Hi Jan, I was wondering how you cook your groats. I bought some and kind of followed the directions on the bag and they were ok I guess but pretty bland. I think the recipe I followed had me boiling them in vegetable broth instead of water.
I ordered a Instant Pot and plan to make some vegetarian soups like split pea and potato and some others I saw on you tube. Thanks for the vitacost idea. I was looking at some of the food on their page and found a few things that I might like.
I haven't tried eggplant yet either but I have a feeling that at some point I will, lol.
Bill
Hi Bill,
Always add some sea salt whenever you are cooking oats or groats. You are better off cooking with salt than adding it afterwards as you will use less because the foods will absorb the taste. Many people use almond milk when they serve oats or groats and we sometimes use pineapple juice instead. We always add fruit, fresh or thawed frozen, usually some walnuts or almonds too and top ours with cinnamon when we dish it out.
Funny you should mention the Instant Pot. After reading the thread about them here on TUG we decided we should buy one. I just got back from my son's this afternoon and I meant to ask him if he would want one too. He made some excellent potato leek soup with dill added when he served it. He used an immersion blender and I meant to suggest that he that he leave some of the potatoes in small chunks next time. It makes the soup seem a little more substantial when you are serving it as a main meal. I thought a can of cannellini beans would be good in the soup too. I would add them at the end and they would add more protein for a main meal. He added small pieces vegetarian bacon that he got from Trader Joe's to give it a little more pizzaz.
If you have a Trader Joe's anywhere near you they have some great things that are helpful to make healthier meals. We buy their miso ginger soup, Asian blend and or stir fry vegetables and cook them in the broth. If you have some left over fish it would go great in the soup. We often put some noodles or even vegetarian dumplings in it too. We top the soup with some peanuts or pumpkin seeds.
I'm a big fan of drinking this in the morning and highly recommend it. This should help with the plaque in your arteries and other things too. You can find other recipes and tinker with them to suit yourself like I did.
- 1 tbsp. Apple Cider Vinegar (it has to be raw, unfiltered, with the mother) (Braggs is a good brand and I probably use more than 1 tablespoon, maybe 2?)
- Juice from 1 lemon (I know that I don't use the juice from a whole lemon, more like a tablespoon maybe?)
- 1/8 tsp Cayenne Pepper
- 1-2 tbsp. Honey, raw and unfiltered (Again I probably only use a generous teaspoon)
- we add some cinnamon but I've seen variations of this recipe that call for ginger too which is very healthy
- Warm water – You can dilute this as strong or as weak as you prefer. I usually add about 6-8 ounces water.
I want to give you some information about table salt vs sea salt. Cutting out all salt isn't really healthy. Another good article about sea salt can be found on: healthylivingresources.motherearthworks.com
A Grain of Salt
The differences between refined, processed salt (also known as “table salt”) and unrefined natural salt are as great as the differences between white sugar and freshly cut sugar cane. These differences can have a major impact on staying healthy, avoiding potentially toxic additives, and increasing your risk of diseases you want to avoid.
The typical modern, refined table salt can be compared to
refined sugar and refined flour—it used to be a healthful, whole food, but our industrial food system has stripped and processed it into a disaster waiting to happen.
Like most factory-made, food-like products Westerners eat today, what began as an essential nutrient has been disfigured into a detriment to our health.
Major salt producing companies mine unpalatable and impure rock salt from the earth, then dry it in huge,
fossil-fuel-guzzling kilns with temperatures reaching 1200 degrees F. This changes the salt’s chemical structure into pure sodium chloride, which is very different from natural salt which contains lots of trace minerals.
In other words, sea salt and table salt share the same amount of sodium chloride, but only sea salt retains the trace elements found in saline water. These trace minerals matter not only to taste, but to health as well.
After this extremely energy-intensive process that strips the trace nutrients out, they then put in additives like
fluoride (!), synthetic iodine, as well as anti-caking agents. These
anti-caking agents include:
- E341 Tricalcium Phosphate
- E500 Sodium bicarbonate
- E535 Sodium ferrocyanide
- E536 Potassium ferrocyanide
- E538 Calcium ferrocyanide
- E542 Bone phosphate
- E550 Sodium silicate
- E551 Silicon dioxide
- E552 Calcium silicate
- E553a Magnesium trisilicate
- E553b Talcum powder
- E554 Sodium aluminosilicate
- E555 Potassium aluminium silicate
- E556 Calcium aluminosilicate
- E558 Bentonite
- E559 Aluminium silicate
- E570 Stearic acid
- E900 Polydimethylsiloxane
The most commonly used anti-caking agent is E554 sodium aluminosilicate which comes with possible side effects such as constipation, along with many precautions if you have liver or kidney disease. Aluminum derivatives have also been implicated in a number of health conditions, including Alzheimer’s disease.
All these additives can cause discoloration in refined salt, so bleaching agents are then used to restore the desirable white color.
It should be noted that additives like anti-caking agents are forbidden in organic food production. Although no salt has been certified organic, refined, processed salt would never make the cut.
So to summarize, refined table salt has been stripped of all its natural trace minerals, and now contains synthetic iodine, fluoride, anti-caking food additives, and bleaching residues. What was a natural, whole food has been processed into a highly industrial, pseudo-food Americans have come to think of as “salt” that causes the potential for a myriad of health problems.
According to
Dr Barbara Hendel, researcher and co-author of
Water & Salt, The Essence of Life, it is refined, processed and bleached salts that are the problem.
Salt is critical to our health and is the most readily available nonmetallic mineral in the world. But our bodies are not designed to processed refined sodium chloride with synthetic additives since it has no nutritional value.
I do miss coffee as I was drinking six or more cups a day. 
