Seven Days of Oats a la Sam

Last week I made a post for Five Days of Protein Shakes, with my daily ingestion of protein shakes also comes my daily consumption of oats (as I'm sure you all know by now).  Since I hadn't made an entry for any of these bowls last week I figured I would give you guys seven days of oats a la Sam.  Sit tight and relax, you are about to enjoy :)

Day 1 - Orange and Almond Infused Oats

I have never used orange juice as a split base for my oats, however, I had a lot of oranges left to eat before I left for my trip to British Columbia and I didn't want these precious fruits going to waste so I figured I would experiment.  I mean, it's not too different from water, just that it has a little zing to it.  I wasn't sure what flavours I wanted to go with the orange infusion, but as I was making my oats I just had a lot of ideas flowing through, as to what I've seen orange paired with on prior occasions.  The first bite I took I was a little reluctant as it had sort of an iffy taste to me, I can't really describe what it was, perhaps overkill in orange?  I'm not sure, however, once I took my second and third bite I was definitely smitten by the divinity of this bowl.  There were so many flavours that I used in this bowl, and in unison they all came together very well.  This was a really divine bowl, and it was an excellent way to begin the day.  I'm not a juice drinker, so with the orange infused in the oats it gave my morning ritual a nice little twist.  This is definitely a very versatile bowl and will certainly be enjoyed again - this would certainly be ideal in the summer, perhaps even as overnight oats and have them cold rather than warm.  I loved it, and it was certainly a great way to start a weeks worth of various bowls of oats!

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup oats
• 1/3 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
• 1/3 cup soy milk + more for topping
• 1 ripened banana
• Dash of salt
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 tsp almond extract
• 1/8 tsp ginger
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tbsp ground flaxseed

Garnish:

• Cacao nibs
• Almond slivers
• Coconut flakes
• 0% fat blackberry Greek yoghurt
• Orange zest
• Maple syrup

Directions:

In a small sauce pan, bring your oats, milk, orange juice, cinnamon, ginger, salt, almond and vanilla extract to a boil.  Once your oats have started to boil, mash in your ripened banana.  Keep your oats on the stove until your level of "cooked" oats has been achieved (mine take about 4-5 minutes, I still like them a bit hard).  Top with additional soy milk, and the rest of your garnishes!

Day 2 - Almond Joy Oats

I’ve never had Almond Joy before, to be honest, I’m not even sure if we get Almond Joy chocolate bars in Canada.  However, I have seen numerous recipes online via my dear fellow bloggers of imitation recipes for this delicious looking and sounding treat.  I am a huge fan of almonds (hello Amaretto, am’I right?), and coconut we all know how in love I am with this beautiful flavor, when mixed together with a ibit of chocolate well, this is amazing.  In this case I cheated a bit, and didn’t use real chocolate since if I don’t have to have chocolate I usually opt to not have it, but carob chips I am seriously very fond of.  I remember this one time I had a friend over, and I was making “chocolate chip cookies” with carob chips instead, had the bagg open and as they were sticking their hand in the bag and gobbling up some chips behind my back they were well quite shocked to be completely honest that the taste wasn't at all what they had expected hahaha.  This oatmeal however, despite the fact that I’ve never eaten an Almond Joy, if I can use my imagination, well I think that this would be neck in neck as to what it would taste like.  This was seriously fantastic, and again, just like many of my breakfast bowls of oats resembles a healthy dessert rather than what's supposed to be a healthy breakfast, thankfully both categories work and my tummy and tastebuds get a treat as well!

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup oatmeal
• 1/3 cup coconut milk + more for topping
• 1/3 cup water
• 1 ripe banana
• Dash of salt
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp almond extract

Garnish:

• 1 tbsp carob chips
• 1 tbsp slivered almonds
• 1 tbsp coconut flakes
• 0% fat vanilla Greek yoghurt
• 1/2 tbsp hemp seeds

Directions:

In a small sauce pan, bring your oats, milk, water, salt, almond and vanilla extract to a boil.  Once your oats have started to boil, mash in your ripened banana.  Keep your oats on the stove until your level of "cooked" oats has been achieved (mine take about 4-5 minutes, I still like them a bit hard).  Top with additional soy milk, and the rest of your garnishes!

