AKA Trail Blazin' Quick Oats! That's my more creative name for the contest. :~)
This recipe was made exclusively for Quaker. They extended a contest for a few bloggers that were invited to a Quaker weekend in Chicago. I learned so much about oatmeal and nutrition overall. It was SO much fun. I'm planning a whole post about oatmeal soon but first I had to make something up for the contest.
Our mission...
Create and submit an original flavoring for a bowl of oatmeal. Recipe must use a minimum of ¾ cup uncooked Quaker Oats (1 ½ cups cooked); Oats used in recipe must be whole (not ground into flour). Recipe can contain no more than 10 ingredients (excluding water).
Nutritionally the recipe must meet the following nutrition criteria:
- Less than 400 calories per serving
- Less than 1g saturated fat per serving
- Less than 12g added sugar per serving
- Less than 20 mg of cholesterol per serving
- Less than 480 mg of sodium per serving
- At least 3g of fiber (oat soluble fiber)
My idea... a quick bowl of goodness using easy to stock pantry items. I had an idea to use Green Tea as a base after hearing all the wonderful health benefits it contains. I also wanted to start including more almonds in my diets for the same reason.
So I present to you my Green Tea Oatmeal with Dried Fruit and Slivered Almonds! (Can you tell I'm proud of this one? ;~P)
I'd probably use a bit tiny bit more honey for myself, but I had a sugar requirement to worry about. Which, by the way, is fun to consider while experimenting. I love a challenge! 
- 8 oz of boiling water
- 1 green tea bag (honey flavor or your favorite would be GREAT! too!)
- ¾ cups Quick Oats (60g)
- 1 large (or 2 small) dried apricot (8g)
- About 1 tbsp dried berries (cherry, cranberry, blueberry mix works great!) (8g)
- About 1 tbsp slivered almonds (¼ oz) (7g)
- 1 tsp almond extract
- drizzle of honey (3g)
Seep green tea bag in boiling water for 2 minutes. You can do this directly in the bowl if you like. Remove the tea bag. Be sure to squeezing extra water out before discarding.
Add the oatmeal to the bowl. Stir and let it sit for a few minutes while preparing the rest of the ingredients. (note: If the tea cooled too much before adding oatmeal, throw the bowl into the microwave for 1 minute. 
I purposely reduced the amount of water used to create a thicker oatmeal "experience". When was the last time you have watery trail mix? ;~P)
Dice the apricot, and berries (if large chunks.) Mix the berries with the slivered almonds. Set aside.
Mix the almond extract into now cooked oatmeal. Top with the fruit almond mixture.
Drizzle with honey. Tip: To measure, place bowl on a scale, zero out and drizzle right from honey jar until scale reads 3g. Do it slow to create thin lines of honey on top of everything.
My Nutrition stats, according to NutritionData.com
- Less than 400 calories per serving - CHECK! 317
- Less than 1g saturated fat per serving - CHECK! 1g -- waiting on Quaker to approve
- Less than 12g added sugar per serving - CHECK! 11g
- Less than 20 mg of cholesterol per serving - CHECK! 0mg
- Less than 480 mg of sodium per serving - CHECK! 27mg
- At least 3g of fiber (oat soluble fiber) - CHECK 7g of total Fiber
So? What do you think? What's my chances for winning? Feedback? Suggestions? I'd LOVE to hear them!
| Servings | Amt per Serving | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Entire Recipe | |||
| Calories | Fat | Fiber | WWPs | |
| 317 | 8g | 7g | old: 6 | new: 8 |
| Sugar | Sat Fat | Carbs | Protein | |
| 11g | 1g | 54g | 10g | |
Note: I originally planned on making this with ½ cup of oats until I saw the rules. That would change the NI, of course. For those interested, cut the water back to 5-6oz. Make the same as above. One bowl would be 241 calories, 7g of fat and 5g of fiber. It shaves a point and a half off and is still just as filling! :~)
This is wonderful! Heart-healthy, filling, and full of antioxidants. Hope you won!
i just want to say that your photography skills in taking photos of your creations is fantastic! food porn at its best!
