Breakfast and Beets

I guess it is pretty boring to blog about cereal. But I have to tell you about one I just tried. It is Bob's Red Mill Scottish Oats. I have always loved oatmeal (old fashioned, never instant!) But lately the texture is not appealing, for some reason. Too chewy (and eating steel cut oats or whole groats is really too chewy). Now you would think I would like this, since I hate instant oats. But I think that is more because of the cardboard taste than the creamy texture. So, on Bob's package, he explains that he went to Scotland and learned how they grind oats. The raw cereal is almost a powder, but it still has a few chunks. When cooked up (5 minutes in the micro), it is like the Cream of Wheat of my childhood, except that it has fiber and protein! With some orange dried cranberries, a few walnuts, and vanilla Silk, it is heaven on earth!

And then there are the beets. Who hated beets as a child? Well, I never tasted them till I was an adult, and then it was pickled from a jar (which I also love). But fresh beets - yum! They are so easy to cook - roast for about an hour wrapped in foil. Then the skins slip right off. I have always made a kickin' horseradish vinaigrette for them, but recently I came across this recipe for a salad with a Moroccan dressing in Stop the Clock Cooking by Cheryl Forberg. It also has tomatoes in it, which never occured to me, but is delicious!