(Say the word “oatmeal” and chances are, images of cold winter mornings of your childhood come to mind – mornings when Mom served steaming bowls of the breakfast cereal topped with cinnamon, butter and cream.

The image is cozy, and the dish is, too, but it’s so limiting for such a tasty oat.

Here are five unexpected ways to add more oats to your life:

1. Use it in a small plate, or appetizer. These Oriental stuffed mushrooms are marinated with sherry and soy sauce and stuffed with a combination of oats, ground turkey, bell pepper and Dijon mustard. Serve piping hot with a sprinkle of melting parmesan. No one would ever guess this small bite contains the grain that can help reduce your bad cholesterol levels.

2. Add texture to your soups with a bit of oats, especially the heartier, steel-cut variety. The Tex-Mex recipe includes steel-cut oats as a way of adding a depth of flavor to the broth as well as a sheen to its appearance.

3. Doll up a veggie. The folks at Quaker Oats suggest stuffing bright red tomatoes with a combination of oats, chopped broccoli and small-curd cottage cheese.

4. OK, this might be a bit old-fashioned, but who outgrows their affection for cobbler for dessert? The recipe provided here for pear-cranberry crisp with a bit of crystallized ginger is a modern take on the familiar sweet treat we all love. Oats add a chewy, nutty texture that is as comforting as those bowls of oatmeal on a winter morning. Hey, come to think of it, why not try a bowl of this on a cold morning instead?

5. Keep a mixture of oats, cinnamon and brown sugar in a resealable plastic bag in the freezer. When you’re making banana bread or other fruited breads, pull out this sweet mixture and sprinkle a bit on top for extra flavor and crunch. Or, add a tablespoon to a bowl of chunky applesauce for a snack or as another take on oats for breakfast.

All about oats

Oats can be found in several forms:

-Whole oats, which take longer to cook and have the chewiest texture of all the oat types.

-Steel-cut oats (cut into bits with steel blades), which also have a chewier texture than the more common rolled oats.

-Rolled oats, which are distinguishable by their flaked texture and take about five minutes to cook.

-Quick oats, which are even thinner flakes and cook up in about a minute.

-Finely ground oats, which become oat flour, can be created at home by pulsing rolled oats in a food processor or grinding them with a spice grinder.

Oats facts

-Oats are compatible with savory foods and flavors such as carrots, mushrooms and walnuts. They also blend well with sweet flavors such as fruits, cinnamon, brown sugar and maple syrup.

-Oatmeal cookies are the No. 1 non-cereal use for oats, followed by meatloaf, in which oats are used as a filler that binds the meat together.

-Oats are the nation’s third leading cereal crop. Wheat is first, corn is second.

-The Quaker Oats company, with the famous Quaker gentleman on its packages, was the first breakfast cereal to be trademarked. The company celebrates its 130th anniversary this year.

-For a free brochure of recipes using oats, e-mail oatofferaol.com or send your name and mailing address to: Awesome Oats, P.O. Box 487, Chicago, IL 60690-0487. Allow three to five weeks for delivery.

SOURCES: Quakeroatmeal.com and “Whole Grains Every Day, Every Way” by Lorna Sass (Crown Publishing, 2006)

And it’s good for you, too

Oatmeal is full of soluble fiber, which lowers bad LDL cholesterol levels without lowering your good cholesterol.

Most people should get 5 to 10 grams of soluble fiber a day. But the average American gets only 3 or 4 grams.

There are 3 grams of soluble fiber in 1 1/2 cups of oatmeal – enough to lower your cholesterol, according to the American Dietetic Association. That might be a bit much for breakfast, so try to add in oatmeal or bran to dishes at other meals.

SOURCE: www.webmd.com