Thursday, January 16, 2014

How Do You Porridge?

Porridge - what do you think of when you hear that word?  For me it means any hot, cooked grain cereal that one would eat - probably for breakfast.  Tho. I think porridge can be farina, cream of wheat, grits, oatmeal, etc...

My favorite porridge is oatmeal and I make something of a science of preparing myself a healthy and filling bowl of the stuff.  Here's what I do:

1.  Start with some healthy old fashioned rolled oats.  I prefer not to use the little packages of oats and not to use quick cooking oats and not to use flavored or pre-sweetened oats.  In the USA, I try to eat as much organic food as possible since giant chemical lobbies like the evil Monsanto company are allowed to put all kinds of crap in our food AND not even label it as such.  So, I use these organic oats:



2.  Measure out the amount of oats you wish to use.  In the USA our measurements are in volume rather than weight.  Just use any small cup, it doesn't even have to be a measurement cup and dump it in the pot.  Typically I use about 1/3 cup of oats, today I used 1/2 cup of oats since I just came back from a 5K run and didn't have breakfast before I went, I'm now really hungry!

3.  Using the same cup you used to measure the oats, fill it twice with water and add that to the oats in your pot.

4.  Cook the oats on medium heat until they are no longer watery or shiny.



5.  While the oats are cooking prepare the extras.  I love all the extras in my oatmeal.  I typically use whatever I have on hand.  Today it was 1/2 a banana.  I cut it up and put it in the bowl before the oatmeal.



6.  Then the berries (warning - in the USA use organic berries ONLY - non-organic berries are loaded with pesticides) which today were raspberries (my favorite berry) and strawberries.  I like to put half the berries under the oatmeal and the other half on top.



7.  When the oats finish their cooking, I dump them atop the bananas and berries.



8.  Then I put little clumps of Earth Balance (aka my butter) in the oatmeal.



9.  I chopped a few dates and added them.




10.  The rest of the berries were added to the top.



11.  The whole thing was finished with raw sliced almond and pecans.


Note:  I love a bit of brown sugar sprinkled on my oatmeal but since Jan 1 I am making a healthy attempt not to eat sugar or any added sweetener and also no white flour.

Ta dah!  This is one big, giant bowl of oatmeal!

AND... I managed to eat the whole thing.  Hopefully that will keep me full for a while.



Here are some more ideas for items to add to your oatmeal or porridge:

Raisins (aka sultanas), apples, walnuts, coconut, maple syrup, craisins, blueberries, blackberries, jam

How do you porridge?

5 comments:

Amy at love made my home said...

My husband likes pecans or walnuts and maple syrup on his porridge! I am new to your blog, I look forward to following you along and reading more! xx

Anonymous said...

I prefer to cook my porridge with milk rather than water. I cook it til it's really thick and then I can add a little more milk to cool it down without making it runny.
I usually add chopped dried dates to the oats and cook them out, enough sweetness in them, often don't need extra sweetener. If I do it's usually local raw honey.
We add LSA, coconut oil and chia seeds once it's cooked too.
My 5yo loves his porridge in winter (the 4yo doesn't) and this fills him up ready for school as well as giving him lots of omega 3's to get his brain working.
It's far too hot here (in Australia) for porrdige atm though.

Sher said...

Becci - how interesting, it never occurred to me to cook the oats with milk, however I ALWAYS cook grits with milk.

Amjaylou said...

That looks so healthy and nutritious. We always have Scott's Poradge oats (no that's not a mis-spelling!)- the traditional Scottish oats. I always have mine with a drizzle of good quality honey, a sprinkle of cinnamon and chopped banana.Oh and definitely made with milk! It's so nice to have on these cold winter mornings.
I just watched a documentary on Netflix called Food Inc, it's all about Monsanto and the fast food industry and how they are using high fructose corn syrup in a lot of their foods. It's poisonous to the body, and yet the U.S Govt aren't doing a thing about it. It also goes in depth on how the cattle and poultry there are treated. Not very pleasant to witness - I tell you NO more McD's for us!
We have thrown away a lot of things from the fridge and cupboards as a result.
Another very interesting must-see is a documentary on Youtube called 'Sugar: the bitter truth.' You should really watch this Sher especially if you are trying to cut down on your sugar intake. Many of us are becoming sick because of our addiction to sugar - now it's a global problem. Obviously the food corporations don't want us to know about it, and 'hide' sugar even in what we think are healthy foods. It certainly does pay to read the labels!

Sher said...

Yes Amanda - I am familiar with Food Inc. Monsanto is completely evil and will soon dominate the world with their evil - they own a good part of us already - the EU has been much better about withstanding them than the US where we have bowed to them time and time again - it's disgraceful and horrifying. Here is a very long youtube video about them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VEZYQF9WlE.
Sher

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