Day 3 - Crunchy Peanut Butter Oatmeal

I have never been one for cereal, especially cereal and milk, gross.  I was always a weird kid when it came to breakfast.  For many years I wouldn't eat breakfast, no way Jose.  Then I started eating breakfast and it wasn't your typical breakfast food, no, I would eat pasta, Mr. Noodles, ice cream, macaroni and cheese, yes I was a weird kid.  This went on for many years.  It's only the past few years, more so when I started going to University did I start to eat like a real person, and would also eat breakfast, nowadays I love it, and is by far my favourite meal of the day, and could hands down eat breakfast meals all day long.  When it comes to cereal, I am still not a fan of cereal and milk together, yes, I will do like I did when I first started incorporating cereal in my diet and have a glass of milk on the side but never together, yuckers.  My current favourite is of no surprise to me since the main flavour is peanut butter.  I eat this cereal when I'm craving something junky but don't want to feel guilty - even though I may eat a lot in one sitting uh oh, oh well, better than a bag of chips.  The other morning when I was making my oats, I knew I wanted peanut butter, then I thought of my wonderful cereal and figured hey why not throw them together in one magical unison?  Well magical unison it was.  This bowl was creamy and full of peanut butter and because of the cereal it had a nice crunchy bite to it as well.  I loved this, and will definitely keep this as a go-to if I'm not feeling motivated to think of something special to make for my breakfast bowl!

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup oatmeal
• 1/3 cup coconut milk + more for topping
• 1/3 cup water
• 1 ripe banana
• Dash of salt
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp peanut butter
• 1/4 cup peanut butter cereal crushed
• Handful of peanut butter chipits

Directions:

In a small sauce pan, bring your oats, milk, water, salt, and vanilla extract to a boil.  Once your oats have started to boil, mash in your ripened banana an peanut butter.  Keep your oats on the stove until your level of "cooked" oats has been achieved (mine take about 4-5 minutes, I still like them a bit hard).  Top with additional soy milk, crushed cereal and peanut butter chipits.

Day 4 - Chai Spiced Banana Oats

Okay, looking at the ingredient list, this definitely wouldn't look like a recipe I would want to make early in the morning, I mean, it looks like the list is as long as The Great Wall of China, but it's not really, there are just a lot of spices.  Chai has got to be my favourite spice combination, it incorporates all the fall flavours that I love so much, and it's just so warming and aromatic.  Especially when paired with oats, it gives you such a warm, home comfort feeling.  This bowl of oats was the perfect thing to wake up to and have for breakfast.  I loved it, and it was certainly a great pick-me up on a day where I certainly wasn't feeling like going to the gym and working out.  This truthfully didn't take any longer than my regular oats that I make, and was certainly worth taking out the few extra spices to add a little zing to my morning.  If you're not a big fan of ginger, I would almost suggest putting a little less than suggested and adding more cinnamon, all depends on how spicy you want it to be (however, with the added coconut, maple syrup and carob chips it adds a hint of sweetness)!

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup oats
• 1/3 cup soy milk
• 1/3 cup water
• 1 ripe banana
• Dash of salt
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 tsp ground cardamom
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp of nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp of cloves
• 1 tbsp flax
• Maple syrup - to garnish
• 1 tbsp carob chips 
• 1 tbsp pecans 
• 1 tbsp flaked coconut

Directions:

In a small sauce pan, bring your oats, milk, water, salt, cardamom, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, flaxseed and vanilla extract to a boil.  Once your oats have started to boil, mash in your ripened banana an peanut butter.  Keep your oats on the stove until your level of "cooked" oats has been achieved (mine take about 4-5 minutes, I still like them a bit hard).  Top with additional soy milk, maple syrup, carob chips, pecans and flaked coconut.


