Sunday, December 16

Breakfast: The MOST important meal.

So, to make up for the coma inducing marshmallows I posted last week, I thought I would post about my new favorite breakfast: Pumpkin Oatmeal.

I first heard about pumpking oatmeal on the Weight Watchers Core board. It always sounded really interesting, but sadly, involved a can of pumpkin, which I cannot get here in Norway. That is one of the most challenging things about being away from Texas. No Kroger. No Piggly Wiggly. No Whole Foods. No canned pumpkin. I have seen canned pumpkin on occaision, but I just can't bring myself to pay over 6 dollars for a can of it. I don't care if it is Libby's. This past Thanksgiving, one of my culinary triumphs was a homemade pumpkin pie from scratch. In looking for a recipe, I learned that the kind of pumpkin you choose is very important. There are pie pumpkins, and these are NOT the ones you carve up at halloween. So, as usual, I bundled up and went on a search. Here, pumpkin is called 'gresskar' and it has a beige outerskin and it's brilliant orange on the inside. I quickly found it, and luckily they cut it for you and sell it by the kilo, so you don't have to buy a whole pumpkin. They had some at my local Turkish store on the corner, big chunks wrapped in saranwrap, vivid orange:



Good enough, I thought, and I bought it. Thus began my love affair with pumpkin oatmeal. If you like pumpkin pie, you will LOVE this breakfast, if you don't, well, you won't.

Here is what you need:
2 to 4 cups of cooked plain oatmeal
2 cups of fresh mashed pumpkin OR 1 can
1 egg
can of fat free evaporated milk
nutmeg, cinnamon, splenda
handful of raisins
handful of walnuts

So take your fresh pumpkin, (if you have a can, just skip all of this part), cut it into chunks, boil it until it is soft, take the skin off and mash it in a bowl:



To this pretty orange mash, mix in your egg, the milk, the spices and the splenda. You are just making pumpkin pie filling, but instead of pouring it into a pie crust, you will pour it into oatmeal.

Once you have your piefilling made, add it to the cooked oatmeal, stirring well to combine. Throw in your raisins and walnuts and voila:



Seriously, this is soooo good! I usually make a big batch and just heat up a little every morning for breakfast. Oatmeal is a great choice for anyone with bloodsugar issues as it is fairly low on the Glycemic Index. I usually have an egg with it as well to get a good balance of carbs and protein and it always holds me until lunch.

Try it.

It truly is a bowl full of LOVE:

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Wow. That sounds so good.
When I'm back in the STates, I'm going to try it. Delish.

You inspire me to make better food than what I've been eating.

:)

Scott M said...

Interesting combination indeed- I would love to try it. In fact, I'd love to try all the food you cook. Wait... Do you cater!? :)

yarnpiggy said...

That looks great! I'm going to have to try that, with a few twists (I eat a dairy- and egg-free diet, so I'd just skip the egg and use soy milk, and probably swap a bit of real maple syrup for the Splenda). Thanks for posting it. :-)

Jessica said...

You can use any type of winter squash instead of pumpkin: butternut, acorn, etc... in fact, someone once told me that butternut is better for pumpkin pies than pumpkin...

I made some pumpkin puree for recipes since we had a bunch of pumpkins from the pumpkin patch we went to & even carving pumpkins (at least these) were good for recipes! I was surprised! :)