I love the idea of using green tea as the cooking liquid for the oatmeal. I'm trying this recipe ASAP.
That is such a great idea! I've heard of boiling your pasta in green tea water - never thought of using it wiht oats!
Good luck!
sounds great! not sure if i would like green tea oatmeal.. dont care for green tea in general. every morning i make a bowl of quaker oats on the stove.. old fashioned 5 min. to cook type.. add raisins, banana or apple.. sm T brown sugar.. and oatmeal.. then enough milk to give it a soupy consistancy.. and thats it. i love it!!!!! very filling and delicious!!!!!!!!! in most countries people eat oats as a staple.. and alot of farmers feed oats to their animals.. so why do most americans NOT eat it themselves????
LOVE QUAKER!!!!
i should visit their factory... wonder if you can do that/?
sounds delicious! could definitely be a winner!
Good LUCK!!!! Roni
I LOVE CONTEST.
Sounds good.
Never thought of cooking my oatmeal in any thing "healty" beside water.
Never too old to learn somthing new!!! And try it.
Karen
Noooo Green Tea Oatmeal isn't popular... GREEN TEA is. I just decided to use it in oatmeal. Why not?!? :~) It's good for you and adds no calories!
Really? Green tea oatmeal is popular in the US? I miss out on so much news/stuff by living in Germany! i am trying it this weekend!
Christy - You aren't required to like I everything I post! LOL It's OK! :~) But seriously, I wanted to make a Green Tea Oatmeal for this, as it's a popular flavor right now.
Guys - Thanks for reminding me about other tea flavors, I wanted to mention that in the recipe and forgot. I so that a lot anymore! LOL
Susan - What a great idea! Toasting the almonds that is!
I have to say this is the first recipe of yours I don't know if I would try. Don't get me wrong. I LOVE all things Roni...but green tea oatmeal?? I guess I should try it before I turn up my nose, right. Even though I don't know if I would like it, I still think you should win. (cause I <3 Roni, remember?) 😉 I might like it if I use peach flavored tea. ...oh...maybe some chai tea. Hmm...now you have me thinking about it 🙂
I think your pumpkin oatmeal sounded great. I love making apple pie oatmeal (oats, skim milk, brown sugar or splenda brown or honey, ff/sf butter spray)...it is a favorite flavor for me. Oh...and I like Elvis Oatmeal (with PB and banana).
Sounds fantastic. Can't wait to try it!
OMG you are a genius for sure! I would never have thought to use a tea bag! This opens up all sorts of wonderous oatmeal possibilities! I bet it would be great with a packet of hot chocolate mix too!
Thanks again for the great ideas!
I am still into the pumpkin oatmeal, but I can't wait to try this one. I love oatmeal and I appreciate learning new ways to flavor it. Good luck with the contest. I think this one could win.
p.s you are soooo going to win! Then we will call you the Oatmeal Queen!
That sounds so good. What if you toasted the almonds? Delicious! But either way, it sounds great!
This looks really good ... and I generally don't like oatmeal very much. The green tea idea is fantastic and has piqued my interest. Might have to make this for dinner!
Roni:
I must say, that is one mighty-fine looking bowl of oats. To all of the other worthy blogger contestants...you have been called out!! Get cookin'! And may the best bowl of oatmeal win - YUM!!!
This looks really good. I just bought a large container of quick oats on sale, I'm trying to get my kids off the preflavored packets for both health and economy, and I'm going to have to try this. Good luck with Quaker's contest!
When I heard that you guys would be making oatmeal creations for the contest I was super excited. Yours is the first I've seen but I love it!
I really like that you have flavored the water to make it really go all through the bowl. The main problem I have with oatmeal is that by the time I get all the oats to be good and flavored, I have added way too many calories. I will definately try this one soon.