Most of you know that I try my best to eat healthy, well minus the times that I can't fight off my chocolate cravings. Lately, I've been trying so hard to reduce the amount of sugar that I eat on a regular basis. Well for breakfast I've found quite a few low fat meals that I enjoy. Oatmeal is one of those healthy meals that is touted for it's cholesterol lowering properties. I prefer to grab the quickest option, which is the packaged Maple and Brown Sugar or other flavored oatmeals. I'm trying to reduce my sugar intake, so I've been trying to cook plain oatmeal and then sweeten naturally. I'm not going to lie, I've tried adding walnuts and strawberries in the past, it just didn't do the trick for me. I grew up on regular oatmeal topped with butter and sugar, and I'm trying to turn over some new leaves. LOL! After much trial and error and researching healthy oatmeal recipes, I combined a few and concocted one that satisfied my taste buds. Here's how I made this delicious oatmeal:
1. Boil 1 cup of water.
2. Add 1/2 cup of oats to boiling water and stir it in.
3. Reduce heat, stir, and cook for 1 minute.
4. Remove from heat and place oatmeal in a bowl.
5. Add 1/4 cup of frozen blueberries.
6. Add approximately 10-15 raisins.
7. Measure and add 2 tablespoons of ground flax seed ( We all need some Omega 3's).
8. Stir and let mixture sit for 1 minute so that the flavors can mesh with the cooked oats.
Yields: 1/2 cup of cooked oatmeal.
1/2 cup of cooked oats- 73 calories
1/4 cup of frozen blueberries- 20 calories
1/4 of a box of mini raisins- 11 calories
2 tablespoons of organic finely ground flaxseed -80 calories
quick sprinkle of cinnamon, approximately 1/4 of a teaspoon- 2 calories
Total calories- 186 calories
Eat and Enjoy! OMG, this is perfect natural sweetness! I love this oatmeal! To get the full benefits, I may need to increase my intake from 1/2 cup to 1 cup or 1 1/2 cups. The article linked above suggested even adding oats to other foods. I'm going to give it a try.
By the way, in case you're wondering how I count my calories, I use this app called "Fat Secret". It allows me to scan foods, and log them in for each meal. It gives me the total calories, and attempts to help me stay within the daily caloric intake that it calculated for me using my weight, goal weight, and activity level.
How do you flavor your oatmeal?
Check out these articles and resources:
How Oatmeal Can Lower Cholesterol via Jillian Michaels
Count Calories, Get Recipes, Graph your weight using Fat Secret App
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