I recently received a sample of gluten-free oats from the Gluten Free Oats company out of Wyoming. Now I know that there has been much discussion among Celiacs and researchers as to the safety of eating oats. I too had been hesitant for a long while but after about seven years of missing oats I tried another company’s certified gluten free cookies and had no issues. While oats are not something I would eat everyday, they are a personal favorite of mine – in particular I really missed oatmeal.
So when this package arrived, I was so happy to actually have an option for raw oats that I could use any which way I wanted. The first thing I did with these is to make my own maple flavored oatmeal. Not only are the oats versatile, they are super quick and easy to make. In about 5 minutes on the stovetop you have a hot and filling oatmeal ready to go. I mixed in some pure maple syrup and it was 100 times better than any pre-packaged brand I remembered from my pre-diagnosis days. The oats cook up to the perfect consistency and I love that you can easily adjust the cooking time if you like them softer or firmer.
A few days later I decided to give one of the recipes on the bag a try and make their Monster cookies – which are essentially chocolate chip oatmeal peanut butter cookies. Now those of you that follow me regularly know I am the first person to admit I am not a baker – not by any stretch of the imagination. I do, however, follow recipes very well so thought I would give these a go. The recipe was super simple but I unfortunately had to omit one ingredient which resulted in essentially a pan full of chewy granola. Apparently my limited baking knowledge did not realize that not including the cup of peanut butter would have an effect on the consistency – who knew J. Not to be deterred, I simply greased a baking dish, dumped in the soft granola, let it set up and topped with a thick layer of dark melted chocolate. The end result was fabulous oatmeal bars that turned out amazing. But that’s the one think I like about cooking in general – you can always experiment and make things your own – just try not to mess with the laws of chemistry.
So, if you are looking for gluten-free oats head on over to the Gluten Free Oats Web site where you can order online, and check out their dedication to ensuring a gluten-free product.
