowl.

I haven't been to McD in years even if there's one 5 minutes from here actually (It's next to a grocery store where I go more often than not) ... yesterday I even had 2 coupons in the mail, buy one Big Mac get one free ... I put 'em in the recycling bin ... The deal was sweet, half price but I thought I would regret eating all those calories later on anyway so I recycled 'em ... :-)

Thanks, BrightAngel.

Oh, I was just checkin' out your BLOG too earlier today. Good tips there, good information, thanks for your hard work. :-) Diet Hobby.

Oatmeal, this is how I roll : ;-)

I weigh the dry oatmeal and the water on the kitchen scale so I always make the same recipe each time. I bring the water to a boil then add the oatmeal, mix every minute or two, low heat .. since I use the larger flakes and make a big pot at once it usually takes about 15 minutes before it's ready.

This way I know it'll always be the same, not one week where the oatmeal is thicker, the next week thinner, I use the same quantities each time... thanks to my digital kitchen scale.

I also make CORNMEAL MUSH once a week ... often I put oatmeal in a bowl and reserve a lil' place on the side for CORNMEAL MUSH. (cornmeal mixed with water) Oatmeal, cornmeal mush ... I'm eating like a civil war soldier !! :-)

I measure the ingredients there too. I weigh the cornmeal, weigh the water ... heat the water for a few minutes then add the cornmeal, mix-mix-mix ... and let it sit for about 10 minutes ... mix again ... done. I let it cool then put it in a container and store it in the fridge. Same deal as the oatmeal, I reheat in the microwave only the portion I will eat.

Since it has more calories than oatmeal I am careful not to have too much though, it's about 80% oatmeal, 20% cornmeal mush on each side of the bowl. I started doing that a couple of months ago when I got a super deal where I was able to get big bags of cornmeal, dirt cheap : 99 cents for each one of those big bags. (I got 3)

That was less than a quarter of the regular price I believe, maybe less ... a tenth ?? Not really sure what was the regular price on those bags but I picked up 3 cornmeal bags right away when I saw they had 99 cents stickers on 'em.

Marc ;-)

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Post by gratefuldeb67 » Fri Mar 11, 2011 1:16 am

i love oatmeal! it's one of my big comfort foods.
i like this kind of oatmeal and have it about two or three times a week.
i sweeten it with stevia or a little honey and put fresh strawberries and/or bananas, and some crushed walnuts, a little butter and salt and a lot of organic, whole milk... delicious! :)

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Post by wosnes » Fri Mar 11, 2011 2:09 am

bluebunny27 wrote: I haven't been to McD in years even if there's one 5 minutes from here actually (It's next to a grocery store where I go more often than not) ... yesterday I even had 2 coupons in the mail, buy one Big Mac get one free ... I put 'em in the recycling bin ... The deal was sweet, half price but I thought I would regret eating all those calories later on anyway so I recycled 'em ...
One Big Mac (assuming you had someone else to eat the other one) isn't that bad. It's 540 calories. Of course, that's without fries and a drink.
"That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do. Not that the nature of the thing itself has changed but our power to do it is increased." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"You are what you eat -- so don't be Fast, Easy, Cheap or Fake."

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Post by NoSRocks » Fri Mar 11, 2011 4:10 am

Sorry- can't stand oatmeal - wish I did!!

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Post by clarinetgal » Fri Mar 11, 2011 6:47 am

This is a great thread! I've been laying off of the oatmeal lately, because I've been in such a rut with it. My usual formula is oatmeal (Old Fashioned) with cinnamon, raisins, cashews, and some cloves and/or nutmeg for extra spice. It's good, but I'm definitely ready for more variety. :D

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Post by wosnes » Fri Mar 11, 2011 10:20 am

NoSRocks wrote:Sorry- can't stand oatmeal - wish I did!!
If it's not in cookies or a filler for meatloaf, it's not my favorite.
"That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do. Not that the nature of the thing itself has changed but our power to do it is increased." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"You are what you eat -- so don't be Fast, Easy, Cheap or Fake."

