Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice

Happy 2012!  I hope your holidays were blessed and filled with warm memories.  We spent lots of lovely time with our family, ate at some cosy restaurants; Pines of Rome, Founding Farmers, zpizza, Nando's Peri-Peri, cooked up a storm and conquered the gluten-free, egg-free cookie challenge.  

Now that we are back home with our sweet tooth heavily engaged from sampling all that delicious food, I have developed a killer breakfast to tide me over.
  

Organic Oatmeal with fresh strawberries and raspberry glaze

 

This is a bowl full of delicious goodness, healthy and low on sugar.  This is what I put into the oatmeal before I pop it into the microwave:

Oatmeal with 3 non-dairy delights

Starting out with 1/2 cup of whole grain oatmeal, not the quick-cook variety, I add 1/2 cup of unsweetened vanilla almond milk and 1/2 cup of oat milk.  Sometimes I change it up and substitute the oat milk with unsweetened coconut milk.  The oat milk has a definite oaten flavor and adds extra protein to your oatmeal.  The almond milk and the coconut milk have TWICE the calcium of cow's milk.  So 1 cup will get you 45% of your daily requirement.

I pop this mix into the microwave for 2 minutes and then let it sit so the grain can absorb the liquids.  While that is cooking, slice up 1/4 cup of fresh strawberries, then measure 1 Tablespoons of sugar-free raspberry preserves into a microwavable bowl.  If you want to sub frozen strawberries, add these into the bowl then top with raspberry preserves.  30 seconds or less in the microwave to melt the jam is all you need.

Top the oatmeal with the fruit then pour over the strawberries the hot jam.  Oh, this is sooo delicious!  If you are a chocolate lover, mix in some sugar-free chocolate chips into the oatmeal before you top with fruit and jam.

Nutrition panels beginning on left, unsweetened coconut milk, oat milk, unsweetened vanilla almond milk all for 8 oz. serving size

Total breakdown of this bowl of oatmeal:

• Protein total w/oat milk 6 grams; w/unsweetened coconut milk 5 grams
• Carbohydrate total w/oat milk 47 grams; w/unsweetened coconut milk 35 grams
• Sugar w/oat milk 9 grams; w/unsweetened coconut milk less than 1 gram
• Calories w/oat milk 250; w/unsweetened coconut milk 200

Which leaves me room to add 2 patties of turkey sausage for an additional 110 calories and 11 grams of protein for a grand total of 360 calories and 17 grams of protein.  I top this off with 2 cups of Awake tea and I can go for hours!  Sweet tooth satisfied, tummy full, bones fed, and diet on track...awesome way to start the day.