Jamie's Food Revolution

Ok readers, don't ignore the regular new release post below, but I felt that thanks to my choppy appearance here lately, that I owed you a little something extra. So I wanted to share a breakfast recipe with you, based on one of Mr. Oliver's.

Now, if you have purchased or skimmed through Jamie Oliver's latest cookbook, then you know that his latest mission is to get more folks in the kitchen, cooking for themselves. Not to stop eating out altogether, but to cook in your kitchen more often.

And in the opening of the book, he asks that people pass on at least one recipe from each chapter, and to encourage others to do the same. Oliver has a ton of recipes at his website, but unfortunately not the one that I wanted to share with you here. I would have preferred linking to it, but instead, since I had to adapt it for my own kitchen staples, I'll tell you what I did.

I'm not a huge breakfast person -- well, I am if someone wants to come fix a good ol' traditional Southern (or Irish for that matter) breakfast for me with eggs, bacon, biscuits and gravy, hash browns, and iced tea (yes, I prefer mine with iced tea). I rarely get all this going myself. If I'm feeling particularly awake, I might fry up some eggs with some grits. As much as I love bacon, I can't keep it in the house. We eat it as soon as I buy it and next time I think to buy it, it's gone within the next few days.

I can now make an omelet thanks to Mr. Oliver. I probably mentioned that before, but I'm proud of it. And I can now poach eggs, so I tend to have breakfasty (i.e. eggs) stuff for dinner more often than breakfast itself.

Lately I'm on the yogurt route. I'm not particularly fond of this baby food style item, but I do like some of the more exotic flavors (coconut, yum!) and the new whips, which have much more substance.

And I've been trying to make myself eat oatmeal. My problem here is that I'm also trying to count calories, or at least eat healthier, and though there are "diet" oatmeals out there, they taste too much like cardboard for my liking.

In fact, I like my oatmeal with milk and tons of brown sugar! But, I'm trying to use fruit instead or, or with less sweeteners. And here comes the recipe. In Jamie's Food Revolution, there are some Get Into Oatmeal recipes. I've tried two thus far and have to admit that they're pretty tasty. We won't even try to figure the calories, though. I made Ellie Krieger's oatmeal, which is pretty fantastic even though I have to add brown sugar and nuts to it, so I know it's really easy to go from a 200 cal breakfast to a 400 cal one.

Any which way you look at it, though, docs say that oatmeal is good for you. So, try this one if you're feeling up to it.

The recipe is Dark Chocolate & Seville Orange Marmalade Oatmeal

Prepare your oatmeal to your liking -- if you've never made oatmeal, use quick cook oats, follow the measuring directions on the package, and cook them on the stovetop (using either water, milk, or even soy milk). Jamie says to stir often to give it "a smooth, creamy" texture.

Now, I didn't actually have the ingredients that Mr. Oliver recommends, which are a good quality bittersweet chocolate with 60% cocoa solids at minimum, and the Seville Orange Marmalade. What I did have in my kitchen was Dutch Cocoa Powder from a local spice shop and some regular old Smuckers brand marmalade. But I was pretty impressed with the results.

So, since I made a single serving, I sprinkled a little over a tablespoon of my cocoa into my oatmeal. Then, because I wanted a little cinnamon flavor, I added about a teaspoon of cinnamon sugar mixture to the bowl (obviously the original is supposed to be more bitter with the sweet of the orange as contrast). Then, I added a heaping spoonful (heaping tablespoon) of my regular old marmalade to the oatmeal and stirred it all up.

I've no doubt that Oliver's recipe, when followed to the T is fabulous, but this was my way of working with what I had already in the pantry on this 1st of November -- cause no one wants to run to the grocery story before making breakfast, right? So if you happen to have the ingredients called for, let me know how it turns out. I'll seek them out and try it as it's supposed to be one day, but I'm glad I had somewhat comparable ingredients in my pantry stocks.

And I recommend checking out both the website and the new cookbook (and older ones, too, because I have a couple of those) for more fantastic recipes.

Hope you had a great Halloween and remembered to turn back your clocks today for Daylight Savings Time!