Popular Porridges
Monthly Archives: August 2015
Peach Poppy Seed Overnight Oatmeal
I know. . . I’ve been pumping out a lot of “fancy” recipes lately. Everything involves blenders or fancy equipment or annoying cooking techniques or expensive ingredients.
But this one’s simple. Super simple.
The beauty behind a recipe like this is that you can top it with anything. Sure, I kept it basic for the photoshoot, but a humble peach + poppy seed base allows for a multitude of unique toppings. So often I resort to my banana base, but here is another base that is equally adaptive. (more…)
Weekend Musings: Back to School! Oatmeal for Kids
Consider this the “Weekend Musings: Back to School Edition.”
I reached out to various readers with children (including my own sister) for how they feed their kids with oats. I asked for anything: stories, tips, recipes. This is what I have for you. 🙂
– Creamy Oatmeal Base:
2 cups milk (I almost always use almond milk, but have used coconut milk and very rarely, I use cow milk.), 3/4 cup of quick oats. This serves 3 people. For every additional person at the table I add 1/4 cup oats and a 1/2 cup of milk. I use quick oats because I have a toddler who wakes up hungrier than a raptor and I just can’t wait more than 5 minutes to give him breakfast! I put the oats and milk into a pot, crank it to boil, and stir. When it’s boiled for 3-5 minutes, I remove from stove. This is when you can stir in any flavourings or toppings! Enjoy!
-An Oatmeal Bar. . .
. . .works really well for guests or picky eaters. Make a base oatmeal and set out “toppings” and sweetener. I make a creamy oatmeal base and then set out honey, maple syrup, and brown sugar for the sweetener. Then for toppings I put graham crumbs, peanut butter, cocoa powder, coconut, Oreo crumbles, bananas, peaches, cherries, raspberries, and blueberries (mostly whatever fruit is in season, or frozen/thawed fruit in winter).
Related post: Check out this post on how to
make 4 different oatmeals from one pot!
Spiced Apple Oatmeal with Tahini & Honey
I’ll start with my usual disclosure for the vegan police: yep, honey. As I always say, I’m “one of those vegans”–go ahead and berate me in the comments. I’ve received more hate from YouTube trolls and sixth graders misbehaving in the hallway than you can imagine. I can most certainly handle your lambasting. I briefly discuss my views on honey on my Plant Proud! page.
Alright, good. We’re past that. Moving on.
So my first attempt at tahini was not the groundbreaking experience I had hoped for. As it turns out, tahini is not peanut butter. It is not rich like peanut butter. It is not warm and cozy like peanut butter. It is neither sweet nor salty like peanut butter. In fact, it’s pretty darn bitter. It’s kind of like creamy sesame oil with a bitter aftertaste.
(I’ve totally convinced you to try it, right?) (more…)
Watermelon Coconut Overnight Oatmeal
Watermelon + oatmeal has been an equation that I’ve been trying to solve for quite some time. I tried this Melon Berry Overnight Oatmeal last summer. Truthfully, it was okay. But it most definitely wasn’t my favorite. I’ve been dying to give watermelon another try, but I just couldn’t crack the code. How do you make a watermelon oatmeal that is 1) not too runny, and 2) sweet without being heavily sweetened?
I found two answers to this question. One: use coconut milk. Coconut milk (from the can) is so thick and creamy that it would compensate for watermelon’s . . . well, watery-ness. The other answer came from my partner-in-crime (well . . . sort of. She hasn’t agreed to this title, haha): Meghan from Oatgasm. (more…)
Chocolate Hazelnut PB2
PB2 is magical! You can do so much with it. I finally bought hazelnut extract (primarily because I bought a second spice rack and I needed to fill it out haha), and I was so excited to try out this Nutella-hack.
As much as I frequently eat PB2 as is, I also enjoy making fun “spins” of it (see: Faux-reo Cookie PB2). Truthfully, I’ve only had Nutella a couple times (pre-vegan days), and I was always assaulted by how cloyingly sweet it was. I much preferred PB&Co’s Dark Chocolate Dreams, as I’ve mentioned before.
