Showing posts with label oatmeal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label oatmeal. Show all posts

3.13.2013

The Ultimate Granola & Sugar

 This recipe is from Quinoa 365: The Everyday Superfood pg.18.


Ingredients: Organic oatmeal, quinoa, flaxseed, sesame seeds, almonds, raisins, cinnamon, maple syrup.

A box of organic granola between $7-7.50 at Costco will fill up this whole container. I made 2 1/2 cups of oatmeal and 3 C of organic oatmeal in bulk costs $1.50, so my container (some already eaten) of homemade organic oatmeal costs just a few dollars.  I am also trying to avoid all types of cane sugar and organic products always have evaporated cane sugar (which seems to be just as bad as white sugar, minus the chemicals and pesticides.)

***All sugars are metabolized differently in the body and will effect us in very different ways. Our bodies need sugar for energy and for our cells and organs to function properly (like our muscles and brain.) We just have to make sure that we are getting sugar from the right sources! It's best to get it from whole foods...fruits, veggies, and grains. Our bodies know how to process these properly and retrieve and use the nutrients so that our bodies benefit from it. 

Continuously feeding your body processed refined sugar is very harmful to your body because essentially it is foreign to the body, there is no nutrients, it's toxic. Toxic because it can cause diseases e.g. heart disease, diabetes, cancer, obesity, etc. Sugar's in whole fruit form have all the vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and fiber to protect our bodies from immediately ingesting sugar. During digestion it all gets metabolized and broken down, separated, and absorbed into the body gradually, so that our cells and organs get the right amounts of everything. On the other hand when sugar has been processed and refined it gets directly absorbed into the bloodstream and with no protection from vital nutrients in digestion and once in the liver it is metabolized and becomes an extreme burden on your liver and eventually other organs. These organs become more fatty and slow and stop working at full capacity, eventually affecting the whole body. Not only this, but refined sugar in high amounts leads to gaining weight, could be a lot of weight! Your metabolism is tricked and tells your brain that it's not full, "it turns off your body's appetite-control system"...the unhealthy, high doses, toxic sugar turns right into fat. Not good!

All sweeteners/sugars found in unhealthy processed food are so bad for the body! In the end they will only make the body gain weight and cause the body to be much more susceptible to diseases.

All of this information is very general and may not be entirely accurate (I'm still learning), but all in all it's so important to get sugars from the right sources!!! 

  

Blueberry Oatmeal

Our favorite oatmeal mix for the week.

3.10.2013

Coconut Oatmeal Cookies


These Coconut Oatmeal Cookies were so yummy! I love following a health blog called Word of Wisdom Living. He posts some great healthy recipes. He calls these cookies...

Skip's Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients:
  • 1 C butter (2 sticks), softened
  • 1 C turbinado sugar (or any raw sugar)
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 C whole wheat flour (fresh ground is best)
  • ¼ C wheat bran (if you have it, otherwise use wheat germ, or just more flour)
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 3 C rolled oats (Old Fashioned, not instant oats)
  • 1 C chopped fresh walnuts, chopped
  • 2/3 C semisweet chocolate chips (we prefer the mini size and I divide the 12-oz package to get 3 batches)
Directions:
  1. Turn oven on to 350 F (after checking that your children haven’t left any toys inside).
  2. In a large bowl cream the butter and sugar; beat in two eggs and vanilla.
  3. In a smaller bowl blend dry ingredients (flours, salt, and baking soda).
  4. To the large bowl, stir in the dry ingredients, oats, walnuts, and chips.
  5. Place rounded tablespoons of dough on a baking pan and flatten with a fork.  (If you do this a lot, get one of those scoops with the device that pops the dough out.)
  6. Bake 12 minutes or so, cool, transfer from pan to wire grill for a few minutes to dry a bit.  We bag them into sandwich bags and freeze them for later, taking a bag out each day.  If there are kids around give them a cookie with an apple, orange or banana.

However, I changed it up a bit. Here is what I did...

Coconut Oatmeal Cookies

  • 1 C Organic Extra-Virgin Coconut Oil, softened
  • 1 C Organic Coconut Palm Sugar
  • 2 Organic Eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 C Organic Whole Wheat Flour (stone ground)
  • 1/4 C Wheat Germ
  • 1 tsp Baking Soda
  • 1/2 tsp Sea Salt
  • 3 C Organic Old Fashioned Oats
  • 1 C Sliced Almonds
  • 1/4 C Unsweetened Coconut Flakes
  • 2/3 Cacao Chocolate Chips

 Cream softened coconut oil and sugar together. Beat in eggs and vanilla.

 Dry ingredients.


 I also added unsweetened coconut flakes.

 Mixing it all up!

 Mash rolled cookie dough with a fork before putting in the oven.

All done and oh so good, especially with some fruit!


8.25.2012

Oatmeal & Peaches

Oatmeal mixed with coconut oil and our neighbors fresh peaches. The peaches are amazingly good!

7.04.2012

Organic Raspberry Oatmeal

We eat oatmeal for breakfast every morning. For the last few weeks we ate organic oatmeal with organic frozen raspberries and organic granola. It was super good!

5.07.2012

Oatmeal & Mangoes

This morning my kids wanted mangoes in their oatmeal. We don't live in a tropical area, so the mangoes sold here are really never that good, but luckily we found some at Costco...Atafla, Philippino, or Champagne mangoes (whatever you want to call them) that are amazing! 

4.26.2012

Organic Oatmeal & Juice

This is our usual breakfast...organic rolled oats with banana, raisins & cinnamon, or berries with a cup of juice! It's simple, easy, and healthy!