Cooked Oatmeal Isn’t All That Bad

How many times have you found yourself making excuses for why you don’t eat good “Old Fashioned” oatmeal every morning?

• “It tastes so… blah. I need more flavor!”
• “It takes too long to make.”
• “I don’t eat breakfast as it is, and you want me to eat that?”
• “Instant oatmeal is easier/more flavorful/faster/etc.”
• “I can’t ever get the consistency right. It comes out like glue/soup.”

Guess what, kiddies? I’ve used each and every one of those excuses myself, my entire life. Until I got my Type 2 Diabetes diagnosis, I pretty much refused to give it another chance. Granted, while oatmeal is proven to lower cholesterol my cholesterol levels are fine, and there’s no clear and present danger to my heart, the bottom line is that I need to lose weight and I need to do it right. Oatmeal is going to help, and I’m here to tell you: Cooked oatmeal really isn’t all THAT bad.

Why Oatmeal Will Help You Lose Weight

Old-fashioned oatmeal (sorry kids, not the instant kind) is absolutely packed with dietary fiber, which is the stuff that makes your world go ’round if you’re on a diet. The more dietary fiber you consume, the less fat you absorb and the more you flush out your *ahem* system.

Clearly, the better your digestive tract is working, the less time you’ve got food and toxins building up in your body. The less time for fat to absorb into your bloodstream. No, oatmeal isn’t going to make you crap your pants like Alli or Olestra, but it will keep things moving the way they should be. Know how your grandmother had faith in bran muffins? Yeah, that.

I could also get into the whole Glycemic Load stuff – if you’re interested, the oatmeal itself has a GL of 13. As comparison, brown rice has a GL of 17. The lower the GL, the longer it takes to digest the food which means a longer stability of metabolism and blood sugar levels. Also, the longer you stay full, the less you eat, the more weight you lose. :)

So anyway, how does one actually cook old-fashioned oatmeal quickly, and make it taste good?

Here’s what I do:

1. 1 cup old-fashioned oats (yep, out of that big round cardboard box) into a bowl.
2. 2 packets of Splenda
3. dash of salt (maybe a little more than a dash)
4. LOTS of ground cinnamon (I’ll explain this later)
5. 1/2 tbsp light butter (sometimes I will omit this)
6. 3/4 – 1 cup 2% milk (depending on the day, how chewy I want it to be; chewy uses less)
7. stir it up and pop it into the microwave for 2 minutes
8. add fruit or flavorings, stir up again, and enjoy!

I kid you not, I’ve got the process down to less than 4 minutes. I’ve even seen so-called “nutritionist blogs” out there saying that it can take 10 minutes to cook this kind of oatmeal, to which I call “Horseshit!”

Oh, and about the whole cooking it in the milk thing… One of my friends claims he prefers to cook his oatmeal stovetop, in just enough salted water for it to absorb into the oats, and then add a splash of milk to it after it’s done. I’ve never tried it that way, as I said, I like my oatmeal chewy, not soggy or soupy, and that’s the only thing I can imagine would happen using water.

Here are some of my favorite things to add to my oatmeal in step 7:

• 2 tbsp canned pumpkin puree
• sliced banana
• blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, or any combo of them all
• 1 tbsp creamy peanut butter
• a dozen semi-sweet chocolate chips

I’m not a fan of raisins, but I do like craisins (dried cranberries). Problem is they have so much sugar in such a concentrated form. I rarely do the chocolate chip thing because of that too. But for a treat, a change of pace, it can’t hurt once in a while.

I seriously eat oatmeal almost every morning for breakfast. If I’m not eating that, I’m eating some kind of Egg Beaters omelette or something, but the oatmeal actually takes the least amount of time and is quite versatile.

The cinnamon thing…

Ground cinnamon has been shown to actually lower blood sugar in diabetics because it enhances your body’s sensitivity to insulin, which regulates the blood sugar. I swear to you, I put it in just about everything now. I even added it to chili once!

So, how do you do oatmeal?

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Finding Yourself (Again) Through Goal-Setting

(This is an update to an old post I’d written after my breakup at the beginning of summer 2008. When I took all my old posts down to revamp the site, I vowed to revisit everything and use it to create fresh, new content. This post in particular hit me pretty hard, because it was originally written in July 2008, and while I’ve stuck to some things, others need to be revisited, and what better time than when you’re working on resolutions to look over some old goals? So here it is, in all it’s updated glory.)

It’s so hard to remember that you’re a whole person when you’ve come out of a relationship. It’s amazing how much of ourselves we often compromise or set aside because we want to make room for another person and their hopes and desires and wants. No, it’s not always a bad thing to be that way, but when the relationship fails, and we’re on our own again, there’s a lot of… space… that needs refilling.
Read more

Easy, Healthy Breakfast Casserole

I made this on Christmas morning for my dad, grandma and myself and it was SO good! It was baking in the oven while we were opening gifts and drinking coffee.

The version I made was a little different, but it bottoms out very much the same. (I used sliced french bread instead of potatoes and pancake mix (and prepared it the night before so the eggs and milk could really soak into the bread), and gouda cheese instead of the fat free cheddar. I also replaced the ham with two sausage links, diced up. Yeah, not exactly the same, but it was so yummy.)

This version is from SparkPeople Recipes

Ingredients
2 cups diced ham (8 oz)
1 cup diced bell pepper, chopped
1/2 small onion, diced
1 package simply potatoes
2 cups fat free cheddar, divided
1 cup fiber one pancake mix
2/3 cup water
2 cups skim milk
3 egg whites
salt & pepper
Tabasco sauce, to taste

Directions
Grease 9×13 pan. Layer first four ingredients in pan. Add 1 cup cheese over mix. Mix pancake mix, water, milk, egg whites, salt & pepper and sauce in a mixing bowl. Pour over mixture in pan. Sprinkle remaining cheese over pan.

Bake @ 375 for 35 minutes.
Makes 12 servings.

Nutritional Info
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 143.3
Total Fat: 1.2 g
Cholesterol: 16.6 mg
Sodium: 523.4 mg
Total Carbs: 20.3 g
Dietary Fiber: 2.3 g
Protein: 12.9 g

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Chicken Mulligatawny – My Favorite Soup!

My mom has a great recipe for Mulligatawny (literally means “pepper water”) soup, and it’s so amazing. It’s an English soup with Indian flavor. (The English are big fans of curry, and it shows in this delicious dish!)

She too adds apple to the mix, it adds a fabulous sweet twist to the spiciness of the curry, and makes this just a journey of flavor!

From EatingWell.com

Makes 6 servings, about 1 1/2 cups each Read more