Super Oats

I keep a log of my eating in the same journal that I use for recording my running.  It's part of keeping myself accountable, if I eat it it has to be be written down, and it's a way of tracking my intake and use of calories while I try to drop back down to my desired weight.  

I've just looked back at the journal and under the of heading for breakfast, which I designate each day with the simple letter "B", I have written the words Super Oats 42 times this year.  And I gotta tell you, I look forward to my morning bowl of oats!

Maybe it just has something to do wanting to do the right thing, which I think is a part of the personality of a runner, but mostly I just really think they taste awesome.  Win-win as the saying goes.  

Plus making them is a bit of a ritual.  First I get the steel cut oats going.  These take awhile to cook so I put them on first.  I have tried having steel cut exclusively but don't like it as well as making a 50/50 mixture with old fashioned rolled oats.  I use the insta-hot to get things boiling right away and make it very soupy so that I can add the rolled oats a few minutes later.  With everything in the Revereware pot, I turn off the heat, toss in a generous handful of raisins, give the boiling mass one last stir and then cover it with a lid and let it fester while I prepare the rest of the fixins.

Next I get blueberries out of the freezer.  Until last week I was using berries that grown in my garden last summer, but now I've resorted to the frozen types from the supermarket or Costco.  I put the berries into my special school bus yellow colored cereal bowl and then rinse them with warm water.  This not only washes away little pieces of stem and who knows what else, but thaws out the berries a little.  I drain the water and let the berries sit in the bottom of the bowl.  

Next I retrieve my other ingredients and wait a few minutes for the oats to be done.  Once I'm satisfied, or just can't wait any longer, I scoop them out onto the blueberries, which completes the thawing process, and also helps hold down the dreaded "purple milk syndrome" if they were left to float around on their own.  And yes, purple not blue.  Remember George Carlin?

I squeeze out about a tablespoon of honey, two tablespoons each of ground flax seed and wheat germ (my newest addition).   Then I use a spoon to give the contents a bit of a mound shape, working the oat mixture away from the edges and up toward the center to make way for the soy milk which I now carefully pour around the edges until it is about an inch from the top of the oats.  And viola!  Super oats.  

Not only good for you but also tasty and fun to make!