Ready for breakfast: crunchy, textured oatmeal topped with brown sugar. Photography by Claire Freierman. WHAT IT IS: “Gourmet” oatmeal. WHY IT’S DIFFERENT: A blend of oatmeal and six other whole grains creates great texture and flavor—a world apart from Quaker Oats and other brands. WHY WE LOVE IT: The texture and the taste— Cranberry Almond Oatmeal, for example, is not redolent of cherries and almonds. There’s just a nice, subtle touch. WHERE TO BUY IT: HollysOatmeal.com		Holly’s Oatmeal: Perfect Porridge Page 3: Holly’s Oatmeal Varieties & Oatmeal Toppings This is Page 3 of a four-page review. Click on the black links below to visit other pages. INDEX OF REVIEW Page 1: Capsule Report Page 1: Introduction Page 2: Different Types Of Oats Page 3: Holly’s Oatmeal Varieties Page 3: Oatmeal Toppings Page 4: Oatmeal Nutrition & Health Page 4: Buy Online MORE TO DISCOVER THE NIBBLE’s Gourmet Cereals Section Other “Top Pick Of The Week” Breads & Cereals PRODUCT FIND #2:  Crepini Café Crepes Now you can have delicious crepes at home, anytime. RECIPE: Chocolate Brownie Waffles If you don’t want to send for crepes, you can make these at home. See our daily notes of interest on Blog.TheNibble.com. Follow us on Twitter. See the Table of Contents of the February issue of THE NIBBLE, plus the back issues archive and our most popular articles. All of the Top Pick Of The Week newsletters are permanently archived on TheNibble.com, in chronological order and by product category.

Holly’s Oatmeal Varieties

Holly DiMauro is a chef and restaurateur who developed her original recipe for friends and family. When she served it at her Connecticut restaurant, it became the most-requested item on the menu. As so happens in the specialty food business, people wanted to buy the oatmeal mix, so Holly sold the restaurant to focus on marketing the product and proving that just because a food is high-fiber and low-fat doesn’t mean it can’t taste great. As she notes, even the most cherished recipes can always be improved, as a taste of her “improved” oatmeal proves. There’s texture and flavor not found in commercial rolled oats, that makes the oatmeal both chewy and creamy (and more kid-friendly, since kids prefer chewy to mushy).

There’s a lot more to commend Holly’s:

The grains themselves are the best money can buy, from Bob’s Red Mill, one of the finest grain purveyors in the country; they’re also organic- and kosher-certified. Holly’s is working on certifying the products down the road, but for now, they are “all natural.” Everything is hand mixed, to keep the grains from being crushed. You can see the different grains of the mix. The cooked cereal is never gluey, like some other all-natural cereals. A special blending of six other whole grains in addition to the oats, and cooking process—she recommends cooking it in soy milk, although we used fat-free cow’s milk. The blend of grains provides the heartier taste and texture. More protein than any other oatmeal (9 grams vs. 4 grams in regular rolled and steel-cut oats) and soluble fiber (4 grams vs. 1 gram). The 38 grams of whole grain in one 1/2 cup portion are almost the daily required 48 grams. There’s no salt, no saturated fat, no trans fat and no cholesterol.

Who’s more fun: Holly (shown cooking up some oatmeal, above) or that old Quaker dude?

Cooking

Cooking in milk or soymilk instead of water makes the oatmeal more creamy and nutritious, but adds the milk calories. Skim milk makes it just as creamy as whole milk—so save the calories and fat. The porridge cooks in 6 minutes on the stove, 3 minutes in the microwave. Stovetop versus microwaving makes no difference in the quality. Microwave 1-1/2 minutes, stir and repeat; depending on your microwave, it should take a total of 3 to 3-1/2 minutes. Let cool for a minute before eating.

The Blend

Holly’s combines the creaminess of instant hot cereal with the chewiness of long-cooked grains. The pure natural ingredients blend together like a fine stew. Just because oatmeal is a great low fat food, loaded with heart healthy fiber, doesn’t mean the taste can’t be great. The variety of grains stand up better—thicker and more texture.

Thick rolled oats, instant oats, wheat barley, rye, triticale, flaxseed, Scottish oats (not steel cut), oat bran and multigrain hot cereal, plus golden flaxseed, which has a higher Omega 3 values than regular flaxseed, so for really high Omega-3s (flaxseed has no nutrition until it is ground).

The Flavors

Gluten-Free

The gluten-free blend contains a gluten-free oat—these are oats grown in fields where there is no wheat or barley grown to cross-contaminate the oats (and the other grains have never been grown there). Holly’s buys the oats from a grower who started to grow gluten-free oats because his daughter had Celiac disease. Rice, corn, and flax cereal are blended to create texture, creaminess and chewiness. Cook time is just 4 minutes on the stove, 2 in the microwave, and a serving delivers 8g of protein, 5g of fiber.

Coming Soon

A new flavor, Apricot With Hazelnut, flavored with low-glycemic maple flakes, will be ready at the end of March.

Toppings

While classic oatmeal photos tend to show a bowl with a pat of butter, milk or cream and fresh fruit, none of these is required. You can enhance your oatmeal with any variety of add-ons.

If you have any favorites not on this list, use the comments box at the top of the page to share them, and we’ll update this chart.

Continue To Page 4: Oatmeal Nutrition & Health

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