It's February 1st.
It's the beginning of Black History Month (USA).
It's Hula in the Cool-a Day.
It's Clark Gable's birthday.
It's the first day of Spring in Ireland, Imbolic Day.
It's the day to celebrate San Cecilio, the patron of Granada, in Spain.
It's also a Feast Day for many other Catholic saints; but with over 10,000 of them, that actually happens everyday.
The weather is beautiful.
Most importantly (not really), it's the first day of Challenge 1: No Artificial Ingredients. I'm actually really excited. I figured I'd start by posting what I'm eating. I grabbed a banana before the gym, but that's entirely uninteresting.
For an early lunch post gym and pre-errands I stole a recipe from Mipa.
Pumpkin oats. I have left over pumpkin puree in my freezer (canned, but only one ingredient) and I've been craving good oatmeal. I've never been someone who likes fruit, nuts, or really anything but sugar, sugar and more sugar (okay, maybe a little salt) in their hot cereal. That really started to change while we were in Korea. Our selection had a lot to do with it, but I also started reading a lot of food blogs. I got braver. Significantly so.
This bowl of cold weather sustenance is super easy to accomplish:
1/2 cup dry oats (steel cut or rolled)
3/4 cup water
salt to taste
3-4 tbsp pumpkin puree
~1 tbsp natural brown sugar (or other natural sweetener)
cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, etc. to taste
1/4 cup organic soymilk
2 tbsp raisins
Cook the oats on the stovetop to your desired texture. I like mine pretty dry. When they're almost there, add pumpkin puree and sugar. Finish cooking and pour into a bowl. Top with soymilk, raisins and spices. Mix until frothy and consume readily.
If you have a microwave, I might recommend you warm the soymilk before adding it. I don't have one, but I didn't want to cook the milk in, so it cooled down my oats a little too much.
This sounds awesome! I love the pumpkin spread you gave me. I've been eating it slowly so it will last! :)
ReplyDeletethat looks really yummy. Not related really, but I found out more information on Agave, I thought it was more healthy than sugar, but not true. It is like 80% fructose, the unhealthiest component of sugar. Our body metabolizes it differently. It goes straight to the liver, which is why it is low glycemic, and really taxes it. It also has been linked to type 2 diabetes, heart disease and more. My take on all this is eat as little sweetener as possible, but when you do just eat organic sucutant sugar or pure maple syrup. I am trying a sap from the coconut tree. It is super sweet , you don't need much.
ReplyDeleteyum! this looks wonderful I love oatmeal with a twist and pumpkin sounds delightful! I'm hoping when we head to Seoul in 2 weeks and hit up the foreign foods stores we are gonna find some oatmeal, neither of us thought we miss it so much.
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