Okay, I know steel-cut oatmeal is nowhere near new for many people. But it is new to me, and I am so excited about it that I had to share. But I thought I’d prevent boredom in oatmeal fans by also sharing my repertoire of tips, tricks, and recipes to make oatmeal a more enjoyable healthy breakfast!
Until only about two years ago, I exclusively ate oatmeal in the form of those instant packets – maple and brown sugar flavored to be exact. Not exactly the health food that I strive to eat. But I blamed my raging sweet tooth and thought at least I’m eating oatmeal. And I absolutely loved them.
Then I went on an anti-processed foods kick, and started making my own maple and brown sugar oatmeal. A step in the right direction. I started looking for (or noticing) more recipes for delicious oatmeal concoctions, and the more I made the more I realized that I can make oatmeal that’s a hundred times more delicious than the instant variety, and much healthier too.
So steel-cut oatmeal was the logical next step. Oh. my. gosh. It’s incredible! So creamy and chewy and marvelous. I’m kicking myself for taking so long to try it.
Here’s the simple steel-cut oatmeal recipe I made:
serves 2
2/3 C steel cut oats
1 1/3 C water
1 1/3 C unsweetened vanilla almond milk
1 cinnamon stick
1 piece leftover vanilla bean (I’d scraped the seeds out for another recipe – just toss the leftover pod in your oatmeal and the extra beans and all that flavor come out so easily!)
Dump all ingredients except in your rice cooker. Push start.
Oh, yeah. Don’t forget to leave the lid ajar a bit . . .
Then I bruleed it!
And now many more oatmeal suggestions . . .
Carrot cake oatmeal. I’ve seen this around the blogging world a lot, but the first recipe I made was from Oh She Glows. Mmmmm. It tastes like dessert, but with barely any sugar. And there’s veggies! In oatmeal! Bonus points. I love all the other ideas listed below, and do eat them all fairly often. But I eat this twice as much as all the others combined.
Brewed tea oatmeal. Brew a very strong cup (or however much liquid you need for your oatmeal) of your favorite tea. Then cook your oatmeal in the tea. It gives oatmeal so much flavor. With no fat or sugar. Or even spices! Of course you can add even more flavor. I have a nice little stash of sweet-flavored teas that I use to trick my sweet tooth – things like sweet almond biscotti, vanilla chai, sugar cookie, and chocolate flavored tea. I love to use these for oatmeal, and add in just a little vanilla extract.
Apple Pie oatmeal. Mmmmm.
Brulee your oatmeal