My husband doesn't really like oatmeal. But, I like it and it’s usually cheap so I make it. Lately, I started getting creative with my oatmeal preparations in the hopes of finding ways to cook it that my husband would like better than the traditional oatmeal gruel. Well, it’s been pretty successful and definitely fun in the process. Here’s what I’ve come up with so far. First, start off by soaking your oatmeal. Here’s a short helpful article about why it’s important to soak oatmeal. And as a bonus, here’s a wonderful post from one of my favorite bloggers about why boxed cereal isn’t healthy for us and why soaked oatmeal is a better alternative.

Here are the basic directions for soaking oatmeal… Soaked Oatmeal:

• 1 cup Oatmeal
• 1 cup Water
• 1 Tablespoon whey, yogurt, or Kefir (you can also use vinegar if you have a problem with milk)

Mix everything together and allow it to sit at room temperature for 12-24 hours. NOTE: you can easily double or triple the ingredients for this recipe.

How I make Regular Hot Cereal Oatmeal or Oatmeal Gruel:

• Soaked Oatmeal
• Enough water to cover

Place oatmeal in a pan with enough water to cover and simmer until it cooks down to desired thickness.

Baked Oatmeal:

• 3 cups soaked oatmeal (not cooked yet)
• 4 eggs
• 1 cups milk
• 3 Tablespoons cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 Tablespoons maple syrup or unrefined cane sugar/Rapadura
• a pinch of unrefined sea salt

Optional Add-ins:

• Nuts or seeds of your choice
• Dried Unsweetened coconut
• A mix of dried fruit
• Fresh fruit – apples, peaches, blueberry’s, cherry’s, or whatever else  you want
• Ground flaxseed
• Ground Cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves (or other sweet spices of choice like ground ginger)

Beat eggs a bit and then add in all the other ingredients and mix well. Place all ingredients in a greased baking dish and bake at about 350 degrees F (or just under 200 degrees C) for about 30 minutes or until the top is slightly golden. Serve with a drizzle of maple syrup or honey and some yogurt or cream.

Baked Oatmeal French Toast Style:

Here’s a fun way to reheat baked oatmeal after it’s been in the fridge. Get a frying pan hot and add a little bit of butter or coconut oil. Cut a piece of Baked Oatmeal and sear it in the pan with the butter/oil until its warm and slightly browned on each side. Serve with maple syrup. It’s so yummy!!

Oatmeal Breakfast Cakes:

• 2 cups cooked oatmeal (you could use soaked oatmeal that hasn’t been cooked yet as well, but I like to make this with the cooked leftovers from another morning)
• 2-3 eggs
• ½ cup milk (you could also use cream or buttermilk)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla (optional – but it does add a great flavor)
• sprinkle of cinnamon (optional – I used nutmeg instead because cinnamon gives me a bad headache, but cinnamon would be really great in these)
• pinch of salt

Mix all ingredients together and spoon onto a hot frying pan with butter or coconut oil (just like you would for pancakes). Cook until golden brown on both sides. Serve with pure maple syrup, a drizzle of honey, jam, or fresh fruit.

Oatmeal Scramble or Fried Cereal:

Use the recipe for the Oatmeal Breakfast Cakes but instead of spooning cakes onto the pan and cooking them like pancakes, pour some of the batter into a hot frying pan and scramble like you would for eggs. You can take this off the heat when the oatmeal mixture is just slightly golden and the consistency of scrambled eggs or you can cook it until brown and a bit crispy. You can serve it warm or you can spread it out on a paper towel and allow it to cool and drain a bit. You can serve it as a scramble and top it with some maple syrup, or you can serve it as cereal with milk or yogurt (I recommend yogurt) and dried fruit. It’s sort of a weird way to have oatmeal, but I really liked this one.

Soaked Oatmeal Granola:

• 2 cups soaked oatmeal
• ¼ to ½ cup coconut oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• ½ cup Unrefined Cane Sugar or maple syrup

Optional Add-ins:

• Nuts or seeds of your choice
• Dried Unsweetened coconut
• A mix of dried fruit
• Ground flaxseed
• Ground Cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves (or other sweet spices of choice like ground ginger)

Mix all ingredients together. Spread the mixture out on a cookie sheet and bake at roughly 100 degrees C until it’s dried up and turned a nice golden brown. Allow it to cool and then serve with milk or yogurt. You can also top this with fresh berries for a summer feel. If none of these ways to cook oatmeal tickle your fancy check out this WONDERFUL recipe for Whole Wheat Sourdough Oatmeal Bread from Sarah at Heartland Renaissance.

Enjoy!

Rejoicing in the journey- Beth Stedman

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