As we have all heard, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. And for a college student, it’s often very difficult to eat a good breakfast before heading off to our first class.
A beneficial breakfast option I always try to go for is oatmeal. I know it doesn’t sound too appetizing, but I promise it’s good, if you give it a try. By all means, I am not a dietitian, but I highly recommend students try to eat oatmeal for breakfast instead of the easier option of a granola bar.
Why is breakfast important?
It’s commonly known that breakfast is what fuels your body to start your day and get things done. In addition, it’s what keeps you focused, which is key for those 8 o’clock morning classes. In addition, studies have found that eating breakfast leads to good health, better memory and concentration, and lower chances of getting diabetes, heart disease, and being overweight.
In all, not eating the morning meal can throw off balance with your daily tasks. Keep that in mind the next time you’re about to walk out the door.
My personal opinion, education and being punctual is important, but our body and mental health is more important and it should be put first.
Why should I go with oatmeal?
Oatmeal has many wonders to it that benefit our bodies and minds. Oats are incredibly nutritious and are a great source of fiber and carbs. Furthermore, this means that this one meal can control many nutrition levels in your body at once. When being active, one of the main things people tend to worry about is their carb intake. Despite this meal not having the lowest amount of carbs, it makes up for it because oatmeal keeps you full for a long period of time; therefore less snacking. Oatmeal has something called beta-glucan, and this is what increases your feeling of fullness.
There are so many different ways you can switch up an oatmeal with one simple “base” recipe. What I mean by base is that it’s a basic recipe that any fruit and toppings could go with. Obviously, not every single fruit, but a wide variety. For instance, a basic maple brown sugar oatmeal recipe can go great with apples, blueberries, bananas, cranberries and raisins, and it’s even great on its own!
This small change in your breakfast choice can ultimately lead you a step closer to a healthier lifestyle.
Personally, I love it!
Oatmeal is personally one of my favorite breakfast meals. I make a bowl for everyone in my family all the time and we all love that it keeps us full for so long.
Did you know that you could even have it cold? It’s called overnight oats and it could be any recipe, but instead of putting it over the stove, put it in a container in the fridge overnight. It’s so good both ways and gives even more options. Plus, the overnight oats are easier for the mornings to grab and go.
The recipe I’m sharing with you is the one I use all the time, and I’ve been using it for years. It’s simple yet has many flavored components that’s delicious all together. I composed this recipe years ago and I grabbed certain ingredients from different recipes and combined them together. Many recipes out there had too many ingredients and it was more complex than it had to be; therefore I was inspired by simplicity with this recipe.
I hope you try and enjoy this dish!
The Recipe
Prep time: 5-8 minutes Cook time: 5 minutes Yield: one serving
Ingredients
For the oatmeal
- ½ cup of rolled quick minutes oats
- ½ cup of almond milk (or any milk of your choice)
- ½ tsp. of cinnamon
- ½ tsp. of vanilla extract
- 1 tsp. of honey
- ½ tbsp. almond butter
- ¼ cup of blueberries (or to your liking)
For the toppings
- chopped walnuts
- sliced almonds
- honey
The Procedure
- Add all the ingredients, except the blueberries, into a sauce pan. Stir all the ingredients well.
- Place the sauce pan over medium-low heat. Cook oatmeal until it begins to boil, stirring occasionally. If you don’t stir, the oatmeal will stick to the pan.
- The oatmeal is supposed to have a semi-thick consistency when removed from the heat. However, some people prefer a more runny consistency, therefore, you could add more milk of choice and let that heat up with the rest of the oatmeal for an additional minute.
- Once oatmeal is to the consistency of your liking, add in the blueberries.
- Put oatmeal into a bowl and add chopped walnuts and sliced almonds, to your liking, on top.
- Finally, drizzle some honey over the layer of nuts and enjoy!
Recipe notes
- If you are not a fan of honey, there are many options to replace that with. Some include maple syrup, simple syrup, and brown sugar.
- This oatmeal recipe goes with so many other fruits. Some that I’ve tried and enjoyed include apples, cranberries, and strawberries.
- If you are allergic to nuts and can’t add the toppings nor the almond butter to their oatmeal, there are different toppings you could try instead: granola, cocoa nibs, and seeds. In addition, to replace almond butter, you could try sunflower seed butter, however, I think most of the flavor comes from the almond butter. But, it does taste just as great without it.
- I highly recommend regular almond milk when it comes to choosing a milk to incorporate. I’ve tried oat milk, whole milk, 1% milk, and even unsweetened almond milk, but the most flavorful one was the regular almond milk.
Sources
- Palsdottir, H. (2016). 9 Health Benefits of Eating Oats and Oatmeal. Healthline. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/9-benefits-oats-oatmeal
- Hill, L. (2021). Breakfast: Is It the Most Important Meal?. WebMD. https://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/breakfast-lose-weight