Atole De Avena-Oatmeal

Who would think that a bowl of cinnamon oatmeal would evoke such wonderful memories of home? Growing up in southern California, I can’t say there were many chilly days. When there was, I remember mom preparing atole. It was either oatmeal or maizena. Maizena had a cornstarch base and milk. It could be prepared with different flavors. Most times it was with cinnamon just like the oatmeal.

For a while there, I ate oatmeal every morning!

It was my routine for many years to prepare a quick bowl of oatmeal and add fresh fruit. Until I got burned out! Lol! I slowly came back to enjoying it, but just once in a while. One thing I have never tried is preparing the oats in different ways. Like overnight oats. Why haven’t I tried that. I see people posting about it all the time and they look tasty! Definitely on my “to make” list!

If you can get your hands on real Mexican cinnamon, I highly suggest it!

In my opinion, the Mexican cinnamon is the best! It has that true cinnamon flavor when I use it in recipes. I have a small coffee grinder that I use just for spices, especially for Mexican cinnamon. It’s a lot softer and grinds down easily. Plus when you see those cinnamon specs in recipes like empanadas and hojarascas, it gives them a more traditional look and flavor. The beautiful thing is that authentic and traditional ingredients are available online these days.

The video above only reflects half of the ingredients listed in the written recipe.

Quick oats or old fashioned oats?

If I have to choose, I prefer the old fashioned oats. The quick oats, to me, are too mushy sometimes, depending on the brand. The old fashioned oats take a few more minutes to cook and soften, but stay together a lot better. The first bowl with blueberries, I used quick oats. That is the video version. The bowl with just strawberries I used old fashioned oats. The written recipe below was prepared with old fashioned oats.

We used to drink so much milk as kids!

Mom would go through gallons of milk so fast with eight kids! I rarely drink milk these days unless I am using it in a recipe. I have that image of my abuelita Sarita carrying that blue bucket, olla de peltre, with the metal handle. It would be filled with fresh, warm milk and she would prepare us the best cafe con leche(coffee with milk). Of course it was more milk than coffee, but it was delicious! Occasionally I try to recreate that recipe using instant coffee and whole milk.

Avena-Oatmeal

4.50 from 2 votes

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Course: Breakfast

Cuisine: Mexican

Prep Time: 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 32 minutes minutes

Total Time: 42 minutes minutes

Servings: 6 Servings

Ingredients

• 4 c water
• 4- inch cinnamon stick
• 2 c old fashioned oats
• 2 c milk
• Sugar to taste
• Fresh fruit strawberries, blueberries, bananas
• More milk to taste
• crushed piloncillo, cane sugar cone optional

Instructions

• In a pot, add the 4 cups of water and cinnamon stick. Bring to a simmer at medium heat. Once it comes to a simmer, let it cook for 10 minutes.
• Pour in the oats. Stir well to combine. After it comes back up to a simmer, pour in the milk and sugar, to taste. Bring it back to a simmer and cook for 10-12 minutes or until it becomes thick.
• Serve with your favorite sliced fruit or plain. Pour in a little more milk and stir well to combine. Occasionally, I enjoy garnishing with crushed piloncillo sugar cane.

Notes

Tips- Cut the cooking time by using quick oats.

Tried this recipe?Mention @pinaenlacocina or tag #pinaenlacocina!

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