A big believer in breakfast and in oats, John shared with us his life long key to both a good day's start and a quick afternoon snack 😋
Recently we caught up with John to talk about his experience with dysphagia and his survivorship of head and neck cancer. He was gracious enough to dive into a little bit of history and talk about his journey through moving out of home, learning to cook and navigating the kitchen once he started having difficulty swallowing.
A notable difficulty for people with dysphagia is not being able to snack on pre-made items such as biscuits, bread and chips. John remarked that while he used to come home and snack on a biscuit while he prepared dinner, biscuits are no longer the easy substitute while he sorts out his meal. Instead, he whips together a bowl of twice cooked oats with fruit that takes no time at all and is healthy while it goes down a treat 👨🍳
Below is John's recipe for his twice cooked microwave oats. I've chosen to try it with a bit of banana, but as John explained, there's so much flexibility to play with flavours and textures by using seasonal fruits or whichever fruits are available to you. As John emphasised, it's so important to keep things on rotation so that your food remains interesting and enjoyable, and alternating fruit is such a simple way to do it 🍌🍑🥥
John also spoke about using the spoon test to make sure that the oats are moist and not too dry or stodgy. John practices what he preaches and is a little more lax on dual consistency by adding milk to cool it down or make it more creamy. I, however, aimed for a minced moist consistency that would pass for the IDDSI guidelines. Below, I've included specific measurements but depending on the kind of oats, milk and fruit you use, you might have to play around with the amounts and use the spoon test to assess the consistency, just like John 🥄
John's Twice-Cooked Microwave Oats
Serves 1
INGREDIENTS
1/2 a cup of oats
1/2 a cup of Milk
1 dessert spoon of yoghurt
1 medium banana, peeled and mashed
METHOD
1. Add the oats and milk to a bowl and heat in the microwave for 90 seconds.
2. While that's cooking, mash up the banana into a minced puree consistency.
3. Remove the bowl from the microwave and add the banana (or whichever fruit you're using), the yoghurt and a dash of milk. Stir until all the ingredients are combined.
4. Place the bowl back in the microwave and cook for a further 30 seconds.
5. Allow to cool before serving.
Garnish with any flavour of your choosing and serve warm ✨
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