Creamy maple and cranberry oatmeal

Ingredients

3-1/2 cups fat-free or low-fat milk
2 cups Oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/3 cup maple Syrup, regular or light (optional)
1/4 cup toasted wheat germ


Preparation
In medium saucepan, bring milk to a gentle boil. (Watch carefully.) Stir in oats, cranberries and Maple Syrup. Return to a boil; reduce heat to medium. Cook 1 minute for quick oats, 5 minutes for old fashioned oats or until most of milk is absorbed, stirring occasionally. Let stand until desired consistency. Stir in wheat germ.

Spoon oatmeal into four cereal bowls. Drizzle with maple syrup, if this has been omitted from cooking. Serve with milk or yogurt, if desired.

Cook?s Notes
Freeze single servings of cooked oatmeal in small resealable freezer bags. Thaw in refrigerator overnight. Transfer to microwave-safe bowl. Microwave, covered, on DEFROST until hot, stirring once or twice.

Variations
MICROWAVE DIRECTIONS: In 3-quart microwaveable bowl, combine all ingredients except wheat germ. Microwave on HIGH 6 to 7 minutes for quick oats and 9 to 10 minutes for old fashioned oats or until most of liquid is absorbed. Let stand until desired consistency. Stir in wheat germ.




Nutrition Information
1/4 recipe

Serving Size: 1/4 recipe
Calories: 360 18%
Calories from Fat: 32
Total Fat: 3.5 5%
Saturated Fat: 0.5 4%
Trans Fat: 0
Cholesterol: 5 1%
Sodium: 130 5%
Total Carbohydrate: 71 24%
Dietary Fiber: 5 21%
Sugars: 33
Protein: 15 29%
Vitamin A: 446 8%
Vitamin C: 0 0%
Calcium: 290 30%
Iron: 2 15%
Dietary Exchange
starchbread:2
milk:1 nonfat
fruit:2

Click here to read or post comments

Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How? Simply click here to return to Healthy Breakfast Recipes.

Oatmeal and Banana Waffles

If you love breakfast or brunch, these Oatmeal and Banana Waffles will be perfect for you! Get out your waffle iron because this is a recipe you won't be able to wait to make.

Serves: 6
Preparation Time: 15 min
Cooking Time: 20 min
Ingredients
4 tablespoons margarine
1 cup old-fashioned oats (not instant)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon double-acting baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
grated nutmeg
3 tablespoons firmly packed brown sugar
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
2 large eggs
2 medium-size ripe bananas, thinly sliced crosswise
maple syrup or honey, for topping
Instructions
Preheat your waffle iron. Melt the butter; reserve.

In a large bowl, whisk together the oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices, and brown sugar.

In another bowl, beat together the buttermilk and eggs with the whisk until well blended.

Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and whisk until just combined. Mix in the banana slices and melted butter.

Lightly butter or spray the grids of your iron, if needed. Brush or spray the grids again only if subsequent waffles stick.

Spoon out a full 1/2 to 2/3 cup of batter (or a little more than the amount recommended by your waffler's manufacturer) onto the grids. This batter is thick and lumpy, so push and spread it to the edge of the grids with a metal spatula or wooden spoon. Close the lid and bake until golden and crisp. (It may need a little longer than other waffles because the batter is thick.)

Serve the waffles immediately or keep them, in a single layer, on a rack in the preheated oven while you make the rest of the batch. Stir the batter between waffles to redistribute the banana slices.
Serve with maple syrup, honey or melted butter, or with a raspberry puree, a strawberry butter (mix 3 tablespoons of softened butter with 2 tablespoons of strawberry preserves), or some whipped cream cheese sprinkled with chopped pecans.

Eatwell Website

Click here to post comments

Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How? Simply click here to return to Healthy Breakfast Recipes.

Healthy Home Made Grenola

Quick, simple and healthy, this versatile, homemade low-fat granola is more than just a breakfast cereal: add dried fruit for a portable snack, or combine with yogurt and berries for an amazing parfait.

Ingredients
5 cups (1.25 L) rolled oats
1 cup (250 mL) raw wheat germ
1/2 cup (125 mL) sunflower seeds
1 cup (250 mL) flaxseeds
1 tsp (5 mL) cinnamon
3/4 cup (175 mL) honey
1/4 cup (50 mL) coconut oil (or canola oil)
2 tsp (10 mL) vanilla
1/2 cup (125 mL) cold water
1 cup (250 mL) pitted dates, cut into small pieces
2 cups (500 mL) dried cranberries
1 cup (250 mL) raisins


Directions
Preheat oven to 300F and set the oven rack in the middle.

In a large mixing bowl, combine rolled oats, wheat germ, sunflower seeds, flaxseeds and cinnamon. In a smaller glass bowl, combine honey and coconut oil, then warm in microwave or on stovetop until liquid. Add vanilla and water. Add wet mixture to the dry, stirring until crumbly. Spread onto a 13-by-18-inch baking sheet.