Day 5 - Blueberries and Cream Oats

Recipe inspired from here

Hmmm, as I mentioned the other day, my mom bought me twelve bags of frozen fruits, and well, the blueberries needed to get gobbled up since out of all fruits, these are basically my least favourite.  However, I've come to appreciate them when it comes to having them with warm oats as they seem to ooze all over the place and create the perfect flavour to oats (Blueberry Cobbler Oatmeal) also when paired with cinnamon and banana (Blueberry Pie Smoothie).  The other day as I was stumbling upon the foodie blogs I came across for a blueberry breakfast that actually looked quite delicious.  At first I was contemplating using raspberries instead of blueberries and thought what the heck I might as well give it a shot.  I'm glad I did.  I'm still not fully converted to blueberries, but I'm beginning to appreciate those little buggers a teeny bit more.  This oatmeal was luxurious, and definitely in the lines of a dessert as opposed to a breakfast (you really do feel like you're doing the body harm when eating this - but you are by no means doing so).  I loved this, and will certainly be trying it again, and perhaps trying it as I initially wanted to with raspberries.  I loved eating this because not only was it so tasty and good for me, it was darn right beautiful to look at, now that's a bonus right?

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup oats
• 1/3 cup coconut milk + 1 tbsp + more for topping
• 1/3 cup water
• Dash of salt
• 1 ripe banana
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup blueberries
• 1 tbsp maple syrup
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tbsp slivered almonds 

Directions:

In a small pot add blueberries, maple syrup, vanilla and 1 tbsp of coconut milk.  Heat over low heat until the blueberries are heated through - make sure not to boil the coconut milk.

Make your oats as you typically make them.  Then top with your blueberry compote, slivered almonds, additional coconut milk and maple syrup!

Day 6 - Tropical Oats

Do I even need to write a little tidbit for this next bowl?  I really don't think so, and I'm not going to.  Instead I'm going to head downstairs and clean up after my cats, because by now, we all know how amazing tropical flavours are, how well they meld together, and how delightful they are with oats especially for breakfast when the weather isn't as warm as it's going to be for the rest of the day and you want to feel as though you're in the Caribbean somewhere drinking slurping back on a gigantic Pina Colada.  All I'm going to say is, do yourself a favour, and make this - you know what to do.

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup oats
• 1/3 cup coconut milk + 1 tbsp + more for topping
• 1/3 cup water
• Dash of salt
• 1 ripe banana
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 tbsp chopped cashews
• 1/4 cup chopped pineapple
• 1/4 cup cubed mango
• 1 heaping tbsp coconut flakes
• 0% fat vanilla Greek yoghurt
• 1 tbsp hemp seeds

Directions:

In a small sauce pan, bring your oats, milk, water, salt, and vanilla to a boil.  Once your oats have started to boil, mash in your ripened banana.  Keep your oats on the stove until your level of "cooked" oats has been achieved (mine take about 4-5 minutes, I still like them a bit hard).  Top with additional soy milk, Greek yoghurt, mango, pineapple, cashews, coconut flakes, and hemp seeds.

Day 7 - Strawberry Nutella Oats

Okay, okay, Nutella and strawberries are absolutely amazing.  Clearly I’ve had peanut butter and Nutella are amazing together, as are bananas and Nutella.  As we all know, chocolate and strawberries are matches made in heaven, but with the addition of hazelnuts, holy moly it’s a whole other world.  This oatmeal was incredibly creamy, luxurious, sinful, perfectly sweet, packed full of protein, and was incredibly filling and a perfect way to start a work out.  I made this a few times before I decided that I need to photograph it because this is certainly one bowl that needs to be shared with the rest of you, pure perfection in a bowl.

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup oatmeal
• 1/3 cup coconut milk + more for topping
• 1/3 cup water
• 1 ripe banana
• Dash of salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 medium sized strawberries – quartered than cut in half
• 1 tbsp Nutella
• 1 tbsp hemp seeds
• 0% fat strawberry Greek yoghurt

Directions:

In a small sauce pan, bring your oats, milk, water, salt, and vanilla to a boil.  Once your oats have started to boil, mash in your ripened banana and Nutella.  Keep your oats on the stove until your level of "cooked" oats has been achieved (mine take about 4-5 minutes, I still like them a bit hard).  Top with additional milk, Greek yoghurt, strawberry slices, and hemp seeds.

What are some ideas you use to spruce up your morning oats?