A TON of Oatmeal Recipes!

I have always hated cooked oatmeal so I find it kind of ironic that I'm writing about oatmeal today.  Or that oatmeal has become such a HUGE part of my diet at all!  I had no idea it was possible to eat raw oatmeal until a few months ago, when my sister introduced me to their raw oatmeal that they eat every morning.  It turns out that while I hate cooked oatmeal, oats in general I absolutely love!  It's a good thing too because they're rich in iron, which is something I seem to be really needing these days.

Oats are not only high in iron, they also provide a solid amount of protein and fiber.  They can be ground into flour or used whole.  You can find them in quick cooking versions (these have lower nutritional value as they are more processed), long cooking (these are what we eat/use.  I think they taste better) or steel-cut oats, which are harder to chew but pack a real nutritional punch!  Oats help lower cholesterol, regulate blood sugar and are incredibly healthy for the heart.  Seriously, what's not to love about oatmeal? 

Except...when cooked, I seriously hate the texture.  It's either slimy or so thick I'd need a glass of milk for every spoonful.  And they're sooo bland.  The only way I could eat oatmeal was in the instant flavored packets.  But once I started learning about eating healthy, I discovered how unhealthy those packets were.  In fact, the sugar and salt levels in them completely negated all health benefits of the oats!  (And the "diet" versions are actually much worse that the regular.)  I can't tell you how glad I am to discover that raw oats not only taste great but are even healthier than the cooked version.  (Any food cooked over 104 degrees loses nutritional value.)

Is it any surprise that I have a TON of recipes to share?  Some I'll give you links, some I'll type below for you.  Sorry I don't have many pictures.  (There are some things I just have to let slide these days and photos of food is one of them.)

Serving Size:  1/3 cup = 1 serving of oatmeal.  If you're focusing on weight control, be sure you keep a measuring cup with your oats.  I used to just dump from the container the amount that looked good to me until I discovered it was more like 2 servings worth.

Recipe 1: Melissa's Raw Breakfast Oatmeal

I name this for my sister who shared the recipe with me.  I can't remember if she created it herself or found it somewhere.  What I'm sharing below is how I make it, which is a little different than she does.  Same great results though!

1/3 cup whole long-cooking oats
pinch of salt
couple shakes of cinnamon
approx 1 tsp pure maple syrup
handful of raisins or craisins
non-dairy milk (we use almond milk...also rice or soy are good options)

Mix ingredients and add as much milk as you desire.  Let sit for 5 min.  The longer they sit the softer the oats will be.  Remember this oatmeal will be cold!  It's a different experience and one I was hesitant to try, but once I did...absolutely loved it!!

Recipe 2: Tosca Reno's Oatmeal-on-the-Go

This recipe is from The Eat-Clean Diet Recharged by Tosca Reno.  She keeps the following ingredients in baggies and carries them with her.  If she's out and clean food isn't an option, she simply asks for a bowl, spoon and hot water, whips out her oatmeal, adds water and has a full meal.  My kids eat this several days a week.  2 of the 3 love it (pretty good stats for my family).

1/3 cup whole oats + a little of each of the following (no worries if you're missing one or two):
wheat germ
ground flax seed
cinnamon
sea salt
protein powder
bee pollen
raisins or craisins (although they do have sugar)
*peanut butter
*maple syrup or honey

The * foods are ones we add in addition to Tosca's recipe.  Add boiling water and wait 3-4 minutes before enjoying.

Recipe 3: "Crunchies" (aka Clean-Eating Granola)



Ingredients

·   2 cups of Oats

·   4 Tablespoons crushed raw walnuts (or other nut of choice)

·   2 Tablespoons all natural nut butter (any kind you like)

·   1 tsp pure vanilla

·   3 Tablespoons raw honey

·   3 Tablespoons Coconut Oil

·   1/2 c dark chocolate chips

·   a few Tablespoons flax seeds

·   1 tsp chia seeds

Instructions

1.      Pre-heat oven to 300 degrees.

2.      Mix the oats, walnuts, flax seed and chia seeds in a mixing bowl.

3.      In a separate bowl add the nut butter, coconut oil, honey and vanilla. Heat in microwave in 20 second intervals until melted. Stir until nice and creamy.

