I used to go to Jamba Juice a lot to get my morning fix of oatmeal and a smoothie. It got to be an expensive habit (except for the short period of time where they had the oatmeal for $1 on Wednesdays – total score!) that I gave up to save money. I was thinking about it the other day though, about how I miss that oatmeal, and I figured I would try to make some on my own.
I started by making my own blueberry compote – pretty easy, considering I watched my dad make cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving not too long ago. I applied the same concept – frozen blueberries, a little sugar, orange zest, a little orange juice, and some water. Set it on the stove to boil away and boil down. When it boiled down a bunch, I made a little slurry of cornstarch and water and added it in to thicken the mixture a little more (I wanted it to be thicker than how it had turned out) and then turned it off and let it cool down.
This morning I got up early and started making my steel cut oatmeal. I didn’t realize this would take 30 minutes to do, so it’s a good thing I got up early! I cooked the oats according to the directions – but just made a small portion for myself. 1 cup of water + 1/4 cup of steel oats. Boil away to desired consistency.
Here’s my result:
Looks blah, but there’s more!
Topped off with a little blueberry mixture and a sprinkling of brown sugar, this looks much more interesting. I realize now that Jamba Juice uses a “Brown Sugar Crumble” on their oatmeal which is probably more than just brown sugar, but I started to get in a rush near the end of this process.
Stirring all of my oats up makes a pretty picture for my eyes to feast on and is much cheaper than a daily trip to Jamba Juice. It sort of looks like what I’ve gotten in the past but they put the brown sugar stuff on first and then the fruit.
I think next time I might try making this with part milk to make it a bit creamier and trying to make my brown sugar more of a crumble (maybe a little butter, cinnamon, nutmeg, that kind of thing) for another touch of sweetness. Good stuff!
