I love oatmeal. I cook it myself almost every single day. (The pre-made packets are alright, but they usually contain too much extra sugar.)

Nevertheless, oatmeal is a great breakfast. It’s full of healthy, hearty grains, and fills you up - it “sticks to your gut” as they say. In other words, it keeps you feeling satisfied for hours.

I typically go with a cinnamon raisin flavor. I enjoy it, and it never gets old. Roughly speaking, here are the ingredients:

• Large bowl
• 1 1/2 cups Rolled Oats
• 2 tsp Cinnamon
• 1 tsp Organic Cane Sugar (optional, to taste)
• 1/2 cup Raisins
• 1 1/2 cups Milk

And here is how to put it all together:

Step 1: Rolled Oats

Dump about 1 1/2 cups of rolled oats into your large bowl. I usually use the quick oats (which are ground a bit more and make for easier cooking,) but some people swear by steel cut oats. Use whatever you prefer.

Step 2: Cinnamon

Now pour in the cinnamon! Cinnamon is extremely healthy, so I just dump it on. I’d say I use about 2 tsp, although you only need about 1/4 tsp to get great health benefits.

Step 3: Sugar

I usually put a little bit of organic cane sugar in, too. 1 or 2 tsp is plenty.

Step 4: Stir

Now that all the dry ingredients are in, stir them up with your spoon.

Step 5: Raisins

Add in 1/2 cup raisins. (This is where the real sweetness comes from.)

Step 6: Stir again

Now stir the raisins in so all the ingredients are mixed nicely.

Step 7: Milk

Add milk. I add enough to cover the oatmeal and saturate it. In a big bowl like this, that is about 1 1/2 cups. (With more milk, the oatmeal will be thin and soupy. With less milk, the oatmeal is thick and sticky.)

You can use skim or 1% milk; both are good for creating a creamy texture. You could also use water, but I hate oatmeal made with water, since it tends to be thin, clumpy, and flavorless.

Step 8: Microwave

Now put the bowl in the microwave to cook. I usually put the bowl in for a minute, then take it out and stir it, and then microwave again for about 35 seconds. This keeps it from clumping up.

Cooking time will vary by microwave and by size of bowl. (My huge serving size requires extra cooking time!)

Step 9: Eat

Sit back, relax, and enjoy eating your bowl of oatmeal!

* My bowl of oatmeal is pretty darn big. If for some reason you’d rather not have a 1,000 calorie bowl of oatmeal, you can scale back the portion sizes as you prefer. But I usually eat at least 3,000 calories per day, so my breakfast is usually this size.

While peanut butter and jelly is everyone’s favorite sandwich, there are quite a few other peanut butter combinations out there. My favorite would have to be the peanut butter and banana sandwich. But most peanut butter banana sandwiches are missing a critical step…

You have to toast the banana! A warm banana on warm bread, plus melting peanut butter, is great. So let’s put an end to warm bread and peanut butter plus cold, raw bananas!

You will need:

• 2 slices whole wheat bread
• 1 medium banana
• 1 or 2 Tbsp natural peanut butter

And then follow these instructions:

1. Grab two slices of bread.

Take your two slices of 100% whole wheat bread and lay them out side by side. One will be for the banana, one for the peanut butter.

2. Slice the banana.

Slice the banana into little circles (like you are putting it in a bowl of cereal.) Then spread the slices out on one slice of bread. Cover the entire slice of bread, using half-slices of banana to fill in the gaps.

3. Toast everything.

Put the bread and banana in the toaster oven. (Be careful when putting the banana slice in; you have to support the weight of the banana or the bread will flop over.)

Toast as desired, or until bread is golden brown. (Afterwards, remove bread from toaster.)

4. Spread peanut butter.

Spread peanut butter over the plain piece of toast.

5. Put it all together.

Put the peanut butter slice on top of banana slice. Cut in half and serve.

Mmm mmm, it’s all warm and gooey! Now isn’t that the best peanut butter and banana sandwich?

