Be afraid, be very afraid… of starting your day with too much energy. I’ve created a monster… a healthy beast made of oatmeal, apples and bananas. My, what big teeth he has.  The better to eat you with! Or more correctly stated, the better for you to eat because his choppers are made of delicious slivered almonds.  In this article, I’ll show you two ways to make apple teeth – one with almonds and the other with peanut butter and marshmallows.

Making apple teeth with almonds is super easy. Cut an apple into quarters and then take a slice out of each quarter.  Next, just poke in almond slivers for the teeth.  Done. As you’ll notice, I also tried using toasted almonds.  That turned out great because they look like dirty teeth.

I played around with using a cherry to act as a tongue.   It didn’t work how I wanted.  You can see above that it made the teeth look like eyes.  Too weird.  And this is coming from a guy who just spent hours making teeth out of food.

The second way to make apple teeth isn’t quite as impressive looking, but it may be a little more delicious.  For these, you cut an apple into wedges.  Spread peanut butter on one side of each wedge.  Then, arrange mini-marshmallows as teeth.  Sandwich the wedges together and you’re ready to stick your teeth into your teeth.

As with the almonds, it’d probably be fun to toast the mini-marshmallows.  I’ll leave it to you to find a miniature campfire and a tiny stick.

So, that’s all there is to it.  Put the teeth in a bowl of oatmeal with some banana eyes to make your own breakfast monster.  You can do the same thing on a pancake or a waffle.

This can be a fun Halloween project for kids.  They’ll love helping to make apple teeth and they’ll love eating them. If you can make apples seem cool in this season of candy, that’s quite an accomplishment.

Happy Halloween breakfast lovers!

I have to go now.  There’s a Goblin in my Granola!  Another story for another time.

Additional Resources:

Oatmeal, Pancake And Waffle Recipes

More Halloween Breakfast Recipes

The idea of savory oatmeal might sound weird to people used to sweetened packets of oatmeal or simple Old Fashioned oats with brown sugar, etc.  If done wrong, savory oatmeal is weird.  If you use the right oats and treat them like rice or other grains associated with savory dishes, the result is pretty cool.

This post started when I tested a recipe submitted to the site called Billbo’s Cheddar Oatmeal.  It received a handful of positive comments and I wanted to try it for myself.

The ingredients were super simple: Old Fashioned oats, milk, cheese and sugar.   It’s a microwave recipe that takes only 2 minutes.

The recipe worked and I understood why some people liked it.  Unfortunately, I personally didn’t like it that much.  My mental association of Old Fashioned oats with sweet ingredients is very strong and it took a few spoonfuls to accept that I was eating something savory.

As I was trying it, my overriding thought was that it would be better with steel-cut oats. Steel-cut oats have a firmer, rice-like texture. That kind of texture makes more sense in a savoy dish than the mushy texture you get from Old Fashioned or quick cooking oats.

From experience, I know that steel-cut oatmeal always benefits from the savory flavors of butter and salt. It seemed totally feasibly that they would get along with cheese.

I also thought… as I always do… that the dish would be better with bacon… which everything always is.

So I set out to experiment with steel-cut oats, hoping to achieve something that would transcend oatmeal as we commonly know it.

Steel-cut oats require about 30 minutes cooking time.  I found that if I let the oats set for an additional 10 minutes, the texture became a bit more creamy and reminiscent of risotto.

I was right.  When mixed with cheese and bacon, steel-cut oats are 100 times better than Old Fashioned oats.  I used LOTS of cheese and bacon.  The oat flavor worked with the savory ingredients, but it worked best when it was overpowered by the cheese and bacon… leaving the oats to act as more of a texture agent than an equal flavor component.

The thing that brought the dish together was a sunny-side-up egg in each serving.  Breaking the yolk and allowing that extra bit of richness to permeate the oats was like putting salt on popcorn…  It just needed it.

In theory, you could add any cheese, herbs, sautéed vegetables or cooked meat to any prepared oatmeal.  But I’d urge you to take the time to use steel-cut oats.  After you try it, it opens the door to many more flavor combinations:  Tex-Mex Pepper Jack Oatmeal,  Gruyère & Sausage Oatmeal,  Parmesan Pizza Oatmeal… and on and on.

