"national oatmeal day" news and stories

As Bob posted earlier, today is National Oatmeal Day. I've always been been a huge fan of oats, give me steel cut, quick cooking or even instant in a pinch, I love the stuff. During the days when I was eating wheat free and was living at home, I'd often use my mom's Vita-Mix to whip up a little oat flour to use in place of all-purpose.

One thing people don't often think about as a way to use oats is in pie, but if you've never had Oatmeal Pie, then you are really missing out. It brings together the best parts of an oatmeal cookie and lands in smack dab in the middle of a pie crust (and how could that be bad?). After the jump you'll find my favorite recipe for this particular dessert concoction, chosen particularly because it uses maple syrup instead of corn syrup, as after watching King Corn, I'm trying to get the high fructose stuff out of my life.

If there's one big dietary change I'm making this year (other than not eating a whole pizza by myself in one sitting) it's to eat more oatmeal. Besides being very filling and a versatile food, it can be a great way to start off the day so you're not eating other stuff all day long (though I'd try not to eat too much of the store bought stuff that's filled with sugar). It's good for you too (it can help lower bad cholesterol). A nice bowl of oatmeal on a cold morning (or night) can be a wonderful thing.

Today is National Oatmeal Day, a good day to go to the store and stock up on some oats. Here's Alton Brown's recipe for Steel Cut Oatmeal. WedMD.com has some ideas for getting the most out of oats. And Quaker has a lot of recipes too (including oatmeal cookies, which might not be the healthiest thing for you but they're so good).