Meatless Monday is Coming Up! - Oat Milk for Green Geezers

 

Okay, there are times when a girl just needs a Kahlua and Cream. Even on Meatless Mondays. My first oat milk test was a vegan alternative to my fav "I-need-a-drink" go-to for Meatless Mondays – because Mondays can be tough, right?

Oat milk has become my go-to dairy milk alternative, which has the same amount of calcium, I was surprised to find, and, heh, heh, heh, a little experiment struck me. I loaded a glass with ice, filled it two-thirds full with oat milk and topped it off with Kahlua. Score! Sweet and yummy! Done. (I may give vanilla-flavored oat milk a whirl for this particular thing… I'll let you know.)

With that important stride into veganism made, I decided to keep moving forward. 

When sampling vegan products, I try not to compare them too much to their animal product counterparts. I will say, when I taste-tested oat milk at first, I found it tasted like the milk after you've eaten all the Cheerios out of it. Oaty.  Hence, oat milk. If you drink the milk out of the bottom of your cereal bowl and like it, you're good to go with oat milk. The feel of it in your mouth is like one percent dairy milk, and I got used to that. I think I could dunk my cookies in oat milk and be happy.

Another test for oat milk was whether or not it thickened up nicely to make white gravy. Blaze and I love Shit on a Shingle, and though I can't make it with burger or sausage on Meatless Monday, I can make tomato, onion, and mushroom SOS (and throw in limas, peas, corn, celery, shredded carrots. Still easy peasy. I usually am generous with black pepper and Cajun seasoning to give it some snap. Then just saute in peanut oil until everything is soft, sprinkle with a quarter cup of flour, toss to coat, and then add the oat milk until poof! Veggie gravy! While most people serve SOS over toast, biscuits, corn bread or waffles, Blaze prefers his over baked potatoes. (Sometimes I slather mine over green beans if it's a 'I-ate-too-much-freaking-starch-this-week-time-to-pump-the-brakes day'.) 

Results? Flavor was great. Consistency was great. No longer "white" gravy, though. It was "tan" gravy. Fine with me. It was delicious.

I am pleasantly surprised at the nutrition comparison to dairy milk, too. I get a lot of my calcium via cheese and milk. I like the occasional bowl of Cheerios for a snack. Fine and dandy on cereal.

 

As for the nutritional comparison, here's what I came up with:  I grabbed labels from a carton of 2 percent dairy milk and a carton of full fat oat milk:

	2% MILK  (1 CUP)	OAT MILK FULL FAT (1 CUP)
CALORIES	122	90
TOTAL FAT	4.5 g	2.0 g
SATURATED FAT	3g	0
POLYUNSATURATED FAT		.5g
MONOUNSATURATED FAT		1.5 g
CHOLESTEROL	20 mg	0
CARBOHYDRATE	11 g	16 g (6%)
SODIUM	100 mg	150 mg.
DIETARY FIBER	0	1.92 g (7%)
TOTAL SUGAR	11g	7g
CALCIUM	300 mg (30%)	300 mg (30%)
VITAMIN A	90 ug (10%)	90 ug (10%)
VITAMIN C	3.6 mg (6%)	0
IRON	0	.72 mg (4%)
VITAMIN D	105 iu (25%)	105 iu (25%)
VITAMIN E	0	20%
RIBOFLAVIN	.5 mg (27%)	.6mg (45%)
MAGNESIUM	0	24 mg (8%)
PROTEIN	8 g	3 g
POTASSIUM	366 mg	389 mg
B12	1.1 mcg (19%)	1.2 mcg (50%)
PHOSPHORUS	229 mg (23%)	269 mg (25%)

 

(Please note: I compared labels – variances occurred in the percentage information for nutrients, and contents of the oat milks. For a fair comparison of your brand, be sure to check the labels and nutrition charts on the cartons.)

Not as much protein, however, NO saturated fat or cholesterol is a huge plus. Also, the fiber content, less sugar, more magnesium, more potassium content are all additional pluses.

Oat milk holds a little longer in the fridge than dairy milk. I've used mine up before the expiration date, and within a week of opening, so there hasn't been a chance for it to go bad. I looked up the info, which said bulk oat milk that's unrefrigerated in the store has a shelf life of up to nine months. I buy the refrigerated version and the article says that it's okay up to 14 days after the expiration date. I bought a carton on January 3rd, and the expiration date is for March 12, 2022. Once opened they say 7 to 10 days, depending on how cold your fridge is (below 40 degrees F) and how much air exposure it gets.  The last carton I had was gone in about nine days. I never leave it out of the fridge for long and keep the cap on tight.

So there you have it, my review of oat milk. A-okay with me!   

**

If you want to jump down the oat milk research rabbit hole like I did, here's a start: 

(This article is really cool because it explains how to make body scrubs and bars out of oat milk. There may be articles about this on Green Geezers in the future.)

"How Can You Tell if Oat Milk Has Gone Bad?" 

 

Oat Milk Nutritional Information (Oatly)