Hi!
Courtney here. This is my first blog post for New England Nutrition Advisors! Exciting stuff. I wanted to write about this tasty oatmeal I made the other day. I still have some (a billion) apples left from apple picking earlier this fall, and wanted something warm in the morning for breakfast.
Backstory: Like Carly, I have a bit of a commute to work in the morning, so I am not usually hungry for breakfast at 5:00 when I am leaving. Instead, I pack my breakfast, which normally consists of Greek yogurt, fruit and a sprinkling of granola. Now that it has been getting chilly out, I wanted something warm in my belly. I found this recipe on theyummylife.com: Overnight Crockpot Apple Cinnamon Steel Cut Oats. Mmmmm!!
It is a quick, easy recipe that took me like 7 minutes to prepare and stick in this adorable crockpot I found. I’ll caution you though; for those using adorable little crockpots, this stuff expands like nobody’s business, so don’t add more oats than the recipe says. I’ve also made this in a regular sized crockpot, which was less risky in terms of making a mess. The most time-consuming part is peeling and cutting the apples. For everything else, you just toss it in the crockpot, give it a stir, turn on the crockpot and call it a night. Make sure you grease the bottom and sides though, or you’ll be kicking yourself the next day.
Why steel cut oats you ask? Great question! Here’s a little trick, the longer oats take to cook, the longer they take to digest. For example, instant oats have been flattened and shredded by machines so that they’re practically flour and therefore just require hot water/milk to eat. This means that they turn to sugar almost immediately in our bloodstream, and leave us with low blood sugar, making us feel ravenous by 9am. What happens when we’re hungry by 9am? Not good things, probably, right? Think: snack drawers, pastries in the break room, vending machines, etc. Old Fashioned Oats are somewhere in between instant and steel cut: convenient, but still fairly sustaining. Steel cut oats are closest to how they come from nature. They’re less processed and more hearty, keeping us full for longer during the day, especially when we add a few pecans or walnuts.
I am always asked for easy, healthy breakfast ideas, so here’s one! We will be posting more in the Recipe Box as time goes on. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this belly-warming, satisfying oatmeal.
— Courtney
3. Siggi’s Yogurt: My favorite yogurt for so many reasons. One being it has far less sugar than other yogurt options (9-10 g per serving compared to 20+g). That being said it also has a lot less crap (for lack of a better word) that other low-calorie yogurt tends to have. The yogurts come in low-fat and whole-milk options as well as drinkable versions. I love pairing a vanilla 1% yogurt with 2 tbsp of granola and some frozen blueberries.
8. Brown Rice: This is another pantry essential of mine. On days when I get home late and don’t feel like putting together anything special for dinner this is an easy side to a piece of grilled chicken or fish and veggies. Choose brown rice over white rice – it’s a source of whole grains and provides more fiber than its white counterpart.