(more…)
London Fog Oatmeal
What is a London Fog, you ask? Hold on, I’ll get to that.
Back in college, I had the world’s best barista. Well, I had two excellent baristas, but I’m going to talk about one in particular. Her name was Noelle. We were both majoring in the humanities, so we saw each other around campus and even took a creative writing course together (and she was obviously brilliant at it). She was one of the coolest people I knew. You know those girls who walk around confidently with their own unique fashion sense and don’t give a crap about the trends anyone else is following? But manage to pull it off without looking ridiculous? That was Noelle.
She also happened to be a helluva barista. (more…)
Raspberry Oatmeal with Tahini & Dark Chocolate Chunks
My first tahini experience! Ta-da!
For years, I’ve been buying the “tahini sauce” from Trader Joe’s and using it for salad dressing. It is not the same as plain ol’ tahini. Tahini sauce contains add-ins like lemon juice and garlic. In fact, it kind of tastes like hummus, without the chickpeas! Thus, when I observed multiple #oatmealartist posts on Instagram include tahini, I was appalled. “YOU ARE TOPPING YOUR FRUITY OATMEAL WITH GARLICKY TAHINI?! (more…)
Glühwein (Mulled Wine) Oatmeal [Guest Post]
Hi oatmeal lovers! I am back in New York City after a three-week excursion to visit friends and family. If you’ve been following the blog, you know that I’ve been featuring many guest posts to keep the blog active throughout the summer despite my travels. Although I’ve been eating simple oatmeal every morning, I didn’t really have time to create new recipes, make them look pretty, and take nice pictures of them. So I outsourced. 😉 I found Tiffany’s “Glühwein” (aka mulled wine) Oatmeal on Instagram and thought it was brilliant.
Vanilla Cappuccino Zoats [Guest Post]
Good morning, oatmeal lovers! Today marks my first day back home in NYC (it’s great to be back!), and I have been so appreciative of everyone who has helped me keep the blog active with fantastic recipes while I’ve been traveling. This recipe comes to us from Taigen, the Oatmeal Enthusiast from July. The moment I saw it, I knew I wanted to see the recipe for myself and to share it with my readers. Luckily for all of us, she said yes!
Hi guys! I am so happy to be back! And thank you to Lauren for asking me to share one of my zoat recipes with you – I hope you all like it!
So, I have never been a massive coffee drinker. When I use to have it, it was for that earthy fresh smell, the sweet flavours (vanilla or hazelnut every time) and the sensation of holding warmth. I love the taste of coffee, but that hasn’t ever translated to loving it as a drink.
One morning I woke up craving coffee and a bit of a ‘kick’ to start the day. It then occurred to me that I could put coffee in my daily oats and just eat it instead. So that’s exactly what I did.
This has been one of my favourite coffee-oat creations to date. The use of vanilla protein powder gives it a sweetened edge that I love. (more…)
Poached Strawberry-Rhubarb & Reduction Sauce
The idea behind this recipe surfaced as I looked for ways to enhance pre-flavored oatmeal packets. On its own, I truly hate the taste of Maple & Brown Sugar Oatmeal. Not only is it too sweet for me, but I always think it lacks depth in flavor. It’s just like, “AHHH MAPLE!!!!! BROWN SUGAR!!!!!” It has no captivating nuances. No variation of texture. No fruit, no interesting spices . . . just sugar, sugar, and sugar.
You can pump up Maple & Brown Sugar Oatmeal in numerous ways as I discussed in the aforemetioned post. I knew I was going to add a banana—because bananas are like oxygen to me—but I also wanted to add an interesting topping. Considering I was in Minnesota at the time, I “stole” some rhubarb from my sister’s front yard (I assure you she will not miss them) to make this super easy topping.
Poaching is easy. The definition of poaching is simply simmering something in a liquid. For example, you’ve probably heard of wine-poached pears, which is merely a pear simmered in wine (which is an excellent idea since pears are gross and flavorless). You can poach any fruit (or eggs, haha) in anything: from water to tea to juice to wine to some other sort of spiced concoction. (more…)
