Oatmeal Mix-In
Do you get out seemingly a dozen jars every time you make oatmeal? Joel Fuhrman, Michael Greger, and all the health experts I follow agree that nuts, seeds and spices are an important part of our daily diet. This mix will make it easy to get the vital nutrition of nuts and seeds into your diet every day. I also add some dates so I don’t have to add maple syrup to my oatmeal and still get some sweetness.
Want to live a long life? Nuts and seeds are strongly linked to longevity. One daily serving of nuts reduces the risk of death from all causes by 27 percent and cardiovascular death by 39 percent. A reduced risk of death from cancer was also reported.18
So just whirl this mixture up in your food processor, and it can sweeten and add texture and flavor to your oatmeal in one shake. Add whatever you have, skip what you don’t like. Make it personalized just for you! My recipe is just an example. You could add coconut, peanuts, pecans, cranberries, cacao nibs, whatever!
Nuts and seeds promote brain health, prevent heart disease and cancer, improve gut health, and even can help with weight loss (which you can read about in Dr. Fuhrman’s article linked below). To read more about the health benefits of seeds, check out this article at NutritionFacts.Org, or this fascinating list of benefits from Dr. Joel Fuhrman. It is advised to eat at least 1-2 ounces of nuts and seeds every day, and even more if you slim. Raw and unsalted is the best way to go.
If you have ever checked off your food on the Daily Dozen app (a very fun and do-able approach to ensuring good nutrition), a bowl of oatmeal like this is 1 seving of whole grains, 1 serving of berries, 2 servings of other fruits, and 1-2 servings of nuts and seeds, and 1 serving of legumes if you use soy milk. That’s 7 right there!
I batch-cook steel cut oats in our Instant Pot every Monday, and we warm some up each morning and add fruit, milk and this mixture. Easy, super quick, extremely filling, delicious and nutritious.
Create a mix of your favorite oatmeal stir-ins, so you it's a one-stop shop to oatmeal power and flavor.
- 4-8 dates (dried fruit such as apricots or raisins would work, too)
- 1/4 cup ground flax seed
- 1/4 cup hemp seeds
- 1/4 cup chia seeds
- 1/4 cup sesame seeds
- 1/4 cup sunflower seeds
- 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp nutmeg
- 1 tsp allspice
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In a food processor, blend up the pitted dates until they are chopped fine and form a ball.
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Pour in the rest of the ingredients you want to use. You can use whatever you like and have on hand. Mix it up and make this personalized just for you.
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Store in a jar in the fridge (ground seeds oxidize quickly and refrigeration helps keep their nutrition longer). Pour onto a bowl of oatmeal, on top of pancakes topped with applesauce, onto a bowl of chopped apple with lemon juice, or any other way you can think of!