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Post by marygrace » Fri Mar 11, 2011 4:53 pm

I like to take a bag of frozen berries and cook them down into a sort of syrup-y compote (this makes enough for a week or so). Then I stir a few spoonfuls into my oatmeal along with some chopped walnuts and honey. The combo is also really good with whole milk yogurt.

Sometimes I'll blend up my cooked oatmeal with a banana (this is really easy if you have one of those hand blenders) to make it extra creamy and sweet. Then I'll top it with tahini (sesame seed butter). Sometimes I'll even blend in a few handfuls of raw spinach--it sounds gross, but once it's blended you don't taste it.

Oatmeal cooked in milk with chopped apricots and maple syrup is also really good.

On another note, the best oatmeal (they called it porridge) I ever had was at breakfast on my honeymoon in London. It was so incredibly smooth and creamy, but I've never been able to make it like that at home. UK posters, is there a secret to making great porridge?

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Post by NoelFigart » Fri Mar 11, 2011 5:33 pm

I'm an American, but I know this one.

Buy steel-cut oats.

The ration of oats to water is 1:4. So for a single serving, you need about 1/4 c. of steel cut oats to 1 c water.

Otherwise, you cook it more or less like rice. Put the oats in cold water. Bring to a boil. Lower the temperature and simmer for about 20-30 minutes, stirring from time to time.

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Post by montanajack » Fri Mar 11, 2011 8:27 pm

Oats don't agree with me. I can eat Shredded Wheat for example, but, oats--rolled, steel cut, etc., forget it.

But, I've also found in the past and after reading the 4 Hour Body, dropping grains in the morning and going with some beans (if I'm at home) in the egg white omelet along with a ton of vegetables (or putting the omelet on a bed of spinach), energy levels are great. Oh--forgot to mention, I'll have some nuts (pecans, almonds) as well for healthy fats and to help fill me up.

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Post by montanajack » Fri Mar 11, 2011 8:34 pm

BTW, as for oatmeal being healthy, I've got a friend who is a 'recovering' Type 2 diabetic. His blood sugar usually shoots up over 100 after eating oats. So, I think it depends on the individual.

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Post by wosnes » Fri Mar 11, 2011 9:34 pm

montanajack wrote:BTW, as for oatmeal being healthy, I've got a friend who is a 'recovering' Type 2 diabetic. His blood sugar usually shoots up over 100 after eating oats. So, I think it depends on the individual.
I don't think you can use a person who has a metabolic disorder as an example of whether or not oatmeal, or any other food, is healthy.

And, btw, most people's blood sugar "shoots up over 100" after eating a meal with substantial carbohydrates. It's whether or not it comes down to 100 or less in a reasonable amount of time (less than 2 hours) that's important.
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Post by kccc » Fri Mar 11, 2011 11:20 pm

marygrace wrote:I like to take a bag of frozen berries and cook them down into a sort of syrup-y compote (this makes enough for a week or so). Then I stir a few spoonfuls into my oatmeal along with some chopped walnuts and honey. The combo is also really good with whole milk yogurt.

Sometimes I'll blend up my cooked oatmeal with a banana (this is really easy if you have one of those hand blenders) to make it extra creamy and sweet. Then I'll top it with tahini (sesame seed butter). Sometimes I'll even blend in a few handfuls of raw spinach--it sounds gross, but once it's blended you don't taste it.

Oatmeal cooked in milk with chopped apricots and maple syrup is also really good.

On another note, the best oatmeal (they called it porridge) I ever had was at breakfast on my honeymoon in London. It was so incredibly smooth and creamy, but I've never been able to make it like that at home. UK posters, is there a secret to making great porridge?
This sounds so good! I've been "off" oatmeal and on a Greek yogurt binge for a bit, but this may take me back to oatmeal.

The way I'd been eating it was not to cook it at all, but to soak overnight. I use 1/2 cup of old-fashioned and 1/2 cup of milk, a pinch of salt, a dash of cinnamon, and dried fruit and/or nuts. Mix together and put them in the fridge the night before. By morning, the oats have soaked until they're soft. You can heat them until warm, or eat as-is (which I usually did.)

