Tag Archives: oatmeal

Cool Breakfast in a Jar

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Several years ago, when I was visiting an out-of-town friend, she served oatmeal in a very interesting way. She told me we were eating breakfast Portland-style. That’s where she had chilled oatmeal for the first time.

She called it Swiss Muesli, which I think of as a wholesome and hearty granola-type cereal. This was different. The night before serving she had mixed uncooked old fashioned oats with skim milk, brown sugar, dried fruit (she used dried blueberries and cranberries), low-fat vanilla yogurt, salt and chopped pecans. She covered the mixture and chilled it overnight. At serving time, she scooped the mixture into cereal bowls. No cooking and no heating involved. It was very good, and what a convenient way to serve a nutritious breakfast to overnight guests.

I’ve taken my friend’s breakfast idea a step or two further by making it with dairy-free milk and yogurt and portioning the mixture into wide-mouth jars for individual servings. This makes it an easy grab-and-go breakfast and a very convenient way to serve a house full of summer weekend guests or a husband who heads to the golf course very very early on weekend mornings.

This time of year, fresh berries are a must in this thick breakfast soup. I packed chopped fresh strawberries on top of the oatmeal mixture. You can stuff chunks of toasted pecans just under the lid of each jar. If my cool breakfast in jars will be eaten at home, I leave the crunchy nuts out of the jars and offer them in a bowl at serving time for each person to add as they wish.

A pint-size wide-mouth jar is just the right capacity to hold a serving of chilled oatmeal along with plenty of berries and nuts, but any wide-mouth jar will do the trick.

Children will enjoy eating their breakfast from a jar. In fact, everyone will find it fun to eat breakfast from a jar.

I served chilled oatmeal last week with Strawberry-Rhubarb Scones that I posted not long ago. It was a great taste and texture combination.

If you like the idea of the ease and convenience of preparing and serving meals in a jar, check out the Cool Veggie Bliss In A Jar that I have in my column this week. It’s a great lunch.

Now all you need to do is make room for all of these jars in your refrigerator.

Chilled Oatmeal In A Jar

  • 2 1/4 cups uncooked old-fashioned rolled oats
  • 2 1/4 cups plain almond milk or flax milk
  • 1 1/2 cups Greek-style dairy-free vanilla-flavored yogurt
  • 3 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • Fresh berries (strawberries (chopped), raspberries, blueberries)
  • Toasted pecans, broken

In a large mixing bowl, blend oats with milk, yogurt, brown sugar and salt. Spoon the mixture into wide-mouth jars. Scoop berries on top of the oat mixture. Top with nuts. Seal jars and refrigerate overnight. Makes about 6 servings.

Tips from the cook

  • Skim milk and low-fat vanilla yogurt can be used for the dairy-rich version of this recipe.
  • The original recipe I got from my friend calls for 3 tablespoons dried fruit and 3 tablespoon chopped nuts to be stirred into the mixture in a large bowl before overnight refrigeration.
  • I used Greek-style SO Delicious dairy-free cultured coconut milk vanilla yogurt.

No baking required for these quick and easy Oatmeal-Peanut Butter Pop Hearts

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My husband isn’t much for breakfast. At least, not if he has to sit down to eat it in the morning before heading out the door. But, if I make breakfast bars, wrap them up individually and have them right up front on an eye-level shelf in the refrigerator ready to grab, he’ll take one to eat in the car on his way into town and sometimes a second one goes into his briefcase for a mid-afternoon snack. I try to keep him supplied with Oatmeal-Peanut Bars. They’re quite nutritious and a good source of energy.

This weekend his morning energy bars will take on a new look.

I used heart-shaped cookie cutters to create chocolate-coated Oatmeal-Peanut Butter Pop Hearts for my special guy. I recommend chilling the hearts before coating them with melted chocolate. The chocolate will quickly set and the hearts will hold their shape.

I covered a couple of the Pop Hearts in dark chocolate. I will eat those. My partner hasn’t developed a liking for the rich, dark stuff. His Pop Hearts were dipped in milk chocolate. Melted Hershey bars.

While the Hershey bars were out on the counter, I made a dangerous discovery. Oatmeal-Peanut Butter mixture sandwiched between two halves of a chocolate bar turn into a devilishly good sweet treat.

