Easy steel cut oats for breakfast

Steel cut oats make a filling, low-gluten breakfast, but it seems hard to make a pot in the morning before coffee has done its work. I discovered that Trader Joe’s sells frozen oatmeal and I was inspired to come up with my own oatmeal recipe.

You will need a pot (or rice cooker), measuring cups, and something for freezing your oatmeal “pucks”. You can use muffin tins, ice cube trays, or my favorite, silicone baby food trays.

Measure 3 cups of water and heat to boiling. With my rice cooker, I use a glass measure and preheat the water in the microwave to speed this up.

Measure 1 cup of steel cut oats and add to hot water. My favorite are from Bob’s Red Mill near Portland, Oregon. Add a pinch of sea salt.

Cook for 20 minutes. I do this without putting on the lid. The package directions suggest a lid, so you may want to experiment with this.

Take off the heat at 20 minutes. You will probably see extra water, but it will get absorbed as you work.

Use a ¼ cup measure and a spoon or small spatula to fill your freezing container. Ice cube trays should hold 2 tbsp. per unit and a muffin pan may hold ½ cup per unit. 1 cup of oats will make about 6 half-cups.

If your freezing container does not have a lid, use Glad Press’n Seal (or foil) to cover.

Place in the freezer for an hour or overnight. Fill the sink with a small amount of hot water and place your pan in the hot water. Your oatmeal pucks should pop out to be stored in a freezer reclosable plastic bag in the freezer.

For eating, place ½ cup of frozen oats in a glass or ceramic bowl (for me, that’s 2 pucks). Microwave for 90 seconds. Pour milk in the bowl to make a pool in the bottom (2 tbsp or more to taste). Add cinnamon, brown sugar, and/or diced candied ginger to taste. Microwave for 30 seconds. For a totally fun breakfast, serve with ¼ cup berries, ½ sliced banana, 1 tbsp. dark chocolate chips, and 2 tbsp. peanuts or slivered almonds (about 400 calories).

Related links

• http://www.bobsredmill.com/shop/oats/organic-steel-cut-oats.html
  • Irish steel cut oats from Bob’s Red Mill. They also have a gluten-free version.
• http://foodtimeline.org/foodcookies.html#oatmeal
  • Oats and oatmeal cookie history from the Food Timeline
• http://www.goldenspurtle.com/recipes/
  • Recipes from the Scottish Golden Spurtle competition

Let’s talk story

For years, my mother patiently got up early and made us kids hot oatmeal for a hot breakfast before school. So now I love circling back around and embracing oatmeal as a healthy, hot breakfast. It makes me happy to find a way to give up the instant versions I was using. And I can handle 2 minutes in the microwave in the morning!

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