I've had something quite similar in flavor that was touted as Swiss Muslei (probably some different, but not much!) at a restaurant.

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Post by Kevin » Fri Mar 11, 2011 11:38 pm

Oats are fairly low on the glycemic index. You sure it isn't the brown sugar he puts in it? ;)

Joking aside, oats do create a bigger Bg spike than I would expect given their glycemic benchmark number. I'm a Type I diabetic, so I do a lot of monitoring. I love oats, so I've been playing with this to see whether it's the quick oats versus steel cut, etc.
montanajack wrote:BTW, as for oatmeal being healthy, I've got a friend who is a 'recovering' Type 2 diabetic. His blood sugar usually shoots up over 100 after eating oats. So, I think it depends on the individual.
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Post by BrightAngel » Sat Mar 12, 2011 2:22 am

bluebunny27 wrote:Thanks, BrightAngel.

Oh, I was just checkin' out your BLOG too earlier today.
Good tips there, good information, thanks for your hard work. :-) Diet Hobby.

Marc ;-)
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Post by overly beige » Sat Mar 12, 2011 6:56 am

KCCC wrote:This sounds so good! I've been "off" oatmeal and on a Greek yogurt binge for a bit, but this may take me back to oatmeal.

The way I'd been eating it was not to cook it at all, but to soak overnight. I use 1/2 cup of old-fashioned and 1/2 cup of milk, a pinch of salt, a dash of cinnamon, and dried fruit and/or nuts. Mix together and put them in the fridge the night before. By morning, the oats have soaked until they're soft. You can heat them until warm, or eat as-is (which I usually did.)

I've had something quite similar in flavor that was touted as Swiss Muslei (probably some different, but not much!) at a restaurant.
You could always combine the two. I cook my oats with frozen berries. After cooking I spread the oatmeal with berries out and then add a layer of greek yogurt, then I sprinkle some brown sugar and chopped walnuts on top of the yogurt.
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Post by wosnes » Sat Mar 12, 2011 10:54 am

overly beige wrote:You could always combine the two. I cook my oats with frozen berries. After cooking I spread the oatmeal with berries out and then add a layer of greek yogurt, then I sprinkle some brown sugar and chopped walnuts on top of the yogurt.
That almost sounds good. Almost.
"That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do. Not that the nature of the thing itself has changed but our power to do it is increased." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Post by bluebunny27 » Sat Mar 12, 2011 7:12 pm

Oh, interesting, KCCC .. I didn't think about preparing the oatmeal in advance, letting it soak overnight and then heating it the next morning ... something new to try when I'm out of my 'prepared' oatmeal and it's too late to do a big batch for the next day ... Thanks for this tip. Cheers !

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Post by osoniye » Sun Mar 13, 2011 2:19 pm

I was once told by a British friend that the difference between porridge and oatmeal is that the porridge is left to soak overnight in cold water, and then cooked up the next day.
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Post by Lightning » Sun Mar 13, 2011 8:04 pm

Being British I can assure you that no one soaks porridge overnight, it's made on the morning. As far as I can ascertain there is no difference between what you call oatmeal and we call porridge. Until now I thought I invented soaking it overnight myself because I am simply too lazy to stand there stirring the stuff. :D I know not a single other person who makes porridge/oatmeal the night before.

The Scottish (who are about 5 million of the 60 million British) have some odd traditional ways of making porridge, mostly resulting in something both creamy and salty and every bit as foul as it sounds. The rest of us don't put salt in it, prefering sugar or other sweetener to taste instead, much like the Americans. I wont say what the Scottish traditional stuff reminds me of, but lets just say kids and straight men wont recognise it. :wink:

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Post by bluebunny27 » Mon Mar 14, 2011 4:03 pm

McD oatmeal ... good analysis here :

"McDonald's : How to make oatmeal wrong"

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/20 ... -wrong/?hp

http://tinyurl.com/4on6xte

"Yet in typical McDonald’s fashion, the company is doing everything it can to turn oatmeal into yet another bad choice."

Cheers !