This post is a companion piece to 2 recipes from MrBreakfast.com:

Bacon Cheddar Steel-Cut Oatmeal

Billbo’s Cheddar Oatmeal

For over 150 other oatmeal breakfast ideas, visit our Oatmeal Recipe Collection.

Recipe Realities:

My experiments with savory oatmeal brought me to an interesting conclusion.  It made me realize how much I love grits.  You can make oats work in a savory context, but it will always feel like an experiment.  The corn porridge cousin of oatmeal is grits.  When you pair grits with cheese, butter and bacon, it’s like pairing a bird with the sky.  Some things are just naturally meant to be together.

I started this post with the title question, “Bacon Cheddar Oatmeal?”  I had hoped that the answer would be a resounding “yes.”  As it turns out, the answer is “sure… but if you have grits, make Bacon Cheddar Grits instead.”

Here’s 25 grits recipes you might want to try.

Every now and then, I need to hit the reset button on my nutritional intake. As a rule, I try to squeeze a healthy breakfast of whole grains and fruit between each indulgent breakfast. But sometimes you’ll read a post here about donuts. That usually means I had a few consecutive mornings of overindulgence. Such was the case recently.

To get back on track, I spent last week having a different kind of oatmeal and smoothie every morning. I chose 14 recipes from the site that I’d hadn’t tested yet. I tried to create a menu with a wide range of flavors so the week would be exciting and fun (words not always associated with oatmeal).

It was a great week. I was reminded that oatmeal doesn’t need to be boring or routine. My beliefs about smoothies being amazing… totally reaffirmed. Who doesn’t love a recipe whose only instructions are to throw everything in a blender. I feel energized, a little leaner and ready to take on the deliciously difficult task of having to eat omelets and pancakes this week.

Take a look at my menu. Hopefully, you’ll find a recipe or two you might like to try.

Monday

Key Lime Pie Oatmeal – This steel-cut oatmeal dish tastes a lot like key lime pie because it contains many of the same ingredients including fresh lime juice and crumbled graham cracker.

Honey Banana Breakfast Shake – This is a very basic fruit smoothie featuring bananas, strawberries and noticeable notes of honey.

Tuesday

Banana Honey Flax Oatmeal – This recipe uses Old Fashioned oats and gets its flavor from bananas and honey with a nutrition boost from ground flax seeds.

Choco-Peanut Banana Shake – Three great tastes that taste great together! This smoothie contains peanut butter and cocoa powder. The flavor might remind you of a shake you’d have for dessert. Wheat germ adds extra nutrition.

Wednesday

Chocolate Hazelnut Banana Oatmeal – A couple of tablespoons of Nutella adds chocolate flavor to these Old Fashioned oats. A few chocolate chips add even more!

Cinnamon Smoothie – This smoothie has a little of everything: banana, raspberries, blueberries, orange juice, vanilla, etc. A pinch of cinnamon gives this one an almost candy-like essence.

Thursday

Sweet Scottish Oatmeal – This recipe uses steel-cut (aka Irish or Scottish oats) flavored simply with modest amounts of butter and brown sugar. I topped mine with raisins, walnuts and a splash of cold milk.

Banana Coffee Smoothie – For this smoothie, you’re supposed to use coffee flavored yogurt, but you can also use plain or vanilla yogurt and stir in instant coffee crystals. That’s what I did.

Friday

Maple Apple Raisin Oatmeal – This oatmeal is made from Old-Fashioned oats. There are pieces of apple and raisins in every bite. For more taste and texture, I added a few chopped pecans.

Oatmeal Smoothie – For a double dose of heart healthy oats, try an oatmeal smoothie. The blended oats make the smoothie thicker without really effecting the taste. The drink pictured above was pretty good. I personally prefer a recipe I tested last year called Banana Oatmeal Smoothie.

Saturday

Curach (Irish Honey Cream Oatmeal) – For the start of the weekend, how about a shot of Irish whiskey in your oats. Steel-cut oats are toasted and added to whipped cream that’s been flavored with the whiskey and honey. Then, fresh raspberries are added to make a fruit parfait.

Easy Orange Smoothie – This smoothie reminded me of an Orange Julius. If you’ve ever had one, you know that’s a good thing. This one uses orange juice concentrate instead of fresh juice.

Sunday

Pineapple Coconut Oatmeal – To close out the week, I went tropical… a taste of the islands in a bowl (or in this case… a tin) of oatmeal. Toasted coconut is used as a garnish.

