Oats of the Week: Coconut Milk & Mango

The Mix: fresh mango, coconut milk, toasted coconut, and chopped walnuts

The Story: I stocked up on sweet and deliciously un-local Ataulfo mangos from Mexico at the Trader Joe's last week. Laurel and I are eating them every which way. We snack on slices right off the cutting board in the afternoon.

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Oats of the Week: Salted Honey & Toasted Coconut

The Mix: old-fashioned oats, toasted coconut, honey, and sea salt 

The Story: My husband, John, spoils me by waking up early on weekends to start a pot of steel-cut oats.

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Oats of the Week: Heat Wave Special - Apples & Strawberries

The Mix: fresh strawberries, chopped apples, walnuts, and ground flax seeds

The Story: It felt like summer for two days this week. In the 90-degree temps, our winter oats mix seemed dowdy. The season's first fresh strawberries (from California) made our oats more palatable in the balmy weather.

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Oats of the Week: Apples, Walnuts, and Balsamic Vinegar

The Mix: steel-cut oats with granny smith apples, raw walnuts, cinnamon, nutmeg, and balsamic vinegar 

The Story: Let other folks have their matzo balls and macaroons. The Passover dish I look forward to most is haroset. My family’s version is elemental: coarsely chopped granny smith apples, raw walnuts, freshly grated cinnamon, and nutmeg. A generous pour of Manischewitz dies the mixture a muted purple-brown color. It’s ugly and inexplicably delicious.

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Oats of the Week: Ancient Grains

The Mix: Bluebird Grain Farms Old World Cereal Blend with sliced almonds, sesame seeds, raisins, and honey

The Story: The return of winter this weekend (it is currently sleeting), made me extra thankful for Melissa’s hot cereal delivery. She sent a pound of whole grains that she’d ordered from her San Francisco CSA. The mix of ground rye, farro, and flax is tastier and more nutrient dense than my standard steel-cut oats. Its nutty flavor marries well with one of my favorite morning power combinations, raisins and honey. At first glance, I thought this rustic mix would need an hour to plump up, but as the directions promised, the grains cooked in about half the time as oats. 

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Oats of the Week: The Instant Oatmeal Makeover

The Mix: two packets of plain instant oatmeal, flaxseeds, chia seeds, roasted almonds, and low-fat milk.

The Story: Instant oats taste like paste. The fact that I eat them a few times a week should tell you something about my culinary skills. Reading Bec's mouthwatering Oats of the Week posts gave me the idea that a few crunchy mix-ins could improve the texture of my instant oats and add more taste and nutrients.

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Oats of the Week: Yogurt & Fresh Fruit

The Mix: Steel-cut oats topped with yogurt and plums.

The Story: A big scoop of low-fat Greek yogurt and chopped fresh fruit is a refreshing change from my winter combination, nuts and dried fruit. The yogurt makes the oats taste creamy and rich, but adds more protein than milk. 

The Workout: I rode my mountain bike up the Shawangunk Ridge to the Mohonk Mountain House's skating pavilion (40 minutes), transitioned from bike gear to skating gear and hit the ice for an hour. I warmed up with hot chocolate by the rink-side fire, and then raced down the ridge in 20 minutes.

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Oats of the Week: Banana, Toasted Coconut & Pistachio

The Story: Coconut entices my kids, who often don’t stop moving long enough to take more than three bites, to clean their plates. I once marginalized coconut as a nice complement to chocolate. But given how my kids adore it, coconut recently won prime counter real estate beside staples like salt, butter, and cinnamon.

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