Oatmeal

[bluemanda]

Hi-

Practically everywhere I look it says oatmeal is great for you.
I can't stand the texture of oatmeal and can't eat it, although I love grits with sugar.
Any suggestions on how to get the oatmeal in my diet without having to eat it the standard way?
Is it really that important? Could I sub something?

[Sequoia]

Oatmeal is not necessary to a healthy, MS-friendly diet. In fact, MSers who follow a gluten-free diet usually avoid it because although oats themselves don't contain gluten, they are often contaminated during growing, storage, transporting &/or processing.

Otherwise, oats are a nutritious grain with cholesterol-lowering benefits. There's nothing magic about them, though.

If you want to eat oats but hate the texture of oatmeal, you could try steel-cut oats. If you don't overcook them, the texture is similar to grits.

[justacowgirl]

I make pancakes with oatmeal and flax...breads with oatmeal in addition to the bread flour and other grains..you can get your oats alot of ways. Don't you like a big oatmeal cookie?

Try this site http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-...l-Recipes.aspx

The site has a great suggestion to toast the oats in a dry skillet before cooking....yum!

Obviously I am not gluten free!!

[Temagami]

oatmeal with good texture

I use whole oats, put a cup in the blender, whirl for a bit NOT a lot- that´s the homemade version of steel cut oats. Boil 4 cups water, add oats, stir. Turn OFF stove, let sit overnite. Now you have a week´s worth of breakfast WITH texture- it actually has something to bite down on and not the mush of what you normally think of as oatmeal. Put the remainder in a tupperware and nuke your portions for the rest of the week. Warning: when nuking, do it on lower power and for under a minute WITH some sort of cover that vents. Better to nuke twice than have to clean up Mount Vesuvius of oatmeal.

[celloyogi]

I make steel-cut oats in the rice cooker. I don't eat them because I have celiac disease and don't eat oats of any kind, but the rest of the family loves the steel-cut. If you have a fuzzy-logic rice cooker, use 3 cups water, 1.25 cups of steel-cut oats, and cook with the porridge cycle. Works like a charm.