Green Tea Oatmeal with Dried Fruit and Almonds

Updated: Aug 22, 2023 by Veronica Noone · This post may contain affiliate links · 22 Comments

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!

Ingredients

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 tablespoon dried berries (cherry, cranberry, blueberry mix works great!) (8g)
About 1 tablespoon slivered almonds (¼ oz) (7g)
1 teaspoon almond extract
drizzle of honey (3g)

Instructions

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!

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! :~)

📖 Recipe