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Post by oliviamanda » Tue Mar 15, 2011 6:07 pm

Thanks for posting the article about McDonald's oatmeal, BlueBunny77!

I know a friend that gets it constantly.

The article states:

The aspect one cannot argue is nutrition: Incredibly, the McDonald’s product contains more sugar than a Snickers bar and only 10 fewer calories than a McDonald’s cheeseburger or Egg McMuffin. (Even without the brown sugar it has more calories than a McDonald’s hamburger.)

I will definitely share this with her!
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Post by DaveMc » Tue Mar 15, 2011 7:17 pm

OK, so every time the word oatmeal appears online lately, the words "steel cut" cannot be far behind. Can someone tell me what the deal is with oats being "steel cut"? Everyone seems to think very highly of them, but I can't figure out why the metal used to cut them should matter -- would "aluminum cut" oats be vastly inferior? I'm guessing it's probably some *style* of cutting rather than related to the actual steel.

Yes, I could ask Google, but I thought I'd ask here ... that way I get facts *and* people's opinions, which is more fun. :)

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Post by NoelFigart » Tue Mar 15, 2011 7:28 pm

Steel cut oats are oat grains that are milled instead of steamed and pressed out like the "oatmeal" most popular in America. So, it looks like cut grains rather than rolled out flat seeds.

It's just less refined, and more of a whole grain. Another term is "pinhead oats". I'm sure steel is used in the rolling process for the rolled oats that one sees more often in US, too.
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Oat meal is really very rich in protein...

Post by smithalan00 » Wed May 25, 2011 6:54 am

Oat meal has great nutritive value. It should be consumed on daily basis.


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Post by bonnieUK » Thu May 26, 2011 12:14 pm

I like my oatmeal (usually organic rolled oats, sometimes steel cut oats) cooked in water, then with some soy milk mixed in and topped with chooped dates, 1 tbs ground flax seeds and 2 tsps almond butter, the almond butter goes all melty and nice :)

The only problem I find with oats is that they sometimes make me feel bloated, not sure why (think it might be to do with how well cooked they are).

I might try the soaking overnight trick to perhaps make them a bit more digestible.


p.p.s. just de-lurking after a long time away from this board :)

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Post by bluebunny27 » Fri Jul 22, 2011 6:15 pm

Yes, I still eat oatmeal almost daily ... one thing I do differently now :

Pre-soaking the grains. I read somewhere that it's a good idea to pre-soak your oatmeal for at least 12 hours. Makes it easier for your body to absorb all the nutrients apparently. This is what they did in the good ol' days from what I read.

It's no big deal in any case I just prepare it the day before in a covered container (adding a lil' bit of lemon juice is also supposed to be good to absorb the nutrients !) and let it sit on the counter for about 12-16 hours. Cooks a bit faster too that way. The amount of lemon juice is minute so I don't even notice it later on when I eat the oatmeal.

http://www.highonhealth.org/why-its-ver ... -eat-them/

or

http://tinyurl.com/clyb47


Marc ;-)

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Post by Jaxhil » Thu Nov 17, 2011 8:55 pm

Marc, this is a great idea-I have also read that you can use a tablespoon or so of yogurt added to the soaking water (or even the whey from yogurt) and it helps break down the phytates in the oatmeal; which makes it easier to digest. In fact, I have one son who says his stomach hurts when he eats un-soaked oatmeal, and that if he mixes yogurt in it doesn't bother him.

I'm not sure he doesn't just really like yogurt in his oatmeal, though :lol:

I love my oatmeal with dried blueberries and sliced almonds; sometimes I add ground flax meal or pecans and apples with cinnamon too. YUM! I don't care for oatmeal without the fruit and nuts, though (it doesn't stick with me otherwise!).

Its oatmeal season around here again-so good on a chilly morning!
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Post by clarinetgal » Fri Nov 18, 2011 5:17 am

I'm glad I caught this thread! Oatmeal is the breakfast I eat the most, because I find it has the most 'staying power', so I'm always looking for more ideas so I can have some variety in my oatmeal. :D

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