Granola Bar Oatmeal - 10 Minute Meal
I do love to cook, but some nights we're in a hurry or the hamburger didn't actually thaw all the way so I like to keep a few ideas and ingredients on hand just in case. One of our new favorites is what I'm calling Granola Bar Oatmeal. Tuesday night was one of those busy nights and as I was looking through the pantry in hopes that something would pop into my head I had a brainwave - one of the main ingredients in granola bars is oatmeal. I looked around and realized that I had dried fruit, nuts, and lots of the other ingredients all right in front of me! Why couldn't I just put all the stuff I like in granola bars into oatmeal? Well, as it turns out it tastes awesome and Glenn even had seconds!
Here's the ingredients I used and some suggested ingredients that I didn't happen to have on hand but that I bet would be awesome.
Trial One:
Old-fashioned oats (if you're trying to make this gluten free make sure you use uncontaminated oats!)
One apple, cored and diced
Dried apricots, chopped
Dried cranberries
Almonds, chopped
Flaked coconut
Maple syrup (the real stuff)
Brown sugar (just a little for that distinctive taste)
Cinnamon
Nutmeg
Other things you can try include:
Dried cherries, raisins, blueberries, peaches, or whatever fruit you like
Wheat germ
Steel cut oats instead of the old-fashioned ones
Walnuts, pecans, or other nuts
Canned pure pumpkin
Pumpkin pie spice
Chocolate chips (qualifier here - while I love chocolate chip granola bars for some reason it just seems wrong to add this to oatmeal. I don't know why, it just does, but that doesn't mean you couldn't try it!)
Here's what I did. I took a couple cups of old-fashioned oats and mixed in water (a little less than the package directions because we like our oatmeal thicker) and started cooking it in the microwave - about 3 minutes. At that point I added the apple and cooked it for another 3 minutes. When it was done I mixed everything else in, taste testing to make sure it was sweet enough since I was adding the syrup and sugar a little bit at a time. That's it. It made a huge bowl too. It took me about 10 minutes to do the whole thing - take that Rachel Ray!
Really, we felt quite healthy eating this meal (enough for me to feel okay eating nachos at Iron Man 2 later). Oatmeal has a decent amount of fiber and protein (4 grams and 5 grams respectively in a half cup of dry oats). We each got at least a serving of fruit. Almonds have lots of vitamin E and are a good source of healthy fats.
If anyone else has ideas of fun things to add, let me know. I'd love to try some more variations!
Here's the ingredients I used and some suggested ingredients that I didn't happen to have on hand but that I bet would be awesome.
Trial One:
Old-fashioned oats (if you're trying to make this gluten free make sure you use uncontaminated oats!)
One apple, cored and diced
Dried apricots, chopped
Dried cranberries
Almonds, chopped
Flaked coconut
Maple syrup (the real stuff)
Brown sugar (just a little for that distinctive taste)
Cinnamon
Nutmeg
Other things you can try include:
Dried cherries, raisins, blueberries, peaches, or whatever fruit you like
Wheat germ
Steel cut oats instead of the old-fashioned ones
Walnuts, pecans, or other nuts
Canned pure pumpkin
Pumpkin pie spice
Chocolate chips (qualifier here - while I love chocolate chip granola bars for some reason it just seems wrong to add this to oatmeal. I don't know why, it just does, but that doesn't mean you couldn't try it!)
Here's what I did. I took a couple cups of old-fashioned oats and mixed in water (a little less than the package directions because we like our oatmeal thicker) and started cooking it in the microwave - about 3 minutes. At that point I added the apple and cooked it for another 3 minutes. When it was done I mixed everything else in, taste testing to make sure it was sweet enough since I was adding the syrup and sugar a little bit at a time. That's it. It made a huge bowl too. It took me about 10 minutes to do the whole thing - take that Rachel Ray!
Really, we felt quite healthy eating this meal (enough for me to feel okay eating nachos at Iron Man 2 later). Oatmeal has a decent amount of fiber and protein (4 grams and 5 grams respectively in a half cup of dry oats). We each got at least a serving of fruit. Almonds have lots of vitamin E and are a good source of healthy fats.
If anyone else has ideas of fun things to add, let me know. I'd love to try some more variations!
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