10 ways to make your oatmeal more appealing!

Apple and Strawberry Puree with Coconut

I have heard people talk about how boring oatmeal/porridge is, but it’s something that I have never understood!!! Growing up weekend porridge was a tradition and a treat for us. Different to the school mornings that consisted of Vegemite on toast, we would wake up on a saturday or sunday morning to find Dad making porridge for the 7 of us (5 kids!), and would add to it all sorts of delicious toppings. Porridge on the weekends is one of my favourite childhood memories.

Since being married we have occasionally had porridge phases, however recently I had a bit of a scare at the doctor when I found out that I had high cholesterol. We have a family history of high cholesterol and heart disease and now I’m going to try my very best to cut foods high in cholesterol out of my diet and increase my fiber intake. Step one: porridge each morning. The Australian Heart Foundation has a great website that give you  tips on how to lower your cholesterol through diet rather than medication. http://www.heartfoundation.org.au/healthy-eating/food-and-nutrition-facts/Pages/default.aspx. On the cereals page it highlights that porridge oats are a great source of wholegrains that can not only aid in digestion but are really low in saturated fats and therefore cholesterol!

Now back to the boring porridge. Porridge has NEVER been boring for me because there are some seriously tasty healthy ways to bring a bit of excitement to it. Here are 10 that I have tried and tested and find DELICIOUS!

1.
A small handful sultanas/raisins
1 tbs desiccated or shredded Coconut
Half a banana sliced

2.
1/4 cup of  fresh apple chopped finely
2 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon 

3.
3 tbs apple and strawberry puree (golden valley fruit puree is what I used above, they come in lots of different brands and varieties though) 
1 tbs shredded coconut

4.
1 tbs honey
Half a banana sliced

5.
1/2 cup chopped dried dates

6.
 2 tbs low fat vanilla yogurt
1 tsp ground cinnamon 

7. 
2 tbs low fat vanilla yogurt 
1/4 cup fresh or frozen berries (just add frozen berries to the oatmeal while it is still too hot to eat) 

8. 
2 tbs apple juice
A small handful of sultanas/raisins 

9.
2 tbs dried cranberries
1 tbs shredded coconut

10.
1/4 cup of the fresh fruit of your choice
2 tbs chopped walnuts or pecans 

 

On a side note, I always cook my oats in water with a pinch of salt. If my porridge is too thick I add a little soy milk (cholesterol free!). This also makes the porridge smoother.

I hope you’ll be having some delicious oatmeal/porridge this weekend!!

Hot Cross Scones

My husband and I both love hot cross buns and they are certainly very popular around Easter time. However every time I go to the supermarket I really feel like I am being ripped off having to pay so much for 6 which we would probably consume in one day! The recipes are actually really low cost and the only thing that we had to buy was some sultanas/rasins! However, after arriving home with my sultanas I realised that I had run out of plain flour! So, I used a recipe for scones and essentially made hot cross scones! This recipe was REALLY FAST as they do not need the rising time that the yeast in bread requires, and the scones were still VERY tasty. I also think that this recipe is very child friendly, it might me a nice family Easter activity which allows you to explain all about why there is a cross on hot cross buns!

Ingredients:

• 3 cups self-raising flour
• 1/2 tsp of salt
• 1 1/2 tsp mixed spice
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 60g butter
• 4 tbs sugar
• 1/2 cup sultanas and rasins
• 1 egg beaten
• 1 cup milk

Crosses

• 1/2 cup plain flour
• 1/3 cup water

Glaze

• 1/3 cup water
• 2 tbs caster sugar

Preheat oven to 220C

Sift dry ingretients into a bowl

Rub butter until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs

Stir sugar and egg into dry ingredients and enough milk to form a soft dough.

Turn onto a floured board and knead lightly.

Pat out to approximately 1cm thickness and using a 5cm round cutter, cut into scones.

place onto a lightly greased oven tray.

Crosses: mix together four and water to make a soft paste (I added about a tablespoon extra water as it was easier to pipe). Using a piping bag and small plain tube, pipe a cross on each scone.

Bake at 220C for 12-15 min.

Glaze: in a small saucepan combine the water and caster sugar, bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes.

Remove scones from oven and brush warm scones with warm glaze.

We ate them with melted butter which was delicious!

Happy Easter!

Lauren

Welcome!

Two Sweet Potatoes is the beginning of Olivia and Lauren’s culinary adventures!

We love to cook and have decided to start this blog as we both have a million recipe books that we have not used nearly enough, leaving our husbands wondering why we keep buying them!

We love international food, sweet food, sour food, savoury food, hot food, cold food, slow-cooked food, healthy food, NOT healthy food, and we believe that cooking some really tasty food can not only be fast but also VERY cheap.  

Lauren is a nurse who loves to spend her spare time in the kitchen surprising her husband (who has fairly low expectations of Lauren’s cooking based on several strange meals early on in their marriage)! Olivia, who is studying to be a teacher, loves cooking with her husband who is completing law school. As they are both students, they are perfecting the art of super cheap and super tasty diners!

We hope that our blog gives you some great ideas for meals to make at home, and we hope we enjoy writing it!