Bake for 35 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes and rotating pan to compensate for any hot spots in the oven. Remove from oven and cool. Transfer to a large bowl, and add pitted dates, dried cranberries and raisins. Store granola in airtight containers and refrigerate for future use.

Best Health Magazine, Summer 2008, Reader's Digest;

Click here to post comments

Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How? Simply click here to return to Healthy Breakfast Recipes.

Oatmeal makes the best winter breakfast

Oatmeal or porridge is quick, delicious and good for the heart, rich in complex, energy-sustaining carbohydrates, low in fat and high in fiber, easy to prepare and low in cost.

Buy regular oatmeal and not oatmeal that is mixed with other ingredients, espeially sugar, which is not as good for you and costs a lot more.

You can flavour your oatmeal in different ways so you will not lose interest.

Apple Cinnamon: Add chopped apple or a few teaspoons of natural, unsweetened applesauce to oatmeal and cook. Sprinkle with cinnamon.

Maple & Brown Sugar: Use real maple syrup and avoid the cheaper sugar syrup or use brown sugar but go eacy on it and add a dash of cinnamon.

Fruit & Yogourt: Add strawberries, blueberries, peaches, or a teaspoon of sugar free fruit jam and greek yogourt.

Maple Walnut: Add 1 tbsp sugar-free pancake syrup and a few chopped walnuts.

Cinnamon Raisin: Try using a few dashes of cinnamon, a splash of sugar-free maple syrup and a teaspoon of raisins.


Multi-grain porridge can be made by mixing oat bran with oatmeal and other cereals.


Click here to post comments

Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How? Simply click here to return to Healthy Breakfast Recipes.

Perfect Oatmeal

by Sue
(New York)

A perfect way to start a day of healthy eating! And who would have thought that a bowl of oatmeal could provide over half of the daily value for those hard-to-find omega-3 fatty acids as well as 109% of the daily value for manganese. Enjoy!


Prep and Cook Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

* 2-1/4 cups water
* dash salt
* 1 cup regular rolled oats
* 1/2 tsp cinnamon
* 1/4 cup dried cranberries
* 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
* 1 TBS flaxseeds
* 1 TBS blackstrap molasses
* 1 cup milk or dairy-free milk alternative

Directions:

1. Combine the water and salt in a small saucepan and turn the heat to high.
2. When the water boils, turn the heat to low, add oatmeal, and cook, stirring, until the water is just absorbed, about 5 minutes. Add cinnamon, cranberries, walnuts, and flaxseeds. Stir, cover the pan, and turn off heat. Let set for 5 minutes. Serve with milk and molasses.

Serves 2

Printer Friendly Version of Perfect Oatmeal

In-Depth Nutritional Profile for Perfect Oatmeal

Healthy Food Tip

Can you please tell me how blackstrap molasses is made?

Molasses produced for human consumption in the United States is made from sugar cane. The two main tasks required to make molasses from sugar cane are to separate out the sugar cane juice from the pulp, and then to extract the sugar (mostly sucrose) from the juice. What's called molasses is the syrup that remains after the sugar has been extracted from the juice.

It's not that easy to extract all of the sucrose from sugar cane juice. After a first round of processing, which involves spinning the juice in a centrifuge and heating (boiling), you can get a lot of the sucrose out, but not all of it. The syrup that remains after this first round of processing is the light molasses you see in the grocery store. It's also called "first" molasses and has the mildest taste of any molasses. Another round of processing is needed to further extract more sucrose. (The removal of sucrose from the molasses syrup is not all that significant on the nutrition side of things, but it is important to the manufacturer on the economic side because the removed sucrose can be further processed and sold as table sugar). This second round of processing further concentrates the syrup and also darkens it, resulting in the dark molasses you find in most grocery stores. Dark molasses is also called second molasses.

A third round of processing is possible, and this is the round that results in the product known as blackstrap molasses. Blackstrap molasses is the thickest form of molasses, the darkest, and the densest in terms of minerals. Three rounds of heating are the reason for the very dark color of blackstrap molasses because even though many sugars have been removed from the syrup, the sugars that do remain get caramelized from three rounds of heating.

Sometimes you'll only find blackstrap molasses in natural foods stores. Because of the superior mineral content of blackstrap molasses, I prefer this version of the product. You'll find significant amounts of calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, potassium, and selenium in blackstrap molasses.

Click here to post comments

Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How? Simply click here to return to Healthy Breakfast Recipes.

Enjoy this page? Please pay it forward. Here's how...

Would you prefer to share this page with others by linking to it?

  1. Click on the HTML link code below.
  2. Copy and paste it, adding a note of your own, into your blog, a Web page, forums, a blog comment, your Facebook account, or anywhere that someone would find this page valuable.
Enjoy this page? Please pay it forward. Here's how...

Would you prefer to share this page with others by linking to it?

  1. Click on the HTML link code below.
  2. Copy and paste it, adding a note of your own, into your blog, a Web page, forums, a blog comment, your Facebook account, or anywhere that someone would find this page valuable.