Bariatric Foodie Play with your food
~by Nikki
I feel like, over the past few weeks, I’ve worked a lot on Frapps. Having developed quite a few, I feel like you all have a good foundation on which to play with your protein drinks. It’s time for me to move on…to the realm of…oatmeal.
It’s a favorite food of mine. It is also very carby. But in my mind it’s not a horrible carb. It’s a whole grain, it has fiber and, if you get the right kind, a good deal of it. Where we tend to mess up with oatmeal is in flavoring it and that’s where I see the most potential for my work!
I eat a bowl of oatmeal every morning for breakfast. It gives me the fuel I need to get up and go and I don’t usually get hungry again (in the way that we get hungry that is) until lunch time. Here’s what I had this morning.
Nik’s Cinnamon Bun Protein Oatmeal
(this makes one “Nik size” portion. It is almost surely more than one “you” portion, so adjust accordingly!)
Ingredients:
½ c. quick oats
2 oz. skim milk
4 oz. boiling water
1 scoop vanilla protein powder (I used this)
No-calorie sweetener, to taste (I used Splenda)
A few sprays zero calorie butter spray (I used Olivio)
1/8 tsp salt (yes salt)
1 tbsp sugar-free pancake syrup
A few dashes of ground cinnamon
Optional: 1/2 tbsp. reduced fat cream cheese (I would suggest that only in moderation, but it does complete the whole effect!
Directions:
In a bowl, combine oats, sweetener, protein powder and milk until a thick meal forms. There should be no dry protein powder in the meal nor should there be any on the sides of your bowls. If necessary, add a few additional splashes of milk to accomplish this.
SLOWLY add your boiling water to the meal, a little at a time, stirring after you add some (add an ounce or two, stop and stir. Repeat). Do this until the oatmeal is slightly submerged in the water.
Nuke your bowl for about 90 seconds. The oatmeal will be thick and you’ll be able to smell the vanilla.
Add the salt, the pancake syrup, the butter spray and the cinnamon and stir. Taste. You should taste sweetness, an ever-so-slight kick of saltiness (very subtle). And of course you should be able to taste the cinnamon!
If you are treating yourself to the cream cheese, stir it in right at the end.
This inspiration for this idea came by way of a poster on Obesity Help who wondered if she’d be able to eat cinnamon buns post op. While I used to love me a Cinnabon back in the day, I feel much better about eating this. My version has LOTS of protein (yours may vary, so be sure to check YOUR stats) and really gets me going!
You guys come up with the bestest ideas. I may try this for lunch today. I had a bad experience early out with oatmeal; I think it was simply too heavy for me at the time and made me too full too fast. But you know how it is in those early couple of weeks when you think you are going to scream and not stop if you have soup/ yogurt/ tuna salad even ONE MORE DAY. 😀
Btw, I made the Buffalo Chicken Salad yesterday, and it was quite delish. I had some for both lunch and dinner, once with a cheddar rice cake, and once with an Arnold Multigrain Sandwich Thin. Both ways were wonderful.
Avierra,
Oh believe me, I can relate to being sick of the foods on your "safe foods" list! So glad you liked the Buffalo Chicken dip!
Did you see the guide to measurement conversions yesterday? If oatmeal sits heavy for you, I'd encourage you to use that to scale down to a "you-sized" portion.
Let me know how it goes!
Nik
With this cold weather in Dallas, I need something that's gonna stick to me. Definitely gonna try this one!
Could this be done with almond or coconut milk?
Absolutely! The kind of milk in this recipe doesn’t have a big effect on the outcome so you can use whatever milk you like the best. Hope that helps!
I want to try this as 2 portions and make a cream cheese icing with van whey protein and powdered monkfruit.