Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Strawberry Flax Oatmeal

I am not in the regular habit of taking pictures of my meals, but I'd like to share this one.



I L-o-v-e my oatmeal, for breakfast and sometimes lunch and dinner. With this bowl I tried two new things.
I added one gigantor strawberry; I could not resist a beautiful container of them today at Whole Foods.

And.... some flax!

The authors of several of my favorite blogs put flax in their oatmeal on a regular basis. I never tried it before so I bought some today at Trader Joe's (yes, two groceries in one day). I have Bob's Red Mill Flaxseed Meal, and I'm storing it in my fridge as recommended.

I made my usual, with 1/2 cup quick steel-cut oats, a pinch of salt, lots of cinnamon, Splenda, and splashes of Vanilla soy milk. After cooking I added about 3/4 Tbs flax and a strawberry. As usual I had my granola on the side to add as I go (to keep it crunchy).

~

The flax: pretty yummy! I am most pleased by the nutrition benefits: rich in omega 3s and fiber. Also some studies have shown flax to benefit cholesterol; mine is genetically high so that would be good! More info, look here. I read later that it's best to introduce flax slowly to your diet, so in future I'll go with a teaspoon or less.

Strawberries in my oatmeal: not my favorite at first; I actually thought it boring compared to my preferred apples and cherries.
BUT that changed after the strawberries warmed in the steaming bowl for a while. The bowl was perfumed with rich humid strawberryness. Note to add them earlier next time.

4 comments:

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

I looove flax in oatmeal - looks delicious!! I'm not a fan of fresh strawberries in my oatmeal though - too "watery," in my opinion. I CANNOT have a bowl of oats without bananas and nut-butters though - those two ingredients MUST be present :0)

Sarah said...

Hi VeggieGirl!

You know, you are right about the 'watery' nature of strawberries. I added half a strawberry in this morning at the beginning of cooking and the oats were more watery; they did thicken by the end of cooking, and the strawberry flavor was nice!

I used to eat oatmeal with banana and peanut or almond butter, but I've lost my taste for it recently. I find it a little too filling, although it is tasty. I also used to add some yogurt for a bit of protein. I guess I've gone a bit more simple. I like adding granola in as I go for the crunch!

Anonymous said...

this is my all time favorite combination..

for some reason i dont experience the watery-ness though... weird!

flax is a proven cholesterol lower-er :) my dad had slightly elevated levels but didnt want to have to depend on medicine, so he started eating flax seed & fish oil and his levels dropped dramatically!

Wendy said...

I made almost the exact same breakfast a few days ago, needing to use up the flaxseed meal in my fridge. I loved it. Have you tried cooking your steel-cut oats in a 1/2 water 1/2 apple juice combo? I do this quite a bit, and then I throw in a handful of dried cranberries about halfway through, and they puff up and the whole thing tastes suspiciously like candy.

Glad to have found your blog!