4.      Slowly add the wet mixture to the oats and fold gently until all oats are covered and a bit moist. Fold in the chopped dark chocolate.

5.      Place a sheet of parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Spread the oatmeal mixture on the parchment paper nice and flat. Bake for 12 minutes and then flip and move the oat mixture around, then cook for another 12 minutes. Let cool on the cookie sheet for 30 minutes.

Makes approx 3 1/2 cups of granola.

Recipe 4: Tosca's Oatmeal Pancakes

This is our favorite pancake recipe, although I'll add one more at the bottom via link that is also fabulous.  The base recipe is Tosca's however I've changed a few things so if you find hers on-line, it looks similar but isn't exact.

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups dry rolled oats
• 4 whole eggs (or 6 egg whites)
• 1 cup milk of your choice
• 1 Tbsp ground flax seed
• 1 Tbsp Coconut oil
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• Coconut oil for cooking the pancakes

**Our favorite way to eat these is to leave out the cinnamon.  Add juice of 1 lemon + the grated rind of the lemon.  Add about a cup of blueberries.  YUM!!

Preparation

1. Place all ingredients in a blender or food processor (except blueberries if you're using those...add those at the end whole). Blend the mixture for 20 seconds. The resulting mixture should be smooth. Melt or pour 1 tbsp coconut oil into your frying pan. Heat over medium heat. Pour 1/4 cup of pancake mixture on the hot surface. Cook until the pancakes are dry and bubbly on the edges. Bubbles should appear on top, as well. Turn and brown the other side. (These take longer than normal pancakes to cook.)
2. Always use pure maple syrup, never the cheap fake versions.  This is always your best option for both flavor and health.

Blueberry Pie Pancakes (and a whole lot of other choices): 
http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/chocolate-covered-recipes/pancake-pandemonium/

Energy Bites (my kids call them chocolate balls): http://naturallysweetsurprises.blogspot.com/2012/03/pinterest-or-pin-uninterest.html

Clean-Eating Muffin Cookies:
http://naturallysweetsurprises.blogspot.com/2011/09/muffin-cookies-for-breakfast-or-any.html

Alrighty...there are actually SO many oatmeal recipes I keep coming across that I'll have to do another blog with more of them.  Here's my most recent one and a current favorite.  It was so good when I made one batch (and ate straight from the bowl) that I had to make a 2nd batch while the ingredients were still out.  It uses oatmeal flour.  I just put raw oats into a mini food processor and a few seconds later have flour!  I do sift it before adding to the bowl.

No Bake Peanut-Butter Pretzel Bars  (leave pretzels out to make them GF)
http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2012/04/09/no-bake-peanut-butter-pretzel-bars/

You can probably tell from these recipes that I also love peanut butter! 

All of this reminds me that I have to bring a casserole for my MOPS group this next Wed.  Guess what I'm bringing...OATMEAL CASSEROLE!  (A recipe all the moms love, and one I'll have to share next time because I actually have to locate the recipe :-).

Enjoy and please share your feedback: which you tried and what you thought.

**Note on oats...they are gluten free naturally however Quaker Oats are processed in a plant where other wheat products are processed.  There is a high chance there will be cross-contamination.  Try Bob's Red Mill for truly GF oats.

Getting Started

I've received a few emails from people lately asking me great questions.  So I've decided to take the next few posts to answer those questions.  Things like "If I eat clean, what does that look like on a daily basis?" "How have your kids adjusted to this?" "What do you eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks...etc...?" "Where do you shop?" "How do you begin?"  Whew!  As you can see that's way too much to attempt to answer in just one post.  The questions overwhelm me when someone comes up to me and starts asking them in person.  Hence the blog and all the answers in one tidy spot.

So for today I'll start with:

• How do you begin?
• Where do you shop?
• What does a day of eating clean look like?

Most of my answers will come from The Eat Clean Diet Recharged! by Tosca Reno.

