Oatmeal is a healthy food to eat for breakfast and snacks, but usually when the weather turns warm these nutritious, rolled oats literally get put on the back shelf. Here’s a great way to enjoy oatmeal even for those folks who don’t include hot cereal in their diet during the warm weather months…
Oatmeal has become a favorite food of the healthy heart crowd over the past several years, as research seems to indicate that eating a daily dose of soluble fiber – around 3 grams a day – while also following a diet low in saturated fat may reduce the risk of heart disease. The way I look at it is even if oatmeal doesn’t actively play a role in reducing the risk of heart diseases, it is a delicious and convenient food to eat for breakfast and/or a snack. There’s no doubt that people don’t bother with oatmeal once spring rolls around, and that’s too bad.
After you read this you won’t have any excuse to not include oatmeal on your menu all year-round. Get yourself a Tupperware large enough to hold about 2 servings of oatmeal and put one serving of dry, old-fashioned oats – not quick oats – into it. Add apple juice to a level at least where it totally covers the oatmeal. If you like your oatmeal on the softer side you can add more juice to the mix, and if you like it firmer use just enough juice to barely cover the oats. I like to add in raisins or grapes as well.
All you have to do from here is cover the Tupperware and place it into the refrigerator overnight, and the next morning you have delicious, ready-to-eat oatmeal. As a matter of fact, if you use the right amount of juice, this cold version of oatmeal is actually firmer than the hot version. Since juice was added to the mix, there’s no need to add any sugar, and you’ll be surprised at the job the juice does in sweetening the cereal, especially if raisins or grapes were added. Feel free to experiment with different flavors of juices and you can obviously throw other fruits in with the oats.
I’ve also added walnuts and cashews into the oatmeal the next day when I’m about ready to eat it. Give it a shot. One of the other benefits of this style of oatmeal is that since it’s in Tupperware, it’s good to go. Literally. If you don’t want to, or like to, eat as soon as you wake up and need to rush out the door, the oatmeal can travel with you. Eat a Clif Bar (at about a buck a piece, it’s a great bargain!) on the run and save the oatmeal until you can eat sitting down. If you’re a fan you owe it to yourself to try this recipe so you can keep healthy oatmeal a part of your diet regardless of the season.
Good idea to use and I will.
Thanks for sharing! Here’s a tip for people who really don’t like oats; use them to thicken soups, stews or even smoothies 🙂
I live in Miami and as everybody knows, we have warm weather all year round. I love oatmeal for breakfast but sometimes It is to hot to eat warm oatmeal and usually I don’t have the time to do it. I found a product in my grocery store that is absolutely delicious, it is an oatmeal drink called Avena Alpina Finesse and it comes in individual servings with only 70 calories!!! you can drink it cold or at room temperature, it not only taste very good but it also leaves my stomach full until lunch. i know they sell it in Miami but if anybody wants to to try it and can’t find it, i know they have an online store in http://www.alpinaus.com.