Mom Photographer and The Gang

These days my family is in a stage of eating hot oatmeal for breakfast. On weekends we are more likely to have pancakes for breakfast but during the week we eat oatmeal.

Many times while I get busy with morning chores my oatmeal gets cold.

I don’t like cold oatmeal.

Many times when my daughter is not in the mood she won’t even touch her bowl. It doesn’t happen very often but when it does and I end up with two bowls of cold oatmeal.

So a few weeks ago I had an idea how to re-use that cold oatmeal and not to throw it away (because I really don’t like to throw out a perfectly good foods).

My recipe for oatmeal:

2 cups whole milk 

1 cup oatmeal (quick oats or old-fashioned, it works with both). 

3 tsp brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

Directions:

Mix everything together and cook on medium high until the oatmeal is cooked and thick. 

We eat it hot topped with sliced bananas, fresh blueberries or strawberries (or nothing 😉 )

As for the smoothie, so far I made four kinds based on this leftover oatmeal:

1. Strawberry-banana-oatmeal

2. Strawberry-oatmeal

3. Apple-banana-oatmeal

4. Orange-grapefruit-oatmeal

Here are the recipes:

1. Strawberry-banana

1 cup leftover oatmeal

1/4 cup plain yogurt

1 cup frozen strawberries

1/2 banana

1/8 tsp almond extract

2. Strawberry-oatmeal

1 1/2 cup leftover oatmeal

1 1/2 cup fresh strawberries

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp honey

3. Apple-banana-oatmeal

1 cup leftover oatmeal

1 banana

1 granny smith apple, with the peel

2 Tbsp flax seed meal

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

4. Orange-grapefruit-oatmeal

1 cup leftover oatmeal

1 small orange

1 small grapefruit

3 tsp honey

1 tsp vanilla extract

Personally I  really like grapefruits. I always have. Grapefruits are my mom’s favorite fruits and I grew up watching her eating them without any sugar or any other topping. She always would eat them like oranges. These days I do the same which always surprises my husband who is used to people eating grapefruits with a spoon and sprinkled with sugar (bleh… , btw)

I think I liked the last smoothie the best. It had really great and unique flavor. The thing is that to make that smoothie the “right way” requires a very good blender. Something like Blendtec, Ninja or Vitamix. With regular blender the smoothie won’t get the “smooth” consistency without strings of orange or grapefruits here and there, and that is the key when it comes to making smoothie with those fruits. The strings don’t taste good and they always destroy the good flavor and I think that’s why people don’t like to use them in smoothies (or use only juice). 

Have a great day, my friends