I just love that book and have recommended it to so many people!  Reading this is the perfect way to start because it will teach you WHY you want to Eat Clean! And then it will give you steps to follow that are simple but encouraging.  You do not have to go Clean overnight.  Just cut out one bad thing from your diet this week.  Add in something healthy this week.  Do it again next week.  Go through your cupboards and pack up all the processed foods and deliver it to a local food bank.  With Thanksgiving fast approaching, the need for that will be huge!  So you're serving your community AND getting healthy!  For me, I did 2 trips.  The first time with all the stuff I didn't mind getting rid of.  The 2nd trip was a month later with the stuff I'd clung to "just in case" and finally was willing to clean out.

The other first step I'd recommend is to add 1-2 daily Raw Green Smoothies to your diet.  I don't recommend either going 100% Clean or 100% Raw overnight.  I did that and hardly lived to tell the story of detox.  I've already posted about Raw Green Smoothies...if you haven't had a chance to read that yet, click here.

Where do I shop?

I shop in 4 main locations, currently.  This will, of course, change based on where you live in the US (or out of the US). 

1. Locally we have a small market called Fresh & Easy.  They are a little pricier than the regular grocery but they have foods that do not contain added preservatives, food dyes, corn syrups, etc... and you can understand every ingredient they use.  I buy cereals for the kids, yogurt, milk, etc... here.  Also cookies (for the kids' splurge) and sprouted whole-wheat bread.
2. Sprouts...I buy a lot of my fresh produce here.  I also buy coconut oil, kefir, seeds (like chia, hemp, flax), chocolate chips and foods that I can get in bulk out of the bins like wheat germ, steel cut oats, etc... 
3. Whole Foods...I've never actually been to Whole Foods as it's quite far away.  But my sister goes monthly so I just tack my order onto hers.  I buy things here that I can't find anywhere else like coconut butter, fresh ground almond butter, coconut flour, cocoa butter, cacao powder and cacao nibs.  And someday I'll remember to buy Sucanat.
4. Costco...Costco has a great selection of healthy snacks for kids.  I'll talk more about those when I do my post on snacks.  I buy a lot of my nuts here.  Walnuts, pecans, almonds.  They come in huge bags and this is pretty much the lowest price you'll find them for.  I also get my oatmeal, maple syrup, coconut water and some of my fruits here.

What does a day of eating clean look like?

A day of eating clean starts out by drinking 2-3 glasses of water before eating any food.  That's tough to do!  I keep a 22 oz Tervis cup next to my bed at night so first thing I do when I wake up is drink it down with a straw.  I also drink an 8 oz glass of 1/2 freshly squeezed lemon and 1-2 tsp maple syrup and water + ice each morning.  This is great for a morning cleanse and to helps with alkalizing your blood. (no, I have no idea...yet...what that means, although my sister is on the phone with me right now trying to explain it!) 

According to the "Rules of Clean-Eating" you should eat within an hour of waking up.  Breakfast is the MOST important meal of the day!  Since I am also doing Raw with my clean-eating, I drink a Raw Green Smoothie for my breakfast most mornings.  More on that when I do my breakfast post! (If you drink 2 smoothies a day, it does count as two mini-meals as shown below.)

Then you'll want to eat 5-6 small meals a day.  Time-wise, this reminds me a lot of when I was nursing my babies.  Here's a sample timeline:

  7 a.m.    meal #1   or   breakfast

10 a.m.    meal #2   or   mid morning snack

  1 p.m.    meal #3   or   lunch

  4 p.m.    meal #4   or   mid afternoon snack

  7 p.m.    meal #5   or   dinner

10 p.m.    meal #6   or   evening snack

Of course you'll adjust the times to work for your schedule.  At first I was having to watch the clock a lot but now I just naturally am ready to eat something around those times.  And I NEED to eat!  My body tells me...get food NOW.  This timeline might vary depending on how active you are too...i.e. eat every 2 1/2 hrs instead of 3.

And...What should you be eating during each of those light meals/snacks?

