Author Archives: Lauren Smith

Hey, oatmeal lovers. I know, I’ve been absent a few weeks. As always, I blame it on lots of cloudy days and an inadequate camera. Thankfully, today I can introduce you to Cathy, whom you recognize thanks to her guest recipes, Cherry Chili Brownie Baked Oatmeal, Vegan Scrambled Eggs Oatmeal, and Cinnamon-Tahini Icing. I can’t believe she hasn’t been an Enthusiast yet, but that problem is solved today!

Hi!

My name is Cathy (well, it’s Kasia in reality but on the Internet I’m known as @cathyhope9).

Lauren has honored me with the title of Oatmeal Enthusiast of May 2017 and I’m proud to be included in such a noble group of oatmeal lovers!

I’m a 22-year-old Chemistry student from Poland. I discovered oatmeal about three years ago and I quickly got addicted to it! Now I need my cup of oats daily!

I never had oatmeal for breakfast until I started college. I got interested in working out, eating clean and being fit. I learned about overnight oats, and I made them only with Greek yoghurt and banana. My classes started early, so having ready-to-eat breakfast in the fridge was perfect solution. On weekends I made stove-top oatmeal with apples (and with water! I was vegetarian but I hated cow’s milk). I discovered that when I don’t eat yoghurt, my face is clearer so I cut down on dairy. I found out about veganism and made slow transition to plant-based lifestyle. (My mom threatened me that she will stop cooking for me if I ever go vegan, but she still cooks for me.) I’ve never had vegan overnight oats! (And I need to change that soon!)

My favourite type of oatmeal is definitely baked oatmeal. I can have it only when I’m at home (because we don’t have an oven in dorm) and it makes it very special breakfast I impatiently look forward to. I learned about baked oatmeal from Jasmin (@jasmin.clean.eat) whom I “met” on fitness app. She shared a recipe with me and I fell in love with baked oatmeal from the first bite 😉

I don’t remember how I found The Oatmeal Artist blog or how or who recommended me it but I’ve been a faithful reader since then. I learned so many useful tricks from Lauren, like segmenting orange, mixing PB2 with fork…. I read about soaking oats before cooking on the blog. Lauren’s imagination and creativity has no limits and I have never been disappointed in any of her recipes.

I eat oatmeal everyday, before classes, before working out, I ate oatmeal before running my first half marathon! When I can’t eat oatmeal, like when I don’t have access to kitchen, when I’m travelling, I start missing my oats very quickly.  Need proof that I’m an oatmeal lover? Some time ago I bought new shoes and a 2-kilogram bag of oats on sale and guess what made me more excited? Of course oats!

Day 1

It was Palm Sunday (that’s why I pictured my palm with my oatmeal) and for breakfast I had oatmeal with the best plant based milk I’ve ever had: rice-coconut milk (It was so delicious that I drank it straight from the carton and when I used it for oatmeal, I didn’t add any spices because I didn’t want to mask its flavour) and grapes.

(more…)