Hawaiian Twist Smoothie – Completing my island-inspired breakfast is a smoothie with flavors of banana, pineapple and coconut. Aloha!

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to oatmeal and smoothie recipes on MrBreakfast.com. Check out the following sections for many, many more options:

The Oatmeal Recipe Collection (156 recipes as of March 2014)

The Smoothie & Breakfast Drink Collection (167 recipes as of March 2014)

In this post, I’m recreating Blueberry Muffin Oatmeal from Jack In The Box. They charged me $2.49 per serving at the restaurant.  I calculate the price to make it at home to be about $0.60 per serving.  Their version tastes good.  I’m fairly confident that my version tastes better.

When you order this oatmeal from Jack In The Box, the first thing you’ll notice is that it’s not so much a serving of oatmeal as it is an oatmeal kit.

When you open the bowl of oats, you might be dismayed to find that it’s barely half full.  It may also be disheartening to discover their “blueberry blend” is a combination of blueberries and raisins.

When you assemble the oatmeal, the result is visually pleasing and the taste is actually quite nice. The flavor is vaguely reminiscent of a blueberry muffin. All in all, I liked their oatmeal, but there wasn’t much of it and it left me wanting more.

I analyzed the Jack In The Box components in preparation for my recreation (aka improvement).  The oats were unflavored except for sweetener.  They appeared to be quick-cooking oats (compared to larger Old Fashioned oats).  Due to their tiny size, the “blueberries” softened quickly and added a decent amount of flavor.  However, more blueberry flavor would have been preferable.  The crumble topping was the major component of distinction.  It added a welcome crunch and tasted a bit like crumbled oatmeal cookie.

Before I show you the wholesome homemade version, get a load of the ingredients in the fast food version:

Jack In The Box Oatmeal: Water, Whole Grain Rolled Oats and Sugar. Contains
2% or less of: Coconut Oil, Salt, Modified Food Starch, Mono and Diglycerides, Tricalcium Phosphate, Soybean Oil, Natural and Artificial Flavors, Caramel Color.

The Blueberry Blend: Dried Blueberries (Wild Blueberries, Sugar, Sunflower Oil) and Zante Currant Raisins (Raisins, Sunflower Oil).

The Crumble Topping: Brown Sugar, Oats, Butter (Cream, Salt), Enriched Flour (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Natural Flavor, Salt, Baking Powder (Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Sodium Bicarbonate, Cornstarch, Monocalcium Phosphate).

For my version, I opted for all blueberries. (Whoever heard of raisins in a blueberry muffin?) I also thought I’d be best to leave out any ingredients ending with “glycerides” or “phosphate”.  I created a crumble topping specifically for this oatmeal, but a quality granola works almost as well. Since store-bought dried blueberries are bigger than those in the fast food packet, I decided to stir them into the oats early in the recipe so they would have a better chance to re-hydrate.

Blueberry Muffin Oatmeal Recipe

• 2 cups quick-cooking oats
• 1 and 2/3 cups water
• 1/4 teaspoon salt,
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 Tablespoons sugar
• 1/4 to 1/3 cup dried blueberries
• milk – for consistency

In a medium saucepan, bring the water, oats and salt to a boil.  As soon as it reaches a boil, reduce the heat to a simmer.  Stir in all remaining ingredients and let simmer (stirring occasionally) for 3 or 4 minutes or until dried blueberries have softened.  Stir in milk 1 Tablespoon at a time until you get the perfect consistency.

Top with crushed granola or try this recipe for a crumble topping made specifically for oatmeal.

Makes 4 servings.

Now that we’ve successfully recreated the oatmeal, let’s make it even better.  Throw a handful of fresh blueberries on top for Double Berry Deluxe Blueberry Muffin Oatmeal.

For 155 other homemade oatmeal ideas, visit the Oatmeal Recipes section of MrBreakfast.com:

This oatmeal tastes like banana cream pie!  It gets big banana flavor from mashed and sliced bananas and a creamy richness from a modest amount of sweetened condensed milk.  If you add a dollop of whipped cream, you’re in for the full banana cream pie near-experience.  For the more diet conscience, you can skip the whipped cream and still get a pretty serious pie flashback.

This recipe is a modified version of a popular recipe on MrBreakfast.com called Banana Cream Oatmeal.

