Dates & Oatmeal.

I have this new yummy breakfast habit, dates on my oatmeal.  I will have to thank my Mama for the idea, and I started doing this for a sweet addition to an old favorite.  Oatmeal can become so boring, the same old butter, sugar, cinnamon story.  Well, instead of the sugar, add some pitted chopped up dates!  Look at your food labels and make sure there is no added sugar in the dates.  My husband and I have a week more of our "processed added sugar" fast, so I'm looking for alternatives to sugar for a sweet affect in my morning oatmeal.  I was excited to find that dates are so naturally sweet.  They have this brown sugar like flavor too.  I add some chopped pecans and a little butter too.  Today we went to Whole Foods, glorious food shopping, and I found some organic dates that look like they are on steroids.  I'm looking forward to using them tomorrow in my oatmeal, and I'll let you know how they compare to the packaged ones I bought at Kroger.  Oh, one more note about oatmeal.  I'm reading the book, Breaking the Food Seduction, by Dr. Neal Barnard, and he explains the benefits of choosing "old fashioned" oats versus quick packaged oats.  I never knew that the quick oats were chopped up more finely and this actually digests faster which could leave you a lot more hungry than the old fashioned oats.  Plus, the old fashioned oats only take 2 minutes in the microwave, sounds quick to me!