By Jenny Wang, SP Brunch Chair,

Easy Oatmeal

Oats make a great breakfast or snack food: it’s nutritious, filling, and can be prepared a variety of ways.  One popular dish is a hot porridge, but to make it properly, the oats need to be simmered for at least several minutes.  For me, that’s a bit too much work and time in the mornings.  Instant oatmeal is a possibility, but they are much more expensive than plain rolled oats and often contain lots of sugars, artificial flavors, and preservatives.  However, with a little experimenting, I found another way to prepare oatmeal.  It’s not quite as instant, but the prep is minimal and can be done in advance.  This is a pretty regular breakfast item for me, so I toast the oats in large batches (about 6 cups at a time for 10 to 15 minutes) and store in a glass jar.  Then, the night before, I mix up the oats with a spoonful of chia seeds and kefir (a yogurt-type drink) in a small jar.  In the morning, I eat it straight out of the jar with a spoonful of honey or take the jar with me to lab.  Either way, it’s a quick and healthy breakfast.

As with most of my recipes, this is highly customizable so feel free to play around with it until you find something you really like.

Ingredients

1. 1/3 cup rolled oats
2. 2/3 cup plain kefir
3. 1 teaspoon honey
4. dried fruits, nuts, seeds as desired

 

Directions

1.  (optional) Lightly toast the oats at 350 degrees F (about 3 minutes for 1/3 cup).
2. Mix in the desired dried fruits, nuts, or seeds.
3. Place the resulting mixture in a small bowl, tupperware, or jar.
4. Add the kefir and stir until well-mixed.
5. Let sit, covered, for at least 30 minutes in the fridge (this step can be several days if you want to prepare it in advance).  The oats will soak up the liquid and become porridge-like.
6. Before eating, top with honey and/or fresh fruit.

* Although the only “cooking” used here is lightly toasting the oats, you won’t be eating raw oats.  Oat grains are heated and steamed during the rolling process, so rolled oats are cooked before you even do anything with them.  Toasting adds a nuttier flavor.

Hot variation

If you prefer hot oatmeal, use 1/4 cup of milk (or a milk-substitute of your choice) instead of the kefir and a microwave-safe container for step 3.  Then, when you’re ready to eat it, just heat it up in the microwave for a few minutes before topping with honey or fruit.

Additional variations and comments

You can substitute any flavor of yogurt or kefir into this recipe, which may also replace the honey.  However, I have found that Greek yogurt doesn’t contain enough liquid to properly hydrate the oats.  Australian yogurt (a bit thinner than standard yogurt), works well.

Baked Kale Chips

If you’ve ever purchased kale chips, you know how over priced this snack food is. Fortunately, fresh kale is reasonably priced and it’s quite easy to turn them into airy, crunchy chips yourself. The flavored version makes a great healthier substitute for potato chips.

Basic Version

Ingredients:

kale (available as a bunch or pre-washed and cut in bags)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
2. If you purchased full kale leaves (it’s a lot cheaper than the pre-washed and cut version), wash and dry the kale with a paper towel or salad spinner. You want to have as little water as possible on the leaf surface.
3. Remove the central stem and tear the kale into chip-sized pieces. The leaves will shrink as they cook so don’t make the pieces too small.
4. Spread the leaf pieces on cookie trays in a single layer.
5. Bake until the leaves are crispy and slightly brown at the edges. This should take 10 to 15 minutes, but keep a very close eye on them because they burn easily. I recommend starting with 8 minutes then checking them and adding 1 minute intervals as needed the first few times you try this recipe.

Optional: You can bake the stems as well. They won’t turn crispy, but often become slightly sweet. However, I recommend baking the stems separately from the leaves because the extra moisture in the stems can prevent the leaves from crisping.

Trouble shooting

If your chips come out like steamed greens instead of chips, you can try cooking for longer. This occurs when too much water is on the leaves when they go into the oven. Dry the leaves better next time. You can also try leaving a crack when closing the oven door to let steam escape.

If your chips burn before they become crispy, try turning the oven temperature down and extend the cooking time if necessary.

If some kale pieces are crisp but others are still soft, remove the crisp ones before baking the soft ones longer. Otherwise, the pieces that are already crisp will burn.

Flavored Version

Ingredients

• kale
• salt
• olive oil
• grated parmesan cheese (or whatever seasoning you would like)

Directions:

Follow steps 1 to 4 of the basic version. Before baking, drizzle the olive oil onto the kale, then sprinkle with salt and grated parmesan cheese. Bake as in step 5 of the basic version.