Challenge Winner and Healthy Crockpot Oatmeal

Hi there,
I hope everyone had a great week.  It has been a very busy one for me but today I have a bit more free time and thought I should get a post out on a couple of things I wanted to share.

I am so excited to let you know that I was the challenge winner for my Happy Birthday Card posted below.  Yeah ME!  I can't wait to claim my prize of more  Tiddly Ink images.  Check out her images but also check out the AMAZING designers for this blog.  So inspiring!

So, I've been trying to make a few healthy tweaks to my diet.  Overall I feel like I eat a pretty healthy diet but I have been wanting make things a bit more "routine".  I don't know about you but if I find a routine that I like, I will stick to it.  Therefore, I think if I find some healthy eating routine's then I will stick to them as well.  Each day I have been taking a packet of instant PLAIN oatmeal and then eating it with a touch of Agave Nectar and sometimes I add fresh blueberries or strawberries. While this is already a pretty healthy meal I wanted to make it even healthier by using steel cut oatmeal. Unfortunately steel cut oatmeal takes longer to cook and I don't have that kind of time in the morning.  You gotta love Pinterest.  I found a link to a website called Recipes that Crock for Crockpot Oatmeal. Had it this morning and all I can say is YUMMY!

 

If you click on the link above it will take you directly to the site and full instructions are there.  I love it. I can make it at night before I go to bed and a very healthy and satisfying breakfast is ready for me.  

Here are a couple of things that you might want to make note of. 

• I cut the recipe-  I only wanted one serving so divided everything in fourths. But if you have more in your family that will eat it then by all means make the whole batch.
• She suggests using a bath method by placing a smaller bowl inside of your larger crockpot.  This prevents the oatmeal from scorching on the bottom.  Since I had a smaller serving I used the crock insert that goes to my mini crockpot and placed it inside of my large one.  It was perfect but a bowl works fine too.  I would use glass or ceramic. 
• When done, the oatmeal was VERY thick.  I used just a splash of skim milk and it was great. 

This website doesn't give nutritional information so I did some really quick and not very scientific math.... total disclaimer here because I am "just ok" at math and not very scientific at all LOL!  Based on the ingredients I used, I figured around 240 calories. It was a BIG portion.  I ate it several hours ago and still feel really satisfied.  I think I am going to try some variations on this as well.  Maybe banana's and a few walnuts?????

I really like to share recipes when I like them and I think this one is a keeper. I sure hope you give it a try.