Starting the day with a sweet, healthy breakfast - GAIA OATS

How do you know your day has begun? Maybe you go for a walk, listen to some music, do some yoga. Whatever you do, it's part of a routine. My routine starts with a quick workout, shortly followed by my breakfast. After a bit of experimenting, I think I've come up with a good routine, and that routine is rounded off with a great breakfast. I have no shame in admitting that I eat the same breakfast almost every morning, and I don't regret it one bit. What I eat is filling. It's tasty. It's warm. It's hearty. But what is this wonderful breakfast I speak of?

You can come up with your own name for it, but I call these "Gaia Oats". I'm talking about a tasty oatmeal dish with strong flavor, big volume, and small calories. So what goes into it? Let's start with the obvious:

Oatmeal. Starting preparations the night before, one serving of rolled oats serves as the base of the meal. But oats by themselves are pretty boring, aren't they. You know what isn't boring? Chocolate. About 1 1/2 tablespoons of cocoa powder, to be specific. To counter the natural bitterness of unsweetened cocoa powder, we'll need something sweet. But what's sweet but not too high-calorie? Fruits are, and plums are a prime candidate.

With only around 30 calories each, processing or blending one piece of fruit with a little water into a sauce to cook into our oatmeal will give us the sweetness we need, and also account for around
1/2 cup of the liquid we'll need.

Mix in one egg white and about enough water to make the liquid have a volume of about 1 2/3 cups, excluding the egg white. Add in a dash of vanilla extract, and add the wet ingredients to the dry.

Mix well, and get ready to microwave it. It's gonna go in for five minutes on high. Once it's done, take it out, give it a minute or two to cool a little, and mix in about 1/2 cup more water. Return to the microwave for about 2:30, or until the oats start convexing.

Whenever you add water to this, you'll want to judge what you have based on the consistency. I find that it's good for it, at this point, to have a consistency like that of a thin jelly. Once you're done, put your oats into something to hold them and refrigerate them overnight.

If you can't do it overnight, try to give it at least 2 hours or so; that's usually enough. In the morning, put your oats into a microwave safe bowl. Mine took a gelatin like consistency... amost. That's normal, just use a spoon or something to mix it up a bit.

Now you're gonna return it to the microwave for around five minutes. Let's see what we ended up with.

Look at that! That bowl is full to the brim, and there's still a little left over, too! Here's another angle for perspective's sake:

Have fun with these giant, tasty oats! They taste like chocolate, with a touch of sweetness and just a little tang from the plum. Enjoy!

Gaia Oats Recipe:

Serves: 1

Calories per serving: ~210

Ingredients:

1/2 cup rolled oats 1 1/2 tbsp. cocoa powder 1 plum 1 large egg white Pinch of salt Vanilla extract Water Instructions:

Mix oats, cocoa powder, and salt in a microwave-safe bowl or container. Cut plum into eighths, removing the pit. Prepare into a sauce by processing in a food processor or blender with a little bit of water. Add more water to the plum sauce until its total volume is about 1 1/2 cups, or slightly less for a thicker cereal. Crack the egg and separate out the white, mixing it into the plum sauce, then add the wet ingredients to the dry, mixing well. Add more water if you want yours to be more runny. Microwave on high for 2:30, then let stand for one minute before eating. You can cook for longer or shorter depending on the volume and desired viscosity of the cereal, but cook for at least 90 seconds to ensure the egg white is cooked.

While I did come up with this recipe, the idea for letting it sit overnight in excess liquid to increase the volume was inspired by a similar post on Chocolate Covered Katy. You may want to check it out.