Welcome to Blueberry Oatmeal with Cinnamon

Welcome to My Blog

Hi I'm Cindy.  I am happily married and a mother of five girls between 10-20.  I am originally from Skokie, Illinois and have been living in Israel for 27 years!

I've been talking forever about starting a blog.  I love cooking.  Actually,  I am obsessed with cooking and all things food. In recent years I have become much more health conscious but always with balance.  I.e. I use grains, legumes, whole wheat bread, olive oil, etc. etc. but things like choc chip cookies, hamburgers and pizza still would make their way into my home at least once a week (ok, probably more...).

A few months ago my blood tests showed that I have borderline diabetes (pre-diabetes) and borderline cholesterol.  My doctor instructed me to go to a dietician and to follow her plan for three months and she basically said that if I don't or if I do and it doesn't work then she will have no choice but to put me on medication, for the pre-diabetes not the cholesterol.

As this condition can often be controlled with diet and exercise, that sounded like a good plan except that this scenario took place right before the Jewish holiday of Purim when we eat Hamantashen (yummy jam filled cookies) and exchange Mishloach Manot (food packages).  A month after Purim comes Pesach (Passover) where we consume large amounts of carbs (Matza and potatoes) and tons of eggs.  Yet another reason to procrastinate... Immediately after Pesach my husband and I were going on our long-awaited dream trip to Italy and how could I not enjoy all the pasta, pizza and gelato!  So we came back from Italy and I had my appointment all scheduled but for technical reasons I had to push it off and then it was Shavuot--the holiday when we eat Cheesecake and lots of highfat cheesy things.

So... the excuses finally ran out, we now have no Jewish holidays until September.  I went to the dietician and found out that I don't have to make such major life changes as I thought but now I am much more conscious of what I eat and drink and how it effects my health.  In this blog, I plan to share lots of recipes, most healthy and some others and to share with you my experiences on my journey to control my health. So on to the recipe which holds the name of this blog.

Blueberry Oatmeal with Cinnamon

I have now embarked on a journey to heal myself through nutrition or more correctly, to prevent future health issues through nutrition.   I've begun to learn that to lower cholesterol and sugar in your blood is not only about what not to eat but also about what you should eat.  There are many foods that you can eat to help increase your HDL (good cholesterol) and lower your LDL and there are others(or some of the same) that can help you control your sugar.  The good news is that I like most of these foods! And guess what three of these foods are blueberries, oatmeal and cinnamon!  

So today, I went grocery shopping and couldn't wait to get home and start making my late breakfast.

The Recipe

Serves 1

1/2 cup of quick cooking oatmeal (I used organic--not for any reason besides that it was on sale!)

1 cup low fat milk

1 teaspoon brown sugar (I know that I should probably leave this out but my dietician said it's sort of ok)

1/2 T cinnamon

1/4 cup frozen blueberries (if you have fresh then go for it--we can't find them around here)

Instructions:

1. Put milk, oats, cinnamon and sugar together in a small saucepan on the stovetop and bring to a boil while stirring
2. Cook for approximately 2 mins until thick
3. When fully cooked stir in blueberries they will defrost inside the oatmeal
4. Eat and enjoy!