This post was sponsored by The Quaker Oats Company.
As we spend more time at home, many of us are getting in the kitchen more to prepare home cooked meals.
Lately, I have been experimenting with pantry staples I have on hand and seeing what kind of nutritious and delicious recipes I can prepare with them from scratch. As a dietitian, I recommend that my clients stock up on a variety of pantry goodies that cover your nutritional bases. This includes high quality protein sources like sardines or tuna, low sodium canned goods like beans and vegetables, cooking staples like heart-healthy oils and spices and whole grains.
My number one versatile whole grain pantry staple: Oats!
Oats are highly versatile, offering countless possibilities to get more taste and nutrition out of what we eat each day. Oats serve as a nutritious blank canvas to inspire culinary creativity. From savory to sweet, hot to cold, oats can provide goodness any time of day. Quaker has spent more than 143 years finding modern ways to help people benefit from the taste, versatility and nutrition of whole grain oats.
Oats offer great nutrition as well. One serving of oats (1/2 cup or 40 g) is inherently low in fat and sodium, is a good source of important vitamins and minerals that our bodies need like vitamin B1, magnesium, phosphorous and manganese.
What is also great about oats is that they are one of the most convenient sources of fiber and have a unique balance of both insoluble and soluble fiber, a shortfall nutrient that most people aren’t getting the recommended amount of. Consuming oats over the course of the day can help increase whole grain consumption – an area that most Americans fall short on (according to NHANES data).
These breakfast, lunch and snack recipes take advantage of the goodness and versatility of 100% whole grain oats.