You’ve still got time to make some no-bake Oatmeal-Peanut Butter Pop Hearts for Valentine Sunday to surprise all the special people in your life.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Oatmeal-Peanut Butter Pop Hearts

  • 2 1/2 cups old-fashioned or quick oats, divided
  • 3 tablespoons flax seeds, ground
  • 1 cup cornflakes or Special K, crushed
  • 1 cup creamy or crunchy peanut butter
  • 1/2 cup agave syrup or honey

Dump 1 1/2 cups oats into a blender. Whirl until oats become the texture of flour. Transfer oat flour to a large mixing bowl. Add remaining cup of oats, ground flax seeds, crushed cereal flakes, peanut butter and agave or honey. Blend will with a wooden spoon. The mixture will be heavy and thick.

Line a 9-inch square baking dish with waxed paper, allowing enough to come up over the sides of the dish. Press the oatmeal-peanut butter mixture evenly into the lined dish. Cover with foil and refrigerate for at least an hour.

Remove from refrigerator. Use the waxed paper to pull the chilled mixture from the dish. At this point, the bars can be cut into bars, or use a cookie cutter to create shapes.

To make pops, push a bamboo skewer or a lollipop stick into each shape. Set Pops on a waxed paper-llined baking sheet. Place in freezer for 30 minutes. Spoon melted chocolate over each. Chill until the chocolate is set. Transfer to a container and seal. Keep refrigerated.

  • Dried fruit and finely chopped nuts can be added to the mixture.
  • I’ve been using earth balance natural crunchy peanut butter with flaxseed. Sweetened just slightly with agave syrup, the flaxseeds lend Omega 3′s and slight flavor without being overpowering and the natural peanut butter doesn’t have to be stirred. I like it a lot.
  • I have a coffee grinder that I use only for grinding spices and flax seeds.

We’ll All Scream for Crunchy Ice Cream Sandwiches

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Start with oatmeal cookies (the homemade variety, of course), add ice cream, make sandwiches, then sit back and watch the enjoyment as happy people eat them.

Kids love ice cream sandwiches, and adults feel like kids as they eat them.

Raisins are always a great addition to oatmeal cookies, but when they are frozen, they can get hard and difficult to chew. It seems the perfect way to get their sweet flavor in an ice cream sandwich is to puree them before incorporating them into the dough.

I discovered, too, that giving raisins the puree treatment fools those who dont’ care for those little dried grapes. My husband is a good example. He won’t eat anything that involves raisins. I offered him one of these cookies, still warm from the oven. After he ate about three of them, he asked, "What is that flavor that I can’t quite pinpoint? Dates?" (He likes dates — hates raisins). I thought it safe to share the secret with him. How could he say he didn’t like them after already wolfing down three with great gusto? He gave me a sheepish little grin and grabbed another cookie.

The sandwiches keep well in the freezer, of course. I don’t know for sure how many days, though. The sandwiches I made disappeared from the freezer in no time.

Your family and friends will scream out loud for these frozen treats.

Crunchy Ice Cream Sandwiches

  • 1/2 cup raisins
  • 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
  • 1/2 cup light brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 3/4 cup wheat germ, plain
  • 1/2 cup quick or old-fashioned oats
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • Vanilla ice cream

Place raisins and 2 tablespoons of the sugar in a blender or food processor. Whirl, stop and go fashion, until pureed.

Beat 1/2 cup butter with remaining 2 tablespoons sugar and brown sugar. Beat in eggs, vanilla and raisins. Add wheat germ, oats, flour, salt and cinnamon. Blend well. Chill dough about 1/2 hour.

From dough into 24 balls. Place 4 inches apart on lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheets. Flatten to 3-inch rounds with bottom of moistened glass dipped in some sugar. Bake in preheated 350-degree oven for 10 to 12 minutes, or until done. Remove from baking sheets and cool on wire racks.

Place generous scoop of ice cream on bottom side of 12 cookies. Top with remaining cookies. Press together, sandwich fashion. Place on tray. Freeze until firm. Wrap each separately and store in freezer. Makes 12 sandwiches.

If you’d like, make some chocolate glaze and dip each frozen sandwich halfway into the glaze. Return to freezer to set chocolate.

Chocolate Glaze

  • 1 (6-ounce) package semisweet chocolate morsels
  • 6 tablespoons butter

Combine chocolate pieces and butter in small saucepan. Stir over medium heat until melted and blended.