Oats

In the early sixties or earlier I had my first taste of oats and one thing for sure it is Quaker Oats. Till today the first thing that comes into my mind when anybody mentioned Quaker, oats will quickly register in my mind because Quaker was the only brand available when I was growing up I think. In those days we get to eat oats quite often for a while for breakfast only because it was really fast to prepare. It was kind of a fun then because I get to prepare it myself, actually everything was on the table and I just had to mix it myself after mum pour the boiling hot water in it. The recipe was very simple just oats, sugar and boiling hot water. I just cannot remember why or when I stop eating it but I can remember the taste, it is just a sweet and boring. I guess it must be the do it yourself part that makes me eat it and when the novelty died out I guess that is also when I stopped eating it ……hmmm ….. Maybe!

Just recently I just restarted to eat oats as a weapon to help me in my never ending battle with cholesterol and the famous battle of the bulge ……hehehe!! Even Sun Tzu is not able to help me here. Taking oats is my last resort at fighting cholesterol and if it does not work then…….. I stayed away from oats because eating oats is really boring and yucks!! So is exercising. Playing game and doing constructive labour is my way of spending energy other than the daily routine needs of walking, talking, eating and etcetera. Let’s hope I don’t really need to rely on exercise to help expand the stored energy.

OK I did mentioned that I tried walking and it was nice initially but I guess when it becomes a routine it is just boring to walk aimlessly even though I was burning calories. Swimming, errr …. Let us just continue with the oats OK? Hehe!! ….. Never thought that I would be eating oats again after all these years, oh well!!

If you were to Google oats you would get something like more than seven million sites talking about oats and I guess all of them are talking about how great oats are against cholesterol. Many people that I know say likewise and some even swear by it but not doctors, as far as I know none had recommended oats to me but fish yes…….mmm, I wonder why? To make eating oats bearable I first tried eating it by mixing with my coffee for breakfast and it tasted OK but I had to drink more coffee after drink eat the oat coffee so I guess it is a no no because coffee consumption will increase. Next I made oats sandwiches and it tasted quite good with lots of bite. It is really easy to make, just spread butter and kaya or jam if you like on a single slice of bread and top it up with instant oats. Then fold the bread once and hold tightly the end that is going in the mouth last so that the oats do not fall out …… try it, it is quite interesting and better than whole meal bread …hehe!!

Eating with bread the amount of oats consumed per day would not be enough so I decided to have for lunch and dinner as well if possible. Being an Asian and rice being my staple diet it is quite easy to include oats in my meals, I just reduce the amount of rice I am having and replace it with oats. There is no need to boil or cook the oats just use instant oats and add it into the rice and gravy or soup it. Oats don’t really have any kind of strong taste so everything just taste the same except for the structure, it is just like eating rice cooked with too much water. The beauty of it is that there is no real increase in intake and I should feel my pants getting looser.


So far to date I think I had consumed more than two kilos of instant oats and there are so much more variety of brands to choose from nowadays. I usually chose the cheapest and to date I had eaten three different brands and they are all the same in taste, I guess instant oats are just instant oats. My next cholesterol test is in September, so till then I am really keeping my fingers crossed.