Watermelon Oatmeal

Watermelon and oatmeal- two entirely different temperatures and textures, yet blend so deliciously together. Watermelon, rather, watermelon juice is a refreshing, light strawberry-kiwi flavor that we used to cook rolled oats. The extra juice from cut-up watermelon this morning served as inspiration as we were contemplating what liquid to use to boil the oats in the stove-top pot. Water, juice, tea, or even coffee have all flavored oats well. If you don't have extra juice, pureeing the watermelon itself would work as well. Hmm, how would canteloupe do? Maybe a little thicker? Tomorrow's culinary experiment.

Watermelon Oatmeal
1/2 c rolled oats
1 c watermelon juice
1 sweetener
dash of cardamom

- Pour oats and juice in a stove pot pan. Bring to a boil, remove from and let thicken for several minutes. Add sweetener. Divide between two bowls and sprinkle on cardamom.

Breakfast Bowl of Champs

Watching commercial ads by Kellogg's of the American Olympian hopefuls to compete in the Olympics 2012 in London, we were inspired to make our own breakfast bowl of champs. To help you seize the day with utmost energy and focus, it's necessary to have a good breakfast. Cereal with fruit and milk scores big on meeting daily nutritional requirements with its whole grains, vitamins and minerals, and protein. For fruit, we chopped up crunchy fuji apples instead of the customary bananas and berries (which are delicious too but apples offer a nice change of routine). We also added orange zest to amp up the antioxidents and add a bright flavor. Likewise a few leaves of herbs, either lemon verbena or mint, offer nutrition and an interesting flavor element to a normal breakfast bowl. We went a step further from convention by adding chilled flavored coffee to the milk. For the bowl this morning we had extra buttertoffee flavored coffee in the refrig. Berry-flavored ones are great as well, especially ultra sweet Dunkin' Donuts Strawberry coffee. For lactose intolerant, almond milk works just as well, and is actually what we prefer. For serious crunch, try Kashi's Go Lean cereal with sweetened fiber twigs, soy protein grahams, and honey puff cereal, which has "as much protein as an egg." (Sorry, Kellogg's) The 13g of protein and 10g of fiber keeps us full longer and satisfied throughout the day. One last thing, use your favorite cereal bowl. This combo must be properly attired! We love Anthropologie's large mugs with handles, but more on this later.

Breakfast Bowl of Champs
1 cup of Kashi Go Lean cereal
1 Fuji apple, diced
1/2 cup almond milk
1/2 cup cold flavored coffee
zest of 1/2 orange
optional- two leaves of lemon balm herb or mint
1 sweetener

Pour cereal and apple in your favorite cereal bowl. Combine milk and coffee in a cup. Pour liquid over cereal mix when ready. Top with zest and the herbs.