Gluten Free Maple Oatmeal

My favourite on a cold winter morning. I LOVE oatmeal. For years I didn’t go near it because my gut was in poor shape and so I found oatmeal a bit tough to digest, even if it was gluten free. However, I’ve healed my gut enough over the years to tolerate it and it gives my body so much wonderful fibre to feed the good bacteria in my system.

I like to keep my oatmeal really simple. Once you have a simple base, you can add whatever you enjoy. This is the type of thing where everyone will have different tastes. I like to add maple syrup and fresh berries to mine, since berries are another great source of fibre for your gut. Maple syrup makes it true Canadian oatmeal.

In addition to the fibre added by the oats and the berries, there are a few other things that make this oatmeal particularly good for you. The maple syrup is a natural sweetener than is a bit lower on the glycemic index (so it will mess with your blood sugar less). Your body will be happy that you didn’t add a heaping mount of brown sugar to your oatmeal, and the flavour of maple syrup is so much nicer. Just be sure to avoid that pesky “table syrup” that likes to pose as maple syrup - it’s full of nasty stuff. In addition to using a natural sweetener, I suggest using a non-dairy milk. If you tolerate milk products well then you can use cow’s milk, but dairy has become quite inflammatory for all of us since the implementation of pasteurization procedures. While pasteurization of milk removes any nasty bacteria, it also removes all of the good bacteria and the enzymes that naturally occur in raw milk enabling us to digest it. This is why many people have made the switch to non-dairy options like coconut milk, almond milk, cashew milk, etc. You can make your own nut milks, or buy them from the store. Just be careful when reading the ingredients to ensure that your non-dairy milk alternative isn’t full of added sugar or too many other additives. I personally find that homemade is best.

Finally, a nice dollop of nut butter adds that bit of protein to make sure that your oatmeal carries you through to your next meal.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup gluten free oats

1 cup milk (I prefer homemade almond milk, cashew milk or coconut milk which you can use by mixing water with canned coconut milk)

Pinch of salt

1 tbsp maple syrup

A handful of the fruit of your choice, frozen or fresh (fresh is better)

A heaping tbsp of nut butter (whatever you have around - almond, hazelnut, cashew, etc)

A bit of extra milk for serving

Walnuts for garnish

Put the 1 cup of milk into a small pot on the stove over medium-high heat with a pinch of salt. When it begins to simmer, add the oats and turn it down to medium-low. Let the oats simmer, stirring frequently, until the oats have soaked up the milk and are nice and creamy. Pour the oats into a bowl, and garnish with the remaining ingredients!

You could add some cinnamon to your oats, or even a dash of vanilla to make them even more delicious, but I like keeping this recipe simple since it should be an easy morning go-to.

Enjoy!