#oatasticweekends

Our overall winner for this weeks Introductory #OatasticWeekends Challenge is @vonnix with her amazing Cherry Ripe Baked Chocolate Oatmeal! We loved the creativity and inventiveness of this entry! 🍒🍫❤️ ..Next Weekends challenge is Dessert Oats! Recreate your favourite desserts using oats .. apple pie🍎, carrot cake🐰, chocolate brownie🍫, lemon meringue🍋, caramel🍮, cookie dough🍪 ... The possibilities are endless! Get your thinking hats on for the challenge beginning on Friday!..👉 1. Upload your new dessert-themed oat photos and tag #OatasticWeekends (You can enter as many times as you want, but please ensure that it is a new post)! 👍..#⃣ 2. Follow and Tag: @bigcitydreamerblog, @drkousoulove, @nothingisimpossiblex, @fitnfab_mama 🍓..🏆 3. Winner: Competition will begin on Friday after we post the reminder and close Sunday 11.59 pm (EST) and winner will be announced on Monday, featured on all our pages, along with next weeks theme! 🍎..🎨 4. Be creative!! We can’t wait to see what you come up with! 😘..If you have any ideas for the following weeks challenge, please let us know in the comments! Oats are extremely versatile so we have a lot of challenges ahead of us! 😄💪 

Banoffee Oat Parfait for #OatasticWeekends! *I apologise for the speed of this video!* I used to love banoffee so I just had to try and recreate it! The results were gooooood 👌..🍪 For the Biscuit Base: combine 1/4 a large ripe banana (mashed), a sprinkle of cinnamon, 1tsp crunchy PB, 1/6 cup oats and some chopped almonds and seeds. Mix all together and spread onto a baking tray (preferably on grease proof paper...I didn’t have any left) and bake under the a medium-heat grill for 10minutes, turning over half way through. Break up and leave to cool and crunch up! (This would be great as healthy muesli on its own!) Add most to your jar/glass...🍌 Sliced Banana..🍮 For the Toffee Oats: Combine the remaining 1/6 cup oats and 2 tbsp soy milk. Cook for a minute or so. Add date caramel (soak the two dates and mash, mixing in hot water until a caramel consistency is achieved), cinnamon and agave or honey to sweeten (I also added some coffee granules... It worked surprisingly well)! Add to jar/glass...🍌 For the Banana Cream: mash 1/3 banana with 2tbsp soy milk, 1/2 tsp vanilla essence and agave or honey (if not vegan) to sweeten if desired. Add to jar/glass...🍌 Add Sliced Banana..🍶 Add soy yogurt to top up the parfait...❤️ Top with the remaining ‘biscuit’ muesli. 

This Weekends #OatasticWeekends challenge is Dessert Oats! Recreate your favourite desserts using oats .. apple pie🍎, carrot cake🐰, chocolate brownie🍫, lemon meringue🍋, caramel🍮, cookie dough🍪 ... The possibilities are endless! We loved ALL your entries last weekend so can’t wait to see what you come up with this time! ..👉 1. Upload your new dessert-themed oat photos and tag #OatasticWeekends (You can enter as many times as you want, but please ensure that it is a new post)! 👍..#⃣ 2. Follow and Tag: @bigcitydreamerblog, @drkousoulove, @nothingisimpossiblex, @fitnfab_mama 🍓..🏆 3. Winner: Competition closes Sunday 26th 11.59 pm (PST) and winner will be announced on Monday, featured on all our pages, along with next weeks theme! 🍎..🎨 4. Be creative!! We can’t wait to see what you come up with! 😘..If you have any ideas for the following weeks challenge, please let us know in the comments! Oats are extremely versatile so we have a lot of challenges ahead of us! Also, a few people have asked about joining us as a host, so to be fair to everyone, we are thinking of having a guest co-host each week (starting in a couple of weeks time) ❤💕 

New favourite Oatastic breakfast/ dessert! As I mentioned yesterday, I have grown up in Cyprus and love the food so as it is Dessert Style #OatasticWeekends, I thought I’d take the opportunity to health-ify Baklava (a sweet pastry made from layers of filo pastry, chopped nuts and syrup or honey). I present to you BANANA BAKLAVA OATS! ❤️ These are also vegan and raw as well as being so delicious!..🍌 Oaty Mashed Banana: 1/2 mashed banana mixed with 1tsp oats and 1tbsp water...🍨 Overnight Oats: 1/4 cup raw rolled oats, 1/3 cup homemade almond milk and 1tsp ground flaxseed, mixed and left to soak overnight....🍮 Date Caramel: 4 dates soaked overnight. In the morning remove from the water, pit then mash, slowly adding the water until a caramel consistency is achieved. ..🌰 Chopped Nuts: 5 chopped almonds/ 10 chopped pistachios...👉 Layer it up! 1/2 oaty mashed banana, 1/2 overnight oats, 1/2 chopped nuts, 1/2 date caramel, sliced banana, remaining overnight oats, remaining oaty mashed banana, remaining date caramel and sliced banana and remaining chopped nuts to top! Delicious!  This is of course part of Dessert Style #OatasticWeekends with myself, @drkousoulove, @nothingisimpossiblex and @fitnfab_mama! Details in last post ❤️ 

