Tiramisu Oatcakes for One

You know my oatcakes always feature some sort of fruit or veggie, whether it's mashed banana, pureed peaches, apple butter, or pureed beets.

Can you guess the produce packed into this one?

It's zucchini! Now, I have experimented with using zucchini in the past, but it has often failed to serve the purpose I needed it for. I usually want it to be a "tasteless filler" in an otherwise "nutrition-less" recipe (see: any cookie recipe). However, it never worked as nicely as I would have liked. Just recently, I used it to make a brilliant recipe (you will just have to wait until I "nail it" to see what it is!), but I could taste the zucchini. As low in flavor as it is, it does leave some sort of flavor, particularly when paired with cinnamon, as it was in that recipe.

Lemon Coconut Oatcakes for One

A common "insult" I have to endure from people outside my inner circle is, "You must get really tired of eating such bland food." The ignorance toward vegan food just breaks my heart. The food I ate prior to my veganism was not more flavorful. It was simply greasier and saltier. The food I eat now is by far more flavorful, satisfying, and exciting.

I mean...just look at it!

These Lemon Coconut Oatcakes are fruity, tropical, and filling. I topped my oatcakes with my lemon curd (with coconut stirred in). Also, despite being filling, they're a little lighter than...err...some of my other recipes. :)

Choco-Banana Oatcakes with Peanut Butter Mousse

Yep, more oatcakes! I know I just posted my Black Forest Oatcakes, but you know it could be months before I post another. (By the way, it's been almost a year since I've posted a muffin recipe!)

Basically, I felt like I ate my Fudgy PB & Banana Oatmeal way too often, and I wanted to switch it up...but I still wanted banana, peanut butter, and chocolate. I put my favorite porridge into pancake form, and problem solved!

Black Forest Oatcakes...and my blog's 2nd birthday!

Two years. TWO YEARS! Considering I've been running this blog during the two most challenging years of my life (student teaching/senior year, my year of service in Newark, and my first year of teaching in NYC), it's a pretty big deal that I've managed to maintain this blog through it all. To celebrate, I made oatcakes:

But first, let me indulge in my nostalgia. Three fantastic things have happened since the Oatmeal Artist's first birthday.

1. I began my partnership with Country Choice Organic, which has completely changed my life. 
2. I began the Oatmeal Enthusiast series, which showed me that there are SO MANY PEOPLE that eat oatmeal every single morning, just like me.
3. The #oatmealartist hashtag began on Instagram, which always gives me a nice ego boost whenever I'm feeling down. As of right now, there's over 2,000 pictures on Instagram with the #oatmealartist tag. So cool!

Elvis Oatcake Stack

I made pancakes...

and they turned out pretty great.

Peach and Blueberry Oatcakes for One

What is it about oatmeal that makes my digestive system run so well? I understand the nutrition aspect and all (hurray soluble fiber!), but this marvelous ingredient still astounds me. Pancakes make me sick for the rest of the day. Cereal (even the "healthy" ones) makes me puffy and weird. Even whole wheat muffins or waffles or pancakes leave me ill.

But swap the flour with oats? Problem solved.

These oatcake recipes actually let me enjoy pancakes again. Plus, they're way more flavorful than anything Bisquick could make.

Apple Spice Oatcakes for One

One of my favorite parts of New York City is its glorious abundance of farmers markets. Access to local and fresh produce ranges from tiny little stands on the street to mega-markets like the Union Square Greenmarket. That's where I found myself last weekend, just before the vendors started packing up and going home for the day.

Obviously I was smitten by the organic leafy greens and the fresh baked bread, but this market had so much more. There was hard cider. And wine. And vegan pies.

