Oatmeal in Disguise

The Healthy Librarian's Cheezy Oatmeal with sundried tomatoes, mushrooms and spinach.

Not the most attractive dish, but very, very cool.

This morning on Debby's (aka the Healthy Librarian) Happy Healthy Long Life Blog I was introduced to the wonders of oatmeal. "Yeah, yeah, yeah" you're probably saying to yourself, it's all over the news, all over the packages of General Mills and Kellog's cereals. But hey, I'm a skeptic, and anything that is blown out by PR firms and advertisers I'm going to question. 

So I've kind of been ignoring oatmeal, eating it only occassionally when maybe I wasn't in the mood for a cold smoothie in the morning. That is, until now. Thanks to Debby and her wonderous ways of compiling and distilling information, I now know the secrets of this wonderfood. And I trust her a lot more than any big corporation any day! Read all about it here along with the recipe for Cheezy Oatmeal.

For the highest volume of creative oatmeal recipes check out the Kath Eats Real Food blog. Debby's oatmeal was based on a recipe from Angela at Oh She Glows. Seems like she's got a thing for oatmeal too. Confused about the difference between steel cut oats, quick cook oats, instant oats and rolled oats? So was I  until I read this insightful posting on The Sweet Beet. And last but not least, for the oatmeal die hards reading this, you've gotta give the Vegan Overnight Oats a try. Here's a great video tutorial about it by Angela at Oh She Glows.

What do you think of oatmeal? Do you consider it a staple in your diet?

Do you eat it plain or do you make all sorts of creative oatmeal?

Have you ever made a savory oatmeal dish? Vegan overnight oats?

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C is for Cookie, and These Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies are for Me!

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! for all of the comments on my last post. This is all very exciting, and exhausting too (my fellow bloggers know what I am talking about--getting comments is all about commenting on other blogs, and it's practically a full time job. I will do my best!). And while comments and commenting are really fun, I have to keep focus on the main reason this blog exists--sharing my passion for nutritionally excellent food.

Remember I told you I've been ogling over other healthy bloggers Best Recipes of 2010 lists? Well, I wasn't kidding around. So last night, when my trusty kitchen assistant Maya asked if we could bake cookies, I responded with a surprising "Yes" and about knocked her socks right off of her feet!

All of the ingredients for Fat Free Vegan/Susan's Banana Maple Oatmeal Cookies are staples in my kitchen (I LOVE when that happens!). I made two simple changes: substituting dark chocolate mini chunks for the raisins (I personally loathe cooked raisins in baked goods and I knew that to make these a real treat, they had to involve some form of chocolate). I also substituted orange juice concentrate for the lemon juice (I was just plum out).

Everyone in my house loved these cookies, and I love a sure thing! My husband, who won't eat anything with banana in it, didn't even notice the banana (I think) and scarfed down a bunch (he can safely do that). I however, managed to contain myself to just 2. Sweet food is my downfall, but sometimes you just gotta let loose a little. Thanks Sue for your best of list! Here's the recipe.

What kinds of treats do you make in your kitchen?

How often do you indulge in "healthy" baked goods?

Do you find it difficult to limit how much you eat when you are treating yourself? Or are you at a place where it's just no big deal?

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Banana Soft Serve Vegan Overnight Oats

No food photos, so I thought I would share this with you.  That's my 5 year old out on Lake Erie!

Again, I really want to apologize for leaving all of my readers high-and-dry for the past few weeks.  My sudden quieting down has a lot of factors, including my lack-of-a-camera-situation but truthfully, a bit of lack-of-motivation recently. Which, in the world of someone who has to work hard to remain at a healthy weight is not such a good thing!

So this weekend I pulled out a recipe that I had in my to-do pile. I can't even remember where I got it from, but after about an hour of searching for it on one of my favorite blogs, http://www.choosingraw.com/, so that I could provide you with the link, I broke down and did a google search for it.  It's a breakfast dish that combines chia seeds and oatmeal soaked in the fridge overnight into a parfait with banana soft serve (remember that heavenly creation?). Well, I guess this stuff is pretty popular, because there are a world of links about it on the www. And after eating it for breakfast this morning, I can attest to its strange addictiveness. If I could, I would eat it again for lunch right now!

So here's a cool YouTube video that explains the process.  The woman in the video has a fantastic blog called Oh She Glows! http://ohsheglows.com/ I highly recommend giving this recipe a try and letting me know if you do!

FYI-The recipe that I used did not layer in cacao nibs or anything else but rather just used the overnight oats plus the banana soft serve. Just saying! Although I'm sure these are great additions. Plus, I used 2 frozen bananas instead of one, 'cause I can't get enough banana soft serve!

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