If you have ever seen my Instagram page then you’ll know oats are a big part of my diet! I think I must have them most days for breakfast, and have even had them for lunch or dinner if I fancy!

I’m a huge fan of the humble oat, kept plain and simple with some toppings, or spruced up with a variety of flavours to keep it interesting.  They’re so versatile.  You can make them healthy, vegan and nurturing, or utterly indulgent and comforting.

Below are just a few ways I make them, but what I hope you get from this is that you can mix up the milks, the toppings, the flavours, and just play around like I do!

Let me know what you think, and if you have any ideas of flavours I could incorporate into my breakfasts then comment below!

Plain oats with berry compote, goji berries and coconut

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Oats So Plenty!

Prep Time: 5 – 10 minutes     Cook Time: 15-20 minutes     Servings: 1

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup of oats per person.  Use gluten free if intolerant to oat gluten.  I normally use rolled oats, but I love mixing it up with steel cut oats to keep it more wholesome sometimes.  It can also be great to mix some chia seeds or flaxseed in with your oats for extra protein
• 1 cup of milk.  By milk, I mean anything!  Regular whole milk, semi-skimmed, skimmed, almond, coconut, rice, soy…whatever you fancy! I normally mix my cup of liquid with half water…you could even use all water if you wish, it’s completely up to you

Method

1. Pour in the oats and milk/water mix into a pan over a medium heat and keep stirring until it reaches the consistency you like.

Now, that’s the basic recipe.  What you can do is just keep it simple and pile on your toppings and flavour it that way. Some ideas are pictured below:

Plain oats topped with coconut, blueberries and coconut sugar

Plain oats topped with plum, cinnamon, brown demerara sugar and walnuts

Coconut milk oats with more coconut and berries

OR you can start to incorporate flavours into the oats when you cook.  One of my favourites is to mash a banana in with the milk, and then top with more banana or other fruits and nuts.  You can also add in berries to the mix, which turn the oats a beautiful colour.  Below are some of my recent creations:

Banana and sultana oats, topped with a berry compote

Mixed berry oats topped with more berries, pomegrante and coconut

Banana oats topped with mixed fruits and nuts and seeds

These are just some of my basic recipes.  I’ve included a few other recipe posts for Carrot Cake Oats, Chocolate Oats, and Upside Down Oats…take a look around and see if anything inspires you to mix up your breakfasts!