Quick and simple Superfood Oats for #OatasticWeekends! Cacao Flax Banana Date Oatmeal topped with Sunflower Seeds, Pumpkin Seeds and Cranberries ❤️ ..👉 To make the porridge (I will provide microwave and stovetop method because I know a lot of oeople don’t like using microwaves) : combine 1/4 cup oats, 1tsp ground flaxseed and 3/4 tsp cacao powder with 3/4 cup water. Cook in the microwave for 2 mins, take out and add 2 chopped dates and 1/2 a chopped banana. Stir with a fork and place back in for 1.5 - 2 minutes, making sure it doesn’t overflow! If you are cooking on the stove: add the dry ingredients and slightly less water and bring to the boil. Stir continuously for 1 minute when boiling and add the banana and dates. Cook for a further minute. I topped mine with pumpkin and sunflower seeds, cranberries and unsweetened almond milk 🌰 

Double a tap if you love POMEGRANATE!! ❤️ ‘Superfood’ Feature as part of #OatasticWeekends! ..👉 Pomegranates are extremely high in antioxidants. These protect the body from free radicals as well as maintaining smooth and wrinkle-free (to a degree 😉) skin...👉They are an excellent source of vitamins K, for blood-clotting and healing wounds; C, vital for healthy cells and tissue; and E for protecting cell membranes...👉 Pomegranates have been shown to reduce the risk of heart-disease, heart attacks and strokes by supporting blood flow and helping to prevent the formation of bad cholesterol...👉 Eating pomegranate seeds/ drinking pomegranate juice has been shown to be beneficial for curing sore throats due to the anti-viral properties. 

Our overall winner for this weeks Superfoods #OatasticWeekends Challenge is @nutritionhappens with her Oaty Superfoods Parfait! We loved the presentation of this dish and the creative use of oats as well as the fact it had so many superfoods (blueberry, acai, chia, flax, blackberries, goji berries, almonds and cranberries to name a few...)! 🌰🍫❤️ We love how involved you are all getting with our challenge and love each and every entry! ..Next Weekends challenge is Valentines Oats (as it is Valentines day on Friday) ❤️ We realise not everyone celebrates this but the challenge is very open 👉 We want to see hearts (heart shaped fruits, heart bowls, hearts made from nuts and seeds etc.), creative use of pink and red, chocolate, flowers... All the cliches apply here ladies and gents! Again, we are looking for creativity and originality! 🎨 Also, as a new feature, each week we will have a different 5th co-host! Beginning this week with @whatlindseyate! We all look forward to seeing your entries so get your thinking HeArT on 😉 ..👉 1. Upload your new valentines oat photos and tag #OatasticWeekends (You can enter as many times as you want, but please ensure that it is a NEW post)! 👍..#⃣ 2. Follow and Tag: @bigcitydreamerblog, @drkousoulove, @nothingisimpossiblex, @fitnfab_mama, @whatlindseyate🍓..🏆 3. Winner: Competition will begin on Friday after we post the reminder and close Sunday 11.59 pm (PST) and winner will be announced on Monday, featured on all our pages, along with next weeks theme! 🍎..🎨 4. Be creative!! We can’t wait to see what you come up with! 😘 

Double tap if you love oats!! ❤️ Oats are an extremely heart healthy food so, especially for Valentines Style #OatasticWeekends, I thought I’d share some of their benefits! ..1⃣ Oats lower your bad cholesterol levels by up to 25% due to their mixture of soluble and insoluble fibre. 2⃣ This reduction of cholesterol reduces the risk of developing heart disease, including atherosclerosis and strokes. 3⃣ Oats can help to boost your immune system; great for preventing colds in the winter! 4⃣ They help to stabilise your blood sugar levels, reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes. 5⃣ Oats are high in selenium; this antioxidant substance helps to decrease the symptoms of asthma and reduce the risk of colon cancer. 6⃣ Oats make you feel fuller for longer and provide you with slow-release energy for the day ahead! This is also useful for exercise, porridge oats making a great pre-workout meal. 7⃣ As well as selenium, oats are high in manganese, iron, vitamin A and zinc. A 28g serving of cooked oats provides 11% of your fibre intake, 25% of your vitamin A and 40% of your iron RDA with only 100 calories and 2g of fat.