Strawberries and Coconut Cream Oatmeal

It is spring here in these mountains, and it is cold.  It was so warm before!  Then suddenly, it got cold again.  That is how March and April go though.  But, it also means something else: the Strawberry Man.  Every year, a man shows up on various random days in a truck selling cartons and buckets of fresh picked strawberries from Tennessee.  You would almost think that a hotline is set up in my family.  They seem him, the phone starts ringing, and whoever is there goes to see the Strawberry Man.  We pretty much buy strawberries from him every time he is there.  There are cobblers, jams, dumplings, glazes, pies, etc. to be made with these wonderful gems.  And they are always just SO GOOD!  I do love fresh strawberries so much.

Mom got me a bucket of strawberries last night.  I could not have been happier.  I immediately had a bowl of them.  They were still warm and so sweet.  I could have sat there and ate the entire bucket.  Instead, I came up with an idea for a great breakfast for me, mom, and some of my coworkers Jen and Ranetta.  I decided to make fresh Strawberries and Cream Oatmeal. 

This is what you should know about how I make recipes.  I get an idea in my head, decide, hey, I could do it this way, and yep, I try it that way.  More often than not, it works fantastically.  Other times, it flops, and I go back to the drawing board.  I rarely follow recipes, and, when I do, it never turns out the way I want it (curse you Mac n' Cheese with agave nectar!  I have yet to live that one down from Jeremy, who, by the way, was the one to encourage me to actually follow the recipe.  I blame him).  This morning, I woke up and decided to make the cream part of the oatmeal, I would use coconut milk, agave nectar, and just a touch of vanilla.  And this is what I ended up with:

It was amazingly good.  It was simple, and those fresh strawberries just popped with the creamy coconut milk.  I added almonds and flax seeds to mine. 

Mom, Ranetta, and Jen just added almonds, but it was a hit across the board.  Everyone loved it. 

Ingredients:

2 c. strawberries, sliced
1 can coconut milk
1/4 c. water
1/2 c. agave nectar (if you want, you can add sugar.  I prefer agave though)
1 1/2 c. old fashioned oats
1 tsp. vanilla
almonds (optional)
flax seeds (optional)

Directions:

1. In a sauce pan, mix together the coconut milk, water, and agave nectar. 
2. Put this on the stove over medium-high heat until it comes a rolling boil.
3. Stir in oatmeal.  Like this come back up to a boil and turn the heat down to medium-low.
4. Let cook until the oatmeal is thickened and cooked (anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes).
5. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla.
6. Stir in the strawberries.
7. Grab a bowl, toss in the almonds and flax seeds, and chow down!

The hardest part of this recipe is trying to keep yourself from drinking the coconut cream mixture as it is heating up.  IT SMELLS SO GOOD!  And, this was an excellent use of those delicious strawberries. Thank you Strawberry Man for coming every Spring. Without you, I would be lost!