• 6 servings of lean protein a day (this includes tofu, chia seeds, quinoa, hemp seeds in addition to meats and dairy.  I love Greek Yogurt and Kefir for the protein too.  With the raw diet, I get most of my protein from these sources.)
• 2-4 servings of complex carbs (this includes whole grains such as brown rice, quinoa, oatmeal, wheat germ, lentils, bananas, carrots, chickpeas, beans, sweet potatoes, yams and SO much more!  A complex carb is NOT a simple card so unfortunately donuts and cupcakes don't count.)
• 4-6 servings of fresh produce (if you do the raw smoothies this will be no problem!)
• 2-3 servings of healthy fats (i.e. fish, nuts, seeds, avocado, oils such as olive, coconut, flax)
• 10 cups or 2-3 liters of water a day

My list is very minimal and mostly covers the items in my own personal diet but hopefully it'll give you a good idea of what is considered clean and healthy.

And finally, a good day of Clean-Eating should also include exercise!  I try to go to the gym 4-5 times a week (although with school starting and our new life schedule having recently changed, that's been hard to work into my life...I'm getting there!)

According to Tosca, to have a beautiful healthy body the equation is:

80% nutrition + 10% training (exercise) + 10% genetics

So...hopefully that breaks it down for you a little bit and you have some good places to get started.  Any more questions related to getting started that I didn't answer?  Feel free to leave them in the comments section!

And as always...thank you so much for reading.  I'm humbled that you chose to visit my blog.  Here's to a Clean-Eating week!

Amy 

If you are what you eat...what am I?

Everyone in the health world seems to define themselves by how they eat.  It's very common to hear "I am Raw."  "I am Vegan." "I am Vegetarian." "I am Gluten Free." This seemed quite odd to me because I am used to defining myself by "I am a teacher.  I am a mom.  I am a child of God." etc...   When I was asked:  "Amy!  Are you going Raw?"   I had NO idea what that meant!  And honestly, it kind of freaked me out.  Once I began learning about eating healthy, I spent quite a few weeks learning this entirely new vocabulary and determining how it could/would apply to my life.  What new "I am" would I become?

All I knew at that time was that I wanted to eat healthier than I already was.  I dove into this strange new world like this:  Initially I was doing Weight Watchers.  I began to find it curious that foods I knew were extremely healthy (i.e. avocados and sunflower seeds) were the highest point values and therefore foods to avoid eating.  That didn't make sense to me.  One day I remembered my sister talking about eating right for your blood type so I Swagbucksed it and found Eat Right 4 Your Type by Dr Peter J. D'Adamo.  Another click and I learned that, for my A+ blood-type, I should be eating a vegetarian-type diet. (I highly recommend checking this link and reading about your blood-type.  You'll learn a lot more than just what foods to eat/not eat.  I began to understand a lot about what makes me me through this site.)  The very next day my neighbor asked me to "like" a FB page so that she could win a free un-cookbook and so began my interest in eating Raw.  Because, I rationalized, raw foods must be vegetables, I needed to learn about this to feed my blood-type.  Then I learned that just about all raw foods are also vegan foods.  And finally I read The Eat-Clean Diet Recharged by Tosca Reno and began to learn about eating clean.  At that point I figured I was going to become all of the above!

As I settled into Clean Eating (with about 60% of that being raw foods), I began to realize that certain recipes that were vegan weren't clean.  And some vegetarian recipes weren't clean either.  Suddenly I was confused again.  Weren't they all the same?  Vegan was vegetarian, vegetarian was raw and all of it was clean?  NO it was not to be!  And so more research ensued.  Here is a summary (extremely simplified) of what I learned.

What is Vegetarian?  A person who chooses to eat plant-based foods (i.e. fruits/vegetables) and who does not eat meat (i.e. red meat, poultry or seafood).  They may or may not eat animal by-products such as dairy and eggs.

What is Vegan?  A person who is vegan is an extreme vegetarian (my choice of words).  All the above rules apply PLUS all animal by-products such as dairy, eggs and honey.

What is Raw?  Eating a raw food diet is a lifestyle choice that includes whole foods that are as close to nature as possible.  These foods are uncooked, unprocessed, and preferably organic.  By not heating foods above 104 to 118 degrees Fahrenheit (40 to 47 degrees Celsius), the inherent enzymes and nutrients are preserved enabling for optimal nutrition. (info taken from here.)  You will almost always hear Raw-Vegan used together.

