7 Steps To Make Your Breakfast Oats Taste Like An Oatmeal Raisin Cookie

Nearly a year ago, raisins were deemed a healthy snack by the Supreme Court. The healthiness of old-fashioned oats should never be called to question, and cinnamon has been shown to help regulate blood sugar. With all of this in mind, it's time to start using these nutritionally sound ingredients in breakfast oats and omitting the unhealthy ingredients oatmeal raisin cookies include.

We suggest making your oatmeal raisin cookie breakfast oats with steel-cut oats, but if you're not looking to spend 30 to 45 minutes boiling oats, old-fashioned rolled oats will do just fine. Avoid using instant oats, as they are the most heavily processed and, thus, have the least pleasing texture. Old-fashioned oats, steel-cut oats, and instant oats are all identical in nutritional profile, but cookie-like oats require a certain texture that instant oats just cannot provide.

Here are The Daily Meal's best steel-cut oats recipes.

Once your oats are cooked, place either one-half cup or a full cup (how hungry are you, beloved reader?) of piping-hot oats into a bowl. Let them sit to cool a bit. During this time, choose a healthy fat to add. If you're looking to make these oats similar to a peanut butter oatmeal cookie, the clear healthy fat choice would be natural peanut butter. If you desire a less flavorful fat, coconut oil should be your go-to. Regardless of fat choice, stir in two tablespoons of it into your cooked oats after waiting seven minutes. The oats will still be fairly hot, allowing the fat to act as a thickening and binding agent.

We're proponents of whey protein, but we understand that not everyone is able to consume dairy-based products. If you're not going to add in whey, here is where you'll want to add one or two teaspoons of vanilla extract. If you fear no cow byproducts, though, vanilla extract isn't necessary. We suggest picking a fairly neutrally flavored whey protein powder to add to your oats. For a traditional oatmeal raisin cookie, we feel that vanilla is your best option. If you're going for something more along the lines of a chocolate chunk oatmeal raisin cookie, then you may want to consider chocolate-flavored whey. Regardless, one scoop will do and, depending on which brand you choose, it should add about 25 grams of valuable, quick-digesting protein into your oats.

If you're able to get that protein in without adding water, we commend you. We have a feeling, though, that trying to mix together the combination of your healthy fat choice and protein powder may turn into an arm workout. Add one-quarter cup of water and try stirring again. If your mixture is still too thick, continue to add one-quarter cup of water until it reaches a consistency you're comfortable with. Luckily for you, water is as healthy as it gets.

An oatmeal raisin cookie clearly calls for the inclusion of raisins. One-quarter cup of seedless raisins will add 120 healthy calories to your breakfast oats, the majority of which come from 24 grams of natural sugars and two grams of dietary fiber. If you have chosen to make another variety of oatmeal cookie, healthy fruits like bananas and blueberries can help to add to your cookie breakfast oats' sweetness.

Click here for our Best Oatmeal Cookies Recipes.

The healthy voice inside of our head is telling us that these oatmeal raisin cookie oats should be sweet enough, especially with the raisins and the (probable) inclusion of flavored protein powder. If you simply must add some sweetness, though, we urge you to stay away from table sugar. We've told you this before, but healthy cooks use honey and ditch the less-beneficial, granulated sugar.

By this point, your oats should have a great, thick consistency akin to that of raw cookie dough. All that's left to do before enjoying them is to add in a tablespoon of cinnamon and, potentially, something crunchy. Different people prefer different cookie textures, and the same applies to these cookie breakfast oats. If it's crunch you desire, uncooked buckwheat is probably the best healthy option. Alternatives (or additions) to this include chia seeds and coconut flakes. After stirring in one or two tablespoons of your crunchy add-in, your oatmeal raisin cookie breakfast oats are ready to be enjoyed enthusiastically! Happy National Oatmeal Cookie Day.