By Dr Joe
What’s a cinnamon oat meal with banana and blueberries ideal for?
You know those cold freezing winter mornings when you wake up and everything in sight looks like it’s all going to be chore…even your breakfast.
Those mornings when you really don’t want to get out of your pyjamas. You are thinking: I’m going to have a pyjama-day today.
That’s a morning when the cinnamon oat meal with banana and blueberries is ideal.
Serve the cinnamon oat meal with banana and blueberry hot and it’s bound to warm your cockles.
Oats have a penchant for helping you reduce your cholesterol whilst providing you with boundless energy and fiber at the same time. Want to be regular, then look no further than this cinnamon oat meal porridge recipe.
Not to be out done on the protein front, this recipe has Natural Yogurt in it to ensure you are not protein-deprived with this breakfast. Why break your fast without any protein boost to your day. Not ideal!
For every 100 gm of Natural yogurt used, you will be rewarded with a handsome 5.7 g of protein. Let’s not forget that 100 gm of the oats will be gifting you another 17 gm of protein with a little help from the hemp milk too. Not bad, cnsidering this is just a start to your day.
So, what do we need for this Cinnamon Oat meal with banana and blueberries porridge?
Ingredients needed:
Raw Oats X 1 cup full
Cinnamon X 1 tbsp full and half
Blueberries X 150 g
Banana X 2
Natural yogurt (low fat) X 200 g
Hemp milk X 70ml
Sunflower seeds X half a handful (Optional)
Nutritional information for Oats per 100 gm
| Calories | 389 kcal |
| Total fat | 7 g |
| Saturated fat | 1.2 g |
| Polyunsaturated fat | 2.5 g |
| Monounsaturated fat | 2.2 g |
| Cholesterol | 0.0 g |
| Sodium | 2 mg |
| Potassium | 429 mg |
| Total Carbohydrate | 66 g |
| Fiber | 11 g |
| Protein | 17 g |
You will also receive Calcium, Iron, Vitamin B6 and Magnesium from the oats.
Nutritional information for Natural yogurt per 100 g
| Calories | 67 kcal |
| Total fat | 1.5 g |
| Saturated fat | 1 g |
| Total Carbohydrate | 7.7 g |
| Sugar | 6 g |
| Fibre | 0.5 g |
| Protein | 5.7 g |
| Sodium | 140 mg |
Nutritional information for hemp milk per 240 gm
| Calories | 110 kcal |
| Total fat | 7 g |
| Saturated fat | 1 g |
| Trans fat | 0.0 g |
| Cholesterol | 0.0 g |
| Total Carbohydrate | 6 g |
| Sugars | 4.9 g |
| Fiber | 1.1 g |
| Protein | 5 g |
| Sodium | 20 mg |
How to make the cinnamon oatmeal with banana and blueberry porridge
>> Place the cup full raw oats into a bowl of your choice.
>> Pour in the hemp milk. You may use any other plant-based milk like almond milk, rice milk, soy milk or if you prefer you can stick with dairy milk. The fact that we are going to be using natural yogurt is enough dairy for this dish. I keep the use of dairy products to the bare minimum.
>> Add the cinnamon and stir the lot together. You will find the cinnamon may not completely dissolve and mix with oats and milk homogenously. But that’s okay for now. When you heat up the mixture, the cinnamon will respond eventually.
>> Heat up the cinnamon, oats and hemp milk mixture in a microwave for about 2 minutes.
>> Bring it out and stir. You will find the cinnamon is now mixing very nicely.
>> Now put it back in the microwave and heat for another minute. You may add some more milk but please do not add too much milk. We want the consistency of the oat meal porridge to be quite thick at this stage.
>> After the 3rd minute of heating, the oats should be okay now.
The oat meal consistency will be thick right now and that’s okay too.
What we are going to do is thin out the cinnamon oatmeal consistency with the Natural yogurt.
>> Scoop in the natural yogurt and mix with the cinnamon oat meal thoroughly. Keep adding the yogurt until your desired consistency is reached.
>> Now slice your banana into the cinnamon oat meal.
>> Then add the blueberries.
>> You may now add your sunflower seeds if you have them for that extra crunch and omega 3 essential fatty acids necessary for optimum health.
Your cinnamon oatmeal with banana and blueberry is now ready to serve.
Enjoy!
When I tested myself for blood glucose levels 2 hours after this cinnamon oat meal with banana and blueberries, I got a blood glucose reading of 6.3 mmol/l (113.4 mg/dl). I waited 2 hours for this test because oat is slow to digest and peaks much later, around the 2 hour mark.
I can even reduce the blood glucose readings by garnishing the cinnamon oat meal with banana and blueberries by adding a squeezed lemon. Although I’m not quite sure how the taste will turn out with the lemon.
Something for me to try out sometime. The lemon may just give this oat meal some pizzazz. Worth a try…probably. If you want to know why I’m thinking about the lemon squeeze garnish, read this article here.
Failing that, simply stick to the original recipe. The blood glucose reading is still within the normal limits of what you will expect following a meal. No need to fret it.
Dr. Joe