Cherry Chocolate Crisp Oats

Good Morning!

Happy Thursday. Today is going to be filled with all sorts of errands and I need to jump on the treadmill and get my workout over with! I am totally procrastinating. We are having a heat wave here in Texas and it supposed to be 106 degrees today. I can't wait to high tail up to New York!

That is the only problem, summer is supposed to be so much fun but honestly it is so hot here that the kids really don't go out and play in it much. My kids went out to play yesterday and I watched the time to see when they would come back in and it lasted about 30 minutes. Okay.... enough of the complaining about weather!

I had a most excellent breakfast this morning. I am on a bit of a cherry toot lately. Today I made Cherry Chocolate Crisp Oats with frozen cherries.

Cherries are packed with powerful antioxidants. In fact, they have among the highest levels of antioxidants ? containing about the same as blueberries.


The Antioxidant Power of Cherries
Antioxidant strength is measured in Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) units. ORAC measures how many oxygen radicals a specific food can absorb and deactivate. The more oxygen radicals a food absorbs, the higher its ORAC score. The higher the ORAC score, the better a food is at helping our bodies fight diseases like cancer and heart disease.

Antioxidant Levels of Cherries

* Cherry Juice Concentrate: 12,800 ORAC units
* Dried Cherries: 6,800 ORAC units
* Frozen Cherries: 2,033 ORAC units
* Canned Cherries: 1,700 ORAC units

Cherry Chocolate Crisp Oats

1/2 cup rolled oats
1 cup of water

Cook for 4-5 minutes over medium heat.

Top with

1/2 cup frozen tart cherries, heated up with 1 tsp water
1 tablespoon wheat germ
1 tablespoon ground flaxseed
7 Emerald Cocoa Roasted Dark Chocolate Almonds, chopped

Enjoy!

Absolutely delicious bowl of oats! So the "happy" numbers on the scale were up by 2 whole pounds today! I knew it was too good to be true. I swear when I eat sweet potatos, I gain weight. I don't think my body processes the carbs well for some reason. No biggy, but that is just something I have noticed. I plan on running for 45 minutes on the treadmill and then running errands all day so I will be busy.

Despite, my weight gain I have a special dessert that I want to indulge in... (my priorities are a little whacked) so I am going to keep my diet light today.

Off to run and will check back in later!