What is Clean Eating?  To understand what it means to Eat Clean, click here.  Or just click on the "Clean Eating" page above.  Clean Eating was the most appealing to me because it included eating whole foods and cutting out all processed foods and sugars from my diet.  I could easily combine Raw with Clean Eating.  One simple rule to Clean Eating is: if you can't read it, don't eat it.  All those crazy big words on labels...they're basically poisons to our bodies and we need to stay away from them. The process of transition for me was not easy!  It's taken me months to accomplish this and even now there are a few things that keep catching me by surprise...or temptations that pop up that are too hard to pass by. 

What I began to discover, though, was that some vegan and vegetarian recipes would contain sugar or other ingredients that were not allowed in Clean Eating.  So I've learned that I need to read recipes and ingredient labels carefully.  And that I am not a vegetarian (I still eat chicken & pork 1-2 times a week) and I'm not vegan (I cook with eggs, and go through a TON of honey!) and I'm not Raw (I eat cooked foods).  So I determined that I am going to be a Clean Eater and this lifestyle change will incorporate some vegetarian and vegan recipes that follow the rules of clean eating.  Fortunately all Raw recipes are also clean.  So I currently eat about 95% Clean with 60% of that being Raw.  I guesstimate 5% of the time I fail in all of the above.

I will emphasize a lot in my blog that the use of the word "diet" with these styles of eating does not mean "way to lose weight" but instead it means "lifestyle of eating".  If you are considering incorporating a Clean Eating diet plan...don't do it unless you're willing to do it for the rest of your life.  It should be a lifestyle change, not a 2-week crash course to weight-loss.  But I do hope you will join me and discover how fantastic the health benefits are!

And now I'm off to my first Farmer's Market.  So much more for me to learn...and fun to be had!  (I'm sure I'll be sharing about that soon :-)

Share: What are you?  Are you a sugaraholic and processed food junkie still?  What do you hope to be and why?

*I was surprised to read that Vegans do not eat honey.  I'm not positive on that info being accurate as I know my Raw friends who are also Vegan eat honey.

Guess the Hidden Ingredient

The other evening I was preparing a Clean-Eating dinner for my family.  Now, please understand, I don't cook dinner very often.  My husband is Korean and prefers to eat his own food and the kids and I tend to eat smaller for dinner.  But once a week I do try and pull together an actual, hot (IF I can get everyone sitting down together quick enough) meal.  Here is a picture of what I served:

And here is the ingredient list:

• pork tenderloin (sliced thin and browned in frying pan...could also grill)
• baby potatoes (cut into chunks and boiled)
• agave (drizzled over the potatoes)
• corn (on the cob!! ~ love this season of veggies!!)
• Lawry's Garlic Salt (sprinkled over the boiled corn and potatoes)
• sesame oil and sea salt (to dip the pork in...Korean style!)

SO.... given that limited ingredient list, can you guess the hidden ingredient?

You know that old saying, pride comes before a fall?  Well I was pretty darn proud of my little meal.  As I was finishing it up and was putting it onto the serving dishes my thoughts went something like this:  "Remember back as a kid when I hated corn on the cob?  I had to put so much butter an salt onto it just to eat it.  Look at me now!  I'm doing so great.  All I'm putting on my potatoes and corn is garlic salt.  I sure do love garlic salt.  It's such a perfect seasoning for all veggies.  That's all you need...you don't even need butter on veggies for them to taste fabulous with garlic salt.  If anyone ever told me this wasn't clean I think I'd...I'd...this IS clean, isn't it?  This better be clean.  YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!   There's SUGAR as a main ingredient in Lawry's Garlic Salt?  Stink.  No wonder I love it so much!"

Yes, all that was going on inside my head as I headed back into the battle with sugar.  Is it any wonder this nation is addicted to sugar?  Everything is processed and pretty much everything processed contains sugar.  (Lawry's Garlic Salt does have other items in it to make it un-clean as well, much to my disappointment.)  So I'll be finding another version of garlic salt that is sugar-free and taking one more step towards victory in this battle over unexpected (in a not-good-way) sweet surprises.