Banana Walnut Oatmeal

I start five out of seven days of the week (on average) with a bowl of Vegan Overnight Oats, which I initially discovered on Oh She Glows. As much as I love this breakfast, I like to change it up sometimes too, particularly on the weekend. I came across this Banana Pecan Oatmeal Brulee recipe on Pinch my Salt a couple days ago, and thought it would be the perfect recipe to try this weekend. I made some slight changes to the recipe based on what I had on hand.

Banana Walnut Oatmeal adapted from Pinch my Salt


1/2 cup quick oats
1/2 cup Bob's Red Mill 7 Grain Hot Cereal
2 cups water
1/4 cup soy milk
1 tbsp ground flax seed
1 banana
Sucanat or brown sugar
walnut pieces

1. Put quick oats, hot cereal and water in a microwave/oven safe dish and heat on high for 3-4 minutes*, until desired consistency is reached.
2. Mix in ground flax seed and soy milk.
3. Slice banana and place on top of oatmeal. Sprinkle with sucanat or brown sugar.
4. Place under preheated broiler for 5ish minutes to melt sugar.
5. Sprinkle with walnuts.

* Alternatively you can make an equivalent quantity of any kind of oats/hot cereal on the stove stop, such as steel cut or scottish oats.

This was a nice treat yesterday morning, being so rainy outside. I liked the combination of the oats with the 7 grain cereal, something I have not done before. Even the leftovers were good this morning, when instead of rain, I awoke to snow... Not really jelling with my spring fever.

I came across an interesting article the other day as well, so I would like to share it with you.

It may be scary for some who have been told their whole lives that "fat is bad!", but it is becoming increasingly evident that saturated fat is not the problem with our diets. I was first introduced to the saturated fat myth by Michael Pollan when I read his book In Defense of Food. This article was brought to my attention on twitter and I think it is a good read, especially if this is news to you:

http://civileats.com/2011/03/04/a-big-fat-debate/

This doesn't mean go out and start deep frying all your foods. What it means is that be weary of 'low fat' convenience foods. What is taking the place of the fat? Most likely sugar, which we are now learning is our immortal enemy. I think the worst culprit I have seen for this type of advertising is any Special K product. While the fat debate will mostly go on far past our lifetime, there is one thing we can be sure of: there is no debate on trans fat, it is most definitely very bad for us.