Sweet and Tart Cherry Oatmeal
1/2 cup old fashioned oatmeal
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup red tart cherries in Water (canned fruit often used in pies; it's in any grocery store)
1/4 cup juice from the canned cherries
sweetener of your choice (I used Stevia; it all depends on your taste)
I have tried fruit in my oatmeal several times, but nothing but apples have really suited me with the limited supplies of college life. This recipe is perfect if you're in a time crunch on your way to class!
1. Put oatmeal in microwave-safe bowl
2. Mix in 3/4 cup water and 1/4 cup of the juice from the cherries. Make sure you get the cherries packed in water! This ensures that the juice is tart rather than REALLY sweet.
3. Add in sweetener of your choice. I used stevia and put two of the tiny scoops of stevia... I would guess that's about 2 teaspoons of regular sugar, but I like my oatmeal sweet :)
4. Mix the oatmeal well to dissolve the sweetener.
5. Pop that baby in the microwave for two and a half minutes.
6. Remove the oatmeal and stir well. Put in 1/4 cup of the cherries (drained)
7. Microwave an additional 15 seconds
8. If it's not sweet enough, add some more sweetener!
This WAS so nice for a change. I love the sweet and sour flavor. It's a nice kick for your morning breakfast! I also like adding some fresh fruit preserves... all I had was sugar-free strawberry, and I really liked about a tablespoon of that in exchange for some of the sweetener!
SO HOW'D IT GO?
Does anybody know about the health issues re: stevia?
Hey Allison! All I've heard is good things about stevia... I looked up the health benefits and toxicity concerns and I found this site had the best information: http://www.stevia.net/ It seems to me that there still needs to be more research done, but in my opinion a natural herb is a lot better than any of the artificial chemicals that the FDA has approved for use as an artificial sweetener.
I'm sure the recipe would work really well with agave. Stevia is the only "natural" artificial sweetener I know of, but if you use splenda, I've used it with that as well. Good luck!
Does anybody know about the health issues re: stevia? I was interested in trying this recipe but have found out that you cannot buy stevia in UK (and in Europe as a whole from what I have read) as it is banned due to "potential toxicity problems"?? Anyway - I'll try this recipe but with some agave instead (just wanted to lower the calories a bit!!)