7 great ways to enjoy oats *

Oats have been an indispensable part of many families’ breakfast meals for a great reason. As whole grains, they are an excellent source of protein, fiber, potassium, iron, and vitamins to provide you lasting energy throughout the day and protect you from diseases. 

There is only a handful of food that offers the health benefits that oats pack in each grain. However, it’s neither the tastiest nor the most interesting food in the world. Still, there are ways to spruce up your consumption of oats aside from eating it from a bowl.7 grea

With the options we’ve listed below, you’ll be able to incorporate oats to your diet not only during breakfast time but also lunch, snack time, and dinner.

Milked Oats

Oat milk is a wonderful choice if you want to replace regular oats with a slightly sweet and creamy drink. You can also consider this a substitute for your dairy milk. Delicious milked oats are better than your regular milk because they are much easier to digest, don’t cause allergies, and contain a good amount of fiber.

Milked oats are also a versatile alternative to a bland tasting bowl of oats since they can be drunk plain, used to make pancakes and waffles, and mixed with your favorite brand of corn flakes or fruit loops. They can be added to any recipe that requires milk as one of the ingredients.

Oatmeal Brownie Bars

What’s one tasty way to sneak fiber into a dessert? Incorporate oats into your regular brownie bars. To prepare this dessert, put together in a medium-sized bowl brownie mix, chocolate syrup, water, eggs, and oats. Stir the mixture, and transfer it to a brownie pan.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and bake for up to 24 minutes. Enjoy your oatmeal brownie bars with your colleagues or serve them to your kids after playtime!

Oatmeal Raisin Pancakes

There’s something special about eating pancakes during the weekend with your family. Since pancakes are versatile because can add any ingredient in them, why not put oats into your next pancake batter? Oatmeal gives your regular pancakes a slightly crunchy yet chewy consistency.

Here’s what you need to do: In a bowl, pour in flour, baking powder, a little salt, sugar, vanilla extract, egg, buttermilk, raisins, and oatmeal. Stir together. Cook the oatmeal raisin pancakes on a hot griddle. Flip the pancakes over when they turn golden brown.

Meatloaf with Oatmeal

Meatloaf recipes normally include breadcrumbs as one of the ingredients. Breadcrumbs act as the binding agent so that the meat sticks together. Instead of breadcrumbs, however, you use oatmeal as an alternative.

Blend the oats before adding them to the ground beef to achieve a finer product. You wouldn’t want oats sticking out of the sides of your cooked meatloaf. Don’t worry about losing the nutrients in oats when blending them because they’ll stay. In fact, adding oatmeal to your meatloaf helps you get more fiber and feel fuller faster.

Strawberry Banana Oatmeal Smoothie

People who aren’t able to consume fruits regularly often turn to smoothies. If you love making smoothies out of strawberries and bananas because of their antioxidant benefits, adding oatmeal would make the drink even healthier. Moreover, the addition of oats will fill you up the entire morning.

Blend a cup of frozen strawberries, ripe bananas, vanilla extract, chia seeds, old-fashioned oats, and milk. If you can’t tolerate dairy, you can use oat milk or greek yogurt instead. Pour the finished smoothie into serving glasses.

Chocolate Protein Granola

An appetizing breakfast food, chocolate protein granola is a combination of rolled oats, nuts, dried fruit, seeds, coconut flakes, sweeteners, and chocolate chips. Put all the ingredients in a bowl, mix them, and bake at 300 degrees for about 45 minutes. You’ll know that your granola is ready when it has turned brown.

The oats in granola provide heart-healthy fats and will help regulate your digestion. You get protein from the nuts and seeds. Nuts and seeds with more protein content include almonds, cashews, sunflower seeds, and pumpkin seeds.

Chewy Oatmeal Cookies

Can you think of anything tastier than a chewy cookie? Cookies with oatmeal as the primary ingredient are a healthier choice than other oatmeal varieties. A single ounce of an oatmeal cookie will give you 1 gram of dietary fiber. You can make your cookies more flavorful by topping them with raisins or chocolate chips depending on your taste preference.

Oatmeal cookies are easy to bake. Just combine butter, brown sugar, egg, vanilla, cinnamon, all-purpose flour, baking soda, and old-fashioned rolled oats. Stir the mixture and bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 minutes.

Wrap Up

Never underestimate the power of oats. Oats may look dull and taste bland, but they actually deliver a wealth of nutrients to your body. If you’re sick of eating the same oatmeal bowl, you can still consume oats through the food items we mentioned above. Healthy doesn’t have to be boring. Have fun trying out our wonderful ways to eat oats!

* This is a collaborative post