Here’s how to do it:

The ingredients are 2 cups of oats (Old Fashioned or quick-cooking), 1/3 cup sweetened condensed milk, a hint of cinnamon and 3 bananas.  The original recipe asked for 2 bananas, but I found that it really benefited from one more.

Prepare the oats as directed on the package.  I tried it with both quick cooking and Old Fashioned oats.  The end result was the same.  Both kinds of oats required 4 cups of water (double the amount of oats).  The only difference was – as you might expect – the quick cooking oats cooked quicker.

As the oats are cooking, mash two bananas.

Slice the remaining banana into coins.

When the oats have the constancy you like, stir in the mashed bananas, condensed milk and some cinnamon.  Top each serving with banana coins and final dash of cinnamon.

I added raspberries to make the pictures pop.  I found that they also made the recipe pop.  So, add ‘em if you got ‘em.

There it is… a delicious, unique oatmeal that takes about 15 seconds longer to make than it takes to make just the oats.  One might say, “It’s easy as pie!”

This post is a companion piece to the following recipe on MrBreakfast.com:

Banana Cream Oatmeal

It’s a crucial time of year for many people.  You may have made a resolution to eat healthier in the new year.  For the first few days, egg whites, wheat toast and packets of oatmeal seemed satisfying.  But after a few days, those things began to seem boring.  I have a solution for your resolution… an oatmeal revolution… Crock-Pot Carrot Cake Oatmeal with a decadent Cream Cheese Frosting Drizzle.

I’m ahead of the game resolution-wise.  I resolved to eat more oatmeal and use my crock-pot more.

Before we start…. an admission.  If you make this without the drizzle, it’s not as special.  It tastes fine but lacks a certain joie de vivre.  But as soon as you add the Cream Cheese Frosting Drizzle, magic happens.  It immediately starts to taste almost exactly like carrot cake.

Here’s how to do it:

For the short and sweet, printable recipe, click here.

The ingredients list is long, but the cooking process is amazingly simple.  Grab a couple grated carrots, some steel cut oats, water, maple syrup, applesauce, raisins, chopped nuts, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla.  Chuck all that stuff in a slow cooker.  Give it a stir and then cook on low for 8 hours.

After 8 hours, stir it up – adding a little milk until the consistency is just how you like it.  Top each serving with a little Cream Cheese Frosting Drizzle.

To make the Cream Cheese Frosting Drizzle, just take some cream cheese, confectioner’s sugar, milk, vanilla and salt and whisk it up until a smooth frosting forms.  Add just enough additional milk so that it drips off the whisk in thick stream.  Dribble that good stuff over each serving and prepare to be dazzled.  It’s a good idea to have your cream cheese at room temperature.  The drizzle comes together much easier that way.  Another thing I like to do is place my mixing bowl over a pan of warm water.  A little gentle heat makes the mixing go smoother.

A Quick Note About Crock-Pots:

Over the years, I’ve learned that crock-pot recipes work only as good as your crock-pot works.  In so many recipes for slow cookers, you see a huge dichotomy in the comments and reviews.  The same recipe can work to perfection for half the people.  The other less fortunate half report scorching and crusty edges.  In most every case, the disappointed have crock-pots whose low setting cooks too high.  The solution is to get to know your slow cooker.  Like it or not, I know that 3/4 into the cooking time I need to stir the ingredients and probably add a little more liquid.  People with awesome crock-pots can sleep through an 8 hour cooking time.  Not me.  I have to set an alarm and wake up two hours earlier.  I’ve learned to live with it.

In short, check this oatmeal after 6 hours if you have any doubts about your crock-pot.  If the sides and bottom are cooking too fast, give everything a stir and add a few more tablespoons of water.

This post is a companion piece to the following recipe on MrBreakfast.com:

Crockpot Carrot Cake Oatmeal

For over 140 more oatmeal recipes, check out The Oatmeal Collection on MrBreakfast.com.

Bonus:

Here’s two more ways to have carrot cake for breakfast…

Carrot Cake Coffee Cake

Carrot Cake Pancakes With Frosting

There’s only six ingredients in the whole thing: oats, an orange, cranberries, brown sugar, vanilla and salt.  In just six minutes, you can make this oatmeal from scratch.  That’s just five minutes more than it takes to open a packet.

This one gets my personal guarantee of taste.  I hope you’ll give it a try.

The Recipe:  Orange Cranberry Oatmeal

Watch Mr Breakfast (Me) make this recipe: