Macarons by The Food (Kim)ist

View Original

Oatmeal Appreciation - Oats 5 Ways!

When I first started to change my eating habits and commit to a healthy lifestyle, one of the changes I made was swapping my sugar-filled cereal with oatmeal! I would buy the lowest sugar pre-packaged instant oatmeal packets, but eventually transitioned to using raw old-fashioned oats to make my own oatmeal breakfasts. This ensured no added sugars! I became completely obsessed with oatmeal for a good 8-10 months - missing a morning without it was dreadful! Since then, I've experimented with soo many ways of preparing oatmeal and the possibilities are seriously never ending. Warm oats, overnight raw oats (in a jar!), egg white oats, savory oats, oatmeal parfaits, ahhh! My breakfasts have a lot more variety now, but man... A nice bowl of oatmeal always warms my heart in all the right ways. But mostly my stomach :pI love that oatmeal has SO many benefits too!! First off, besides being extremely delicious and versatile, it is so CHEAP! A giant 42 oz canister of Quaker Oats is $3-4 with 30 servings... making each serving just $0.13. How awesome is that? Now, the health benefits are great too! Oatmeal is full of fiber; fiber helps keep you fuller longer throughout the day. This will help prevent any unnecessary snacking during the day. Also, this fiber helps decrease LDL a.k.a. the "bad cholesterol." The fiber and "good carbs" in oatmeal will provide you with the energy you need throughout the day and also stabilize your blood sugar levels. Oatmeal contains antioxidants, it boosts  the immune system, and it has been shown to reduce the risk of certain cancers, heart disease, and type 2 Diabetes. So basically. It's awesome.I wanted to create a little compilation of some of my oatmeal creations in the past. You can check out the base recipe for each type I've made by clicking on the name of it! Any additions to the base are listed below each picture.Basic OatsIMG_1095IMG_1632IMG_1722IMG_1789IMG_2071IMG_2109IMG_2244IMG_2361IMG_2451IMG_2554IMG_2795IMG_4062IMG_4080IMG_4371IMG_5948                                                         Egg White Oats IMG_6058IMG_6113photo (24)photo (18)IMG_5026photo (22)photo (20)photo (23)                                    Oatmeal ParfaitsIMG_4690IMG_4723IMG_5265IMG_5332photo (19)photo (21)                         Overnight Raw Oats IMG_0686photo (27)photo (29)            Savory Oats IMG_4415IMG_4594photo (30)