Step Up to the Calorie Counter: Fried Oatmeal

What does one do with leftover oatmeal? Apparently, fry it. At least, that's the suggestion from Lucy's Morsels, and it sounds like a recipe to be tested with this oatmeal-loving family.

Choose healthy oils and fresh toppings and you'll have a tasty option for breakfast that will encourage even the most ardent of meal-skippers to make time for breakfast.

1. Make a big batch of oatmeal. (Consider this healthy overnight slow-cooker recipe). 
2. Pour the oatmeal into a pan a few inches thick. 
3. Cover and refrigerate. (Cool it for at least 2-3 hours, or even a few days.) 
4. Heat a pan over high heat, spray with nonstick spray or butter. 
5. Cut oatmeal to the size of the desired serving. 
6. Sear both sides of the oatmeal square - it takes a while because of all the liquid. 
7. Choose your toppings and enjoy!

What other healthy foods can you cook differently to mix it up?

Step Up to the Calorie Counter: Overnight Oatmeal

Mornings are hectic enough without having to make breakfast — so don't.

Make breakfast the night before.

Here's a recipe from Simple Sundays to make oatmeal overnight in your refrigerator.

Photo courtesy Simple Sundays

Overnight Refrigerator Oatmeal

YIELD: 1 serving

PREP TIME: 3 minutes

COOK TIME: 5-8 hours

TOTAL TIME: 8 hours

What I love about this recipe is that there are no hard or fast rules. Don't like soy milk? Use skim milk. Or almond milk. Use fresh or dried fruit, or both. Drizzle some maple syrup. Make this a mid day snack with carob chips and nuts. The possibilities are endless.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup oats
1 tablespoon chia seeds
1/2 cup vanilla soy milk
2 tablespoons dried cranberries
1 tablespoon shredded coconut
1 tablespoon crushed walnuts
fresh fruit

Directions:

In a 250 ml or 8 oz mason jar, combine the oats, chia seeds, vanilla soy milk, dried fruit and nuts. Cover with lid and shake until combined. Refrigerate for at least 5 hours or ideally, overnight. Top with fresh fruit in the morning and enjoy!

Step Up to the Calorie Counter: Make Your Own Instant Oatmeal

Save money. Eat exactly the food you enjoy.Reduce over-processed food from your diet.

These are just a few ways homemade instant oatmeal is a good idea. Check out this great recipe from Kate Morin at Greatist.

Makes about 16 single servings

What You'll Need:

• 6 cups quick cooking oats
• ½ tsp salt

Flavoring Ingredients:

• The Classic: ¼ cup brown sugar
• Raisin Spice: 1 cup raisins, 2 tbsp. cinnamon
• Chocolate mix: 2 tbsp. cocoa powder, 2 tbsp brown sugar
• Tropical Mix: ¼ cup dried apricots, ¼ cup crushed macadamia or hazelnuts, ¼ cup powdered creamer (like CoffeeMate)
• Get Nutty: ½ cup chopped toasted nuts (pecans or slivered almonds work well)

Tools: 

• Blender or food processor (if you want to cut down the recipe and make a much smaller batch, a Magic Bullet works wonders, here)
• 16 plastic baggies, OR a large jar for storage (I often keep my mix in a large jar, and scoop out one serving into a single-serve Tupperware container when I want it on-the-go)
• Large spoon ( for mixing, duh)
• Large bowl

What to Do:

1. Place 2 cups oatmeal into blender/food processor until it turns to powder.
2. Mix powdered oats in large bowl with remaining 4 cups whole oats. Add salt and whatever extras you want. Stir until evenly combined.
3. Place mixture in airtight container or divide into single-serve portions in baggies. Usually, it’s a heaping ½ cup. (If you think that’s too big a serving for you, you can cut it down and just have more single servings.
4. To eat: Mix the oats with ¾ cup boiling water. Stir to combine, and let sit for 3 minutes.  As with any oatmeal, you can use milk instead of water if you so desire!

Recipe and photo courtesy Greatist

Step Up to the Calorie Counter: Breakfast Cookies

Breakfast Cookies with Oatmeal, Bananas, Peanut Butter and More

• Two ripe bananas, mashed until smooth & creamy
• 1/3 cup peanut butter  
• 2/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 scoop vanilla protein powder (optional)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp butter flavor extract (optional)
• 1 1/2 cups uncooked quick oatmeal  (or use old fashioned oats for more oatmeal-y texture)
• 1/4 cup chopped nuts
• 1/4 cup carob or chocolate chips (optional — for some people)

Preheat heat oven to 350ºF.

1. In a large bowl, mix mashed banana and peanut butter until completely combined.
2. Add in the applesauce, vanilla protein powder and the extract(s). Mix again until all are completely combined. 
3. Add in the oatmeal, nuts and chips.
4. Let dough rest for 10 minutes.
5. Drop cookie dough, by spoonfuls, onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet & flatten cookies into circles. 
6. Bake cookies 20-30 minutes, until golden brown and done, or as doughy as you like them.
7. Rest on cookie sheet for five minutes, then move to cooling rack.  
8. If you want the traditional fork tong marks on the cookies, use a pizza cutter or sharp knife to score the tops of the cookies while they're still warm.

 
When cookies are completely cool, store in a covered container. 

Courtesy Watching What I Eat.

Step Up to the Calorie Counter: Heart-Healthy Overnight Oatmeal

First of all, never skip breakfast if you want to stay healthy and lose or maintain your weight. 

Now: mornings can be hectic. How would you like to have a hot breakfast waiting for you when you wake up in the morning?

If you have a slow cooker and steel-cut oatmeal, this can happen every morning. Just combine a few ingredients before you go to bed the night before. Oatmeal is heart-healthy, an important factor (especially on Valentine's Day).

Check out this recipe courtesy of Chow (via Buzzfeed):

Ingredients

• Unsalted butter
• 8 1/2 cups water
• 2 cups steel-cut oats
• 1 (14-ounce) can unsweetened coconut milk or 1 3/4 cups whole milk
• 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• fresh fruit, dried fruit, chopped nuts or syrup

Instructions

1. Coat the insert of the slow cooker with a thin layer of butter. 
2. Add the water, oats, coconut or whole milk, brown sugar and salt. Stir to combine.
3. Cover and cook on low until the oats are cooked through and creamy, about seven or eight hours. 
4. In the morning, stir in the vanilla and serve immediately.
5. Add toppings as desired.

User Tips

My wife Chris used non-stick spray instead of butter and the oatmeal stuck in the bottom "corner" of the slow cooker bowl. It didn't change the flavor of the oatmeal, but it did waste some oatmeal in the bowl and complicate clean-up. 

Also, she cooked the vanilla all night, instead of adding it at the end, which diluted the vanilla taste.

Finally, the longer it cooks, the thicker it is. Consider this when setting it up the night before: after seven hours, it was still a little wet.

What are some of your helpful, delicious breakfast tips?