And my favorite: jams, jellies, and other jarred goods. I always seek these out at big farmers markets. I consider myself a collector of artisan fruit spreads. It fits nicely with my PB&J sandwich obsession (not to mention my oatmeal addiction...). Beth's Farm Kitchen uses local ingredients to make some phenomenal jams, fruit butters, marmalades, chutneys, and pickled veggies. My purchase? No-sugar-added apple butter. And no, that does not mean they used Splenda, and no, that does not mean they sweetened it with "white grape juice concentrate." It means they took a fruit. Added spices. Cooked it down to a butter. No sweeteners necessary.

...So I made pancakes! Now, of course, any apple butter will do. In fact, if you do not have apple butter, you can use applesauce instead, and then spice the pancakes yourself. However, the apple butter creates a convenient recipe because the spices are already included in the product!

As you can see, I made tiny little silver dollar pancakes. How precious are they? I will stick to the silver dollar size from now on. It was much more fun to eat a tower of mini pancakes than a short stack of fat ones. :)

Lemon Poppy Seed Oatcakes for One

After exploring every oatmeal option to use my lemon extract, I had to move on to the next format: pancakes.

I'm so glad I discovered how to make these single-serving pancakes. It's wonderful to have pancakes in the morning without standing over the stove, flipping extra pancakes for half an hour. Also, these oatmeal pancakes treat me without ripping my stomach apart. My body hates Bisquick!

Now, I'll be honest, these pancakes are perfectly tasty but not overly sweet. I included an optional sweetener in the ingredients list for those of you who know you have a sweet tooth. No judgment. :)

Banana Chocolate Chip Oatcakes for One

The poll results are in! I must say, when I created the survey, I was nervous. I feared that nobody would respond, and it would remind me to be humble and that nobody actually reads my blog. Much to my delight, I got over 100 responses (the free service caps out at 100)!

So for you guys, I made these:

French Toast Overnight Oatmeal

There are some recipes that take me forever to get right. Then, there are others that turn out exactly as I had imagined on the first try (like my Carrot Cake Oatmeal and Peanut Butter Cookie Baked Oatmeal).

Add this one to the list!

Admittedly, I spent a while mentally concocting this one, but after I bought some pitted dates, it all came together. This is the first time I've used dates in a recipe (let alone oatmeal), and I must say, I'm impressed! Letting it soak with the oatmeal overnight softened it up and let the oatmeal absorb the sweetness. It was the perfect amount of sweetness, especially when I added a touch of maple syrup on top.

Maple-Nut Sauce

I was so thrilled to see the feedback for my Berry-Ginger Sauce! You guys unanimously supported the idea of more topping recipes, which is really exciting for me! It's often hard to have everything on hand to create a new oatmeal recipe, but new topping recipes are comparatively easy to produce.

This one, for example, is only two ingredients, and it goes beautifully with the French Toast Baked Oatmeal from earlier this week. It would also be delish on Zucchini Bread Baked Oatmeal or Banana / Banana Baked Oatmeal.

French Toast (Green Monster) Baked Oatmeal

I've never, ever, ever been a pancake-and-waffle kind of person (unless we're talking about my banana-oat waffles...). When it came to my brunch option of choice, I would always pick french toast. My mom would make it using English muffin bread, which gave it such an interesting taste. It's hard for me to fathom using French bread or other fancy breads to make French toast because I'm so fond of the English muffin version (try it sometime!)

French Toast Oatmeal is actually one of the first recipes I made on my own after I gave up the Quaker instant packets. I made it on the stove, and it matched the flavor so perfectly that it made me fall in love with making my own oatmeal. If I'm not mistaken, it was the first "homemade oatmeal" I ever made that I didn't hate. :)

Banana Oat Waffles

One of the best decisions I ever made was stealing my mom's waffle maker. Not only have I gotten a LOT of use out of it, but has she never complained in the entire year that I've had it (I'm not sure if she has even noticed!).

I used to make waffles so I could reheat them for breakfast in the mornings, but that's no longer the case. Since I literally eat a bowl of oatmeal every morning, I now save waffles for lunch and dinner. (Yes, I'm one of those people that regularly eats breakfast for dinner.)