Oatmeal has gained popularity as an easy to prepare breakfast food that can actually improve your health, as well as keep you feeling energized until lunch.  Oatmeal, prepared with water, contains 16% of your daily needs of fiber in just one serving, without adding fats, or cholesterol.  It supplies manganese, phosphorus, and selenium, and can actually help clear your arteries. oatmeal 2

For information on nutrients, see this article.

To learn more about how oats help clear your arteries, see this article.

But plain oatmeal often has less appeal than many of our breakfast choices, so we look for ways to increase it’s palatability without compromising the health benefits.  As a child, I remember adding a little brown sugar to sweeten the oats.  Not exactly healthy, but it was my solution at the time to making oatmeal more flavorful.

I’ve learned through the years that there are much better solutions!  Adding fruit, a few strawberries, raspberries, banana slices, or raisins perhaps, is a quick way to both enhance flavor and nutrition.  You can also add nuts or seeds; chopped walnuts, pistachios, or sunflower seeds are a favorite in our home.  If a sweeter flavor is desired, some all fruit jam, date sugar, or unsweetened applesauce might be just what you seek.

But there are other ways to enjoy your oats and reap the benefits, too!  Purists often just add their favorite milk, perhaps almond milk, to raw oats and let it soak for a few minutes before consuming.  Some enjoy oatmeal in the crockpot; set it up the night before and awaken to breakfast ready to serve.  It’s quicker than those boxed dry cereals and provides a warm, comforting start to your day.  One recipe that you might enjoy for crockpot oatmeal can be found here.

For those seeking a casserole style, try baked oatmeal.  You can even piece it together the night before and pop it in the oven when you wake up.  This video gives a great recipe to try:

 

We use oats in many of our recipes, they are great for adding bulk and nutrition in a healthy way.  But often they appear in the standard tradition: breakfast oatmeal.  What is your favorite oatmeal combination?

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