We've got lots of eggs again, but I wasn't vibing with any of the egg-y breakfast ideas I looked at. I think the cooler weather has put me in the mood for more starch-y, bread-y things. So I decided to take a look at one of the breakfast cookbooks PDFs we have kicking around to see if any of that looked appealing.

The first chapter focuses on granola and oatmeal. I don't really feel like granola is a meal in and of itself, so I just ignored those recipes for now. But oatmeal works as a hot breakfast on a cool morning. I don't find it really fills me up and sticks to my ribs the way everyone seems to claim it does, but it's still nice to have every once in a while. It's quick, easy, reasonably healthy (as long as you don't add too much sugar and junk to it), and I like trying out new flavour combinations.

I ended up opting for the coconut-date-cashew variant for this morning and it was quite good. I decided to top mine with a little plain Greek yogurt rather than milk or cream in the hopes that this swap would make it a little more filling without increasing the calorie count too much. I also used a little "no sugar added" syrup in place of the honey, but I do think honey would have been nicer.

I've included the recipe for the plain oatmeal here with the various flavours and variations below it.

Basic Oatmeal

Slightly adapted from The Breakfast Bible by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 3 1/2 c. water
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 2 c. rolled oats ("old-fashioned" or quick)
• ~1/3 c. milk, cream, or yogurt

Directions

1. Add the salt to the water and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
2. Add oatmeal, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook, uncovered, stirring frequently, until thickened (5-6 minutes for old-fashioned oats, 2-3 minutes for quick oats).
3. Serve. Top each portion with ~1 Tbsp. of cream (or milk or yogurt).
4. Enjoy as-is or with additional toppings.

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Variations

Vegan Version

Ingredients

• 3 1/2 c. water
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 2 c. rolled oats ("old-fashioned" or quick)
• ~1/3 c. oat, nut, or soy milk

Oatmeal with Brown Sugar, Bananas, and Fresh Figs

Ingredients

• 3 1/2 c. water
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 2 c. rolled oats ("old-fashioned" or quick)
• ~1/3 c. (non-dairy) milk, cream, or yogurt
• ~1/4 c. brown sugar
• 2-3 bananas, sliced
• 8-12 fresh figs, stemmed and quartered
• ~1/4 c. maple syrup¹ (optional)

Top each portion with ~1 Tbsp. of cream (or milk or yogurt), 1-3 tsp. of brown sugar, ~1/2 a banana, 2 figs, and 1-3 tsp. of maple syrup (if using).

Oatmeal with Coconut, Dates, Cashews, and Honey

Ingredients

• 3 1/2 c. water
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 2 c. rolled oats ("old-fashioned" or quick)
• ~1/3 c. (non-dairy) milk, cream, or yogurt
• ~1/3 c. cashews, toasted and chopped
• 8-12 dates, sliced
• ~1/4 c. unsweetened dried coconut
• ~1/4 c. honey

Top each portion with ~1 Tbsp. of cream (or similar), ~1 Tbsp. cashews, 2 dates, 2-3 tsp. of coconut, and 2-3 tsp. of honey.

Strawberry-Rhubarb "Slump"

Ingredients

• 2 stalks rhubarb, cut into 1-cm pieces
• 1 c. strawberries
• 1/3 c. sugar
• 1/4 c. water
• 3 1/2 c. water
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 2 c. rolled oats ("old-fashioned" or quick)
• ~1/3 c. (non-dairy) milk, cream, or yogurt

Directions

1. Combine the rhubarb, strawberries, sugar, and water and bring to a boil over medium heat.
2. Cook, stirring occasionally, until rhubarb is soft (~10 minutes). Set aside.
3. Cook oatmeal as directed above.
4. Top each portion with ~1 Tbsp. of cream (or similar) and a spoonful of the strawberry-rhubarb compote.

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¹ The original recipe claims to make 4 servings and calls for 1 Tbsp. of brown sugar and 1 Tbsp. of maple syrup per serving. Personally, I feel like the protion size is way too large if you only divide this batch of oatmeal into four. Six seems like a more reasonable division. But even if you then scale down the toppings proportionately, that would mean ~2 tsp. each of sugar and maple syrup per serving. And that seems like way too much sugar to me when you've already got the bananas and the figs in there since they're relatively sweet on their own. Personally, I think I'd probably just roll with the bananas, figs, and a touch of brown sugar and leave out the maple syrup. ^Back