All this is said not to make you feel sorry for me. (Well, maybe a little.) Mostly I bring this up to tell you of a horror that this illness directly caused...
A hatred for oat bran.
Oat bran, my favorite food in the world.
I ate oat bran twice while I was sick. Pumpkin oat bran, to be exact. I was on some meds that altered my taste and smelling perceptions, and nearly everything set in front of me seemed utterly revolting. I was shocked. Normally I have a voracious appetite. I love food: I have a food blog and a food-related bachelor's degree, for crying out loud! So this oat bran aversion was a surprise to me and to everyone who knows me, the girl who basically sings herself to sleep with oatmeal lullabies. (...not to mention I barely ate a single veggie in two weeks, and normally I eat at least five servings of vegetables a day! Nutrition Nightmare!)
Once my throat inflammation subsided and I could swallow foods other than Gatorade, almond milk, and partial pints of Purely Decadent with coconut milk Cookies 'n Cream (this was essentially my diet for over a week), I tried to eat a real breakfast again. For a few days, I became obsessed with sunflower seed butter/dried fig/grilled banana sandwiches on toast grilled with Earth Balance. It was delicious. But soon the oatmeal void opened in me again, but I didn't know how to fill it. I couldn't and still can't stand the idea of a big mushy bowl of oat bran.
Chocolate-Covered Katie saved my life. She posted about an oatmeal cake she made in the oven, lovingly referred to as a "boatmeal" cake, a hybrid word of "baked" and "oatmeal."
Katie inverts the bowl after baking, and a cake pops out! So cute. So delicious, as it turned out. I knew I could swallow some oats if, instead of mushy oat bran, they were the thickest rolled oats I could buy. So I got some thick cut rolled oats from the Whole Foods bulk bins, and I revamped Katie's recipe to suit my new dislike of pumpkin-infused oats and my obsession with dried Turkish figs and sunflower butter. There's some granola included for added crunchy surprises and some measurements are by weight, because I am in love with my food scale. But I shall not put you, dear readers, through further suspense. Let's eat some cake for breakfast! Here is my beautiful creation:
Ruby Red's Boatmeal Cake
Serves 1
1 Tablespoon ground flaxseed
3 Tablespoons non-dairy milk (I used vanilla almond milk)
60 grams sliced banana (about 1/2 medium banana)
35 grams thick rolled oats (a scant 1/2 cup)
1 dash sea salt
1/4 cup non-dairy milk (I used unsweetened soymilk - I am a weirdo and blend different non-dairy milks in a lot of my recipes)
2 big fat dried Turkish figs
3 Tablespoons granola (I used my favorite, Hemp Plus Granola by Nature's Path)
Earth Balance, canola oil, or cooking spray, to coat your cooking container
16 grams sunflower seed butter (about 1 tablespoon; I used the divine Naturally Nutty Pepita Sun Seed Butter, a pumpkin seed & sunflower seed butter with hints of cinnamon and allspice)
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F.
In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together flaxseed and the 3 tablespoons non-dairy milk. Add in the banana slices and mash everything together with a fork. Stir in the rolled oats, salt, and 1/4 cup non-dairy milk. Chop the figs into medium-ish pieces and stir in. Lastly, fold in the granola.
Grease a small oven-safe bowl (I used a Pyrex 2-cup glass bowl) with Earth Balance, canola oil, or cooking spray. Pour the ingredients from your mixing bowl into the greased bowl. Bake your bowl o' oats for 15 minutes. Go do a happy dance while you're waiting, wash some dishes, or go stalk the archives of my blog. Go ahead, you have my permission.
Once your 15 minutes are up, move the bowl to a position under the broiler and broil on high for 2 minutes 45 seconds.
Remove from oven and gently pry the oatmeal from the sides of the bowl. Flip the bowl upside down onto a small plate. Scrape any leftover pieces from the bowl and mush onto the top of your boatmeal cake.
Finally, place half of your sunflower seed butter on top of the cake. Reserve the other half of the sunflower butter in a little dish for when you are halfway through eating the cake. Reapply that butter and eat the last delicious half of your oat delight.
You can thank Katie and me later.
Oh, and the "I'm On a Boat" reference? Please see this video if you don't understand.