Are you fed up with paying $2 or more for a protein bar? I sure am, which is why I’ve been making my own energy bars and protein bars for the past five or six years. The recipe changes each time, but (with the help of my mother) I think I found something I can enjoy eating for a long time.

Without further ado, here is our recipe for a maple walnut flavor protein bar:

Ingredients:

• 4 1/2 cups Oat Flour (How to make your own oat flour.)
• 1 cup Honey
• 1 cup Plain Yogurt
• 3 scoops Protein Powder (1 scoop is 28g)
• 2 tbsp Maple Flavor
• 1/4 cup Organic Cane Sugar (optional)
• 1 cup Ground Flax Seed (Gold or Brown)
• 1 cup Chopped Walnuts or Pecans

1. Warm the Honey and Maple Flavor.

Warm Honey and Maple Flavor together, either on stove or in microwave. (Now is the time to add the sugar if desired.)

2. Stir in Yogurt.

Add the yogurt to the mix and stir it in.

3. Mix in dry ingredients.

Add Oat Flour, Flax Seed, Protein Powder, and walnuts. Stir.

If the mix seems too wet and sticky, add more Oat Flour.

4. Prep the pan.

Spray a 13″ x 9″ baking pan with non-stick spray. Then sprinkle on a little Oat Flour.

5. Pour mix in pan.

Drop the mix into pan and spread out the best you can. It should be stiff.

6. Smooth out the mix.

Finish pressing flat and smooth with wax paper sprayed with non stick spray. You can sprinkle some Oat Flour on the top also.

(The oat flour on the top and bottom of the bars will prevent them from sticking to your fingers.)

The easiest way to smooth this out is to spray your hands with non-stick spray and then press it down; the wax paper method is used if you don’t want to get your hands messy, or if you don’t want your greasy bike mechanic hands to contaminate the food.

Pressing down with your hand will give you a smoother top, though.

7. Cool bars.

Place pan in freezer for at least 3 to 4 hours before cutting. You can leave it overnight, but you may have to let it sit a while before cutting if it gets too cold.

8. Cut bars.

Cut the bars to whatever size you prefer using a butter knife. You could do bars or bite-size chunks. I like the bites. (Speaking of bites, these tasted quite a bit like the maple walnut flavor of Simbree Energy Bites, but these were more moist/wet.)

The finished product:

Mmm mmm, they’re really good! Let’s eat!

Like to cook healthy food at home? Then you might use one of my favorite ingredients - oat flour. Oat flour is great because it is a hearty, whole-grain flour. It blows away typical white flour when it comes to health benefits. (Oats contain soluble fiber which has been shown to reduce bad cholesterol and improve heart health, which is why Cheerios are promoted as good for your heart.)

Oat flour also makes a great substitute for whole wheat flour, especially if you are allergic to wheat! Or you can mix oat flour and wheat flour together for a healthy combo!

Whatever you do, you can easily make your own oat flour at home! Here’s how:

You need:

• Rolled oats
• Blender

This is a very simple process:

1. Dump some rolled oats in the blender.

2. Blend.

Then just keep blending until the oats have turned into powder, and ta-da! You now have oat flour!

That was extremely simple and easy, and there you have a healthy, 100% whole grain oat flour.

(Aside from cooking bread and making your own energy bars, it could even be formed into a paste to soothe a sunburn!)

A while back I posted about my hometown of Clearfield, PA getting some coverage for a nice running trail through our scenic areas. Well, it looks like Clearfield is making headlines again, but this time on national television!

Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub, home of the world’s largest hamburger, will be featured in a segment of the Rachael Ray show Monday, January 7, at 9:00 am on CBS. It should be a good skit featuring Justin Kredible and the 123 pound burger, filmed right in Clearfield. Denny’s world-record burgers have gotten press coverage before, but I think this is the first time there was a talk show appearance!

I’ll be tuning in, and everyone in Clearfield should do the same!

Of course, it would be much better if Rachael herself made an appearance in Clearfield, but maybe next time.

Photo credits: Denny’s and FHM