Getting Your Oats

Making the Pudla in my last post on New Year's Day morning seems to have ignited an enthusiasm for trying new breakfast ideas. I've been specifically looking for things to make with oats. We are watching our cholesterol and on a limited budget these days so oats are a great choice for us. However Matt's not that keen on standard porridge and we've done overnight oats to death so I needed to go in search of a little inspiration. The bottom two books in the pile are from the library whilst the top one Keep It Vegan by Aine Carlin has been languishing on my bookcase. This fab round up of recipes from it by Susan at Kittens Gone Lentil inspired me to revisit it again though.

First up was Wake-me up Porridge from The Chakra Kitchen. The foreword to the book is a bit new-agey for me with talk of using crystals but each to their own and the porridge was delicious and different. It's got chia seeds, ground ginger, maca, coconut, hemp seeds and cacao nibs. All the recipes in the books are vegan, gluten free and only use natural sweeteners. This had no sweetener but I added a little of my favourite Sweet Freedom to the toppings. We ate it quickly before dashing off for a hospital appointment and I forgot to take a picture so here's the picture from the book itself. The actual recipe is on-line here.

I've made two recipes from Keep It Vegan. This is Coconut, Date and Almond Granola just out of the oven. It uses maple syrup as a sweetner and only 1 teaspoon of oil. I was also impressed that it seemed to take less time than other granola recipes I've made in the past at around 30 minutes oven time.

It made a jar and a half (8-10 servings) and we'll eat this with fresh fruit and yoghurt. I've also made the Bircher Museli from this book but forgot to photograph that too! If you've not had bircher museli before it's basically oats soaked overnight in plant milk then in the morning you add grated apple, and other flavourings which in this case were raisins, chopped hazelnuts, Sweet Freedom, toasted sunflower and pumpkin seeds, toasted coconut and some coconut yoghurt.

I think my favourite of them all though is the Apple and Cinnamon Porridge Bake from the Deliciously Ella book. The oats were soaked in almond milk for 10 minutes then you add grated apple, chopped medjool dates, cinnamon, Sweet Freedom and some nut butter. She suggests almond butter but we only had peanut butter and it worked great. Once it's been baked for 10 minutes it's served with a blob of coconut yoghurt and some fresh blueberries. I used a small pot of the natural flavour Coconut Collaborative for the yoghurt and it did us for 4 servings as we had this both days at the weekend.

If you've got any favourite ways to eat oats for breakfast please leave a comment below, thanks!