I tried to be Mrs Prep last night – I was perusing blogs, as I do 24/7, and came across Katie’s voluminous oatmeal trick for the billionth time. So, at 11pm, I broke into my oat stash and made a mix of oats and rye flakes (picked up for £1 – reduced – on Saturday!). I followed the recipe, adding in salt, a bit of soya milk, vanilla and cinnamon, and microwaved it for 3 or 4mins, then stuck it in the fridge. Sadly, in the morning, it was basically just a bowl of water still!! No volume had become of it (if that makes sense….). #Fail One. Feeling mystified, I transferred the mix into my usual oat saucepan and decided to cook them like normal. That didn’t work either, they wouldn’t absorb the water!! #Fail Two. It was time to get clever…
I then put the whole load of semi-cooked, semi-soaked watery mess into an individual size baking dish, and topped with a chopped ripe pear, more cinnamon and a drizzle of fruit sweetener:
THEN I baked it at a low heat for 10mins. #Fail Three – no difference in wateryness!! I hoiked the heat up and ignored it all for 20mins – when I came back, it looked like this:
Uh..appetising right? I let it cool for 20mins or so (I don’t like hot oats, lukewarm is just fine thank you!) whilst I ate my way through a butt-load of these:
And then I spooned it all into a bowl with extra milk- for more beautiful presentation, of course :/
But you know something? It was DELICIOUS!!!!
It tasted JUST like rice pudding!!! I mean like, properly incred! The oats were all creamy and smooth, but the rye flakes (which don’t go mad absorbing like oats) added a great chew. Seriously, like, the best bowl EVA. I have another bowl of weird uncooked watery-ness sitting in the fridge now, so I can recreate the joy tomorrow 
From disaster to delicious!
Lunch was aaalmost a disaster today too – the morning got majorly sucked away somehow, with car troubles and being put on hold to insurance blokes on the phone for a lifetime & a half. Errrrgo, I had no time to make a proper lunch today, so instead settled on some roast chunks of parsnip and broccoli (they went in the oven at the same time as the fake rice pudding/failed oats mess):
Annnnd this:
One of those bars which is a) only available in the states, b) I only have one of, and c) have been saving for about 6months, cos once I’ve eaten it, I’ll probably never have another one! But when I was sorting out my (crazylarge) bar stash over the weekend, I realised the use by date was Feb 11. Cue gasping! I could NOT allow this bar to be wasted! So it went straight to the top of my Eat List, and was therefore nabbed this morning in my rush 
Hardly part of my Stay Away from Bars for Lunch plan…but the stats are so super and so raw and vegan (oh yes!) that I don’t mind
Pretty good right!?
I ADORE that ingredients list.
The taste was stellar too! Kinda like a cocoa brownie Trek bar, but with crunch from tiny bits of almond, and with a slight…blueberry? taste to it. From (almost) disaster to delicious again
Other eats have included yogurt cereal messes and Christmas coffee (& dinner & chocolate, but I have no photos of them):
Hey Rudolph
Wild times right?
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Slightly off topic, and 100% unrelated to running, blogging, Brit Chicks, food or health…but I got a new CAR on Sunday, and tomorrow I can begin driving it! Here’s where y’all come in -
I always name my cars – my whole family do. I’ve had Eric the boy car, Erica the girl car [who replaced Eric when he died of old OLD age] and my mum has Bridget and Wayne. My aunt has Desmond, but my new Lady car (who was cheap as chips and bought off of ebay! Aaah the student budget) has NO NAME yet!!!
SO – help me name her! I know I can rely on you lot, cos one of you clever readers named my Vita Mix for me (Vincent). Leave your suggestions in the comments but bear in mind that the car is small, dark blue and a girl The prize for getting your name chosen will be…..
- LOVE, lots of love from me
- THANKS (I will be forever grateful. Well, until June at least, then I sell the car again)
- RESPECT. Cos you sure will deserve it.
- If you’re lucky, I might send you a bunch of roses, or a stink bomb, or something equally delightful in the snail mail 
Soooo what are you waiting for!?
NAME THAT CAR!!!
Question: Do you name your car, or other non-beating heart things?
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SEARCH TERMS!!!
- Ugly muffins (twice!)
- fill me up cos I’m half empty
- sportsday knickers (twice!)
- brit chick freya romp
- easy way to catch epic monster
- bob the builder font
- kate moss jam (twice. SERIOUSLY what is with these Kate Moss links???)
- dscf5249hef (not quite sure how that made it to my blog…but whateverz. The weird world of the internet for you, I suppose)
Glad you manage to go from disaster to delicious with your meals!
Car names: Hetty, Harriet, Jenny, Donna? Not sure if they are any good!
I love your determination towards those oats! I would have just given up and started again but nope, you powered on through. Well done
I really want to try baked oatmeal like that but I can’t be bothered waiting for the oven. Maybe one day I will become patient. Maybe.
When I had a scooter(/moped) I named her Betty. Then I sold her to my brother because I never used it. He then crashed it and bought a new one (that is black) which I made him name Black Betty. (Ya know, like the song? “Woooah black betty bam-a-lam” haha). I also named my other brothers scooter “Gladys” which got stolen a couple of weeks ago. So I’m thinking I had better not try and name your car for fear of you crashing it or having it stolen.
LOL if someone searched for ugly muffins, they would most likely end up on my blog now
“brit chick freya romp” HHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA omg this has made my day. It’s only 11:30 in the morning!!!
xxx
I LOVE that bar. One of my all-time favorites….not super easy to find, even here!
My car is named the Saab Story because so much goes wrong with it. I love it to death though. Hmmm…small, blue and female….Blue Belle? Or just Belle!
ANY oats are good oats in my book
Hmmm car names. What about Wanda the Web Car?! lol. or Izzy the Internet Car?
Possibly heinous suggestions….it’s late tho, I’m blaming that
Have you ever caught an epic monster though?!
What I always think is I’d love to meet the people Googling those things – then ask if they ever found out what the best way to catch epic monsters is…
I made the voluminous porridge today too and you’re right about the consistency; it’s a keeper!
I was going to suggest Gary for the car cos it would make me laugh but then saw it’s a girl…
Hmmm – Gary could still be entertaining anyway, or why not be completely random and call it Jane. Or maybe Kate the Car in honour of the searches
Ha, my aunt is called Jane
I called my car Smurf as she is a vibrant blue colour. What about Sheila, Vera or Sylvia. Ha! I’m joking. What kind of car is it?
Oh those baked oats look so delicious Freya! Mmm!!
Maybe you could play on the registration plate for your car name, depending if it’s pre 2000 or not….But I think Winnie is a nice car name for a girl. I guess it depends on the car a bit though!!
I love that you just kept going until you saved those dang oats. And that they turned out great.
I always name inanimate objects. My current car is named Fiona, the last one was Bessie. I call my computer Compy, and I refer to my Veganomicon cookbook as “boyfriend” on a reasonably frequent basis, but that’s more about my love for it than anything else
Oh no!
I definitely blame the rye flakes. They’re just not as able to become FAT like oats hehe. But so glad it was yummy anyways!
xoxo
I totally name my cars!
My first was a small, ice-blue 2-door with a huge schnoz named Bella and my current car is a larger white 4-door named Moby (b/c it’s as big as a whale in comparison! and it’s white), after Moby Dick (duh!)
I like Mia for your new car. Hope you find one that fits soon!
Car names!
Blueberry
Violet
Starla
Rachel
I like to name things
I love the “save” with the oats this morning! Looks like it all worked out. And I’ve been curious about those Vega bars! I never see them in stores and have been to stingy to buy them offline yet.
Always really weird names that no person would ever be named these days…like Harold (my old Jeep) and Gertrude (my new Jeep.) Greta is a nice name for a dark blue car…? maybe? lol.
I name my vehicles, too
My car’s name is Ollie. And Stephen’s is Chester. How about Ruby for yours?
What about robin? Because robin’s eggs are blue (though I know light blue but let’s ignore that fact here, mmmkay?)
ahhah sportsday knickers!!??? and the oatmeal thing happened to me too! eventually they do soak it up but it took a LONG time and high heat…!
I’d definitely go with Caroline. Since Carolina is where you might be moving!
Ebay car = Ebony
?? x
Funny Question! I give names to my fav objects, too, but they’re kind of lame, as I stay close to their real/model names.
My current car is called River (it’s a girl), because it’s a Kia Rio. My first notebook was Toshi (as in Toshiba), a boy, second one was Princess Fuji (a Fujitsu Siemens), and the third one is called Ace (it’s an Acer Aspire). Yes, I’m a nerd!
But I’m not the only one, my best friend drives a Toyota Prius, and we named her Priscilla!
What kind of car is yours? I like Laura or Gwen.
You should name it after the numberplate! My old car had a numberplate that had the letters MCL so we called him Mc Lovin’ like off Superbad
Those oats look oh so creamy and tasty by the way..
xx
My bike at university was called Justin. I’m not sure how exactly to determine an object’s gender, but my bike was definitely male!
Bertha is a great car name, but not sure it would suit your new car. What about Jennifer?
What about blue monster? Like a green monster, but blue? (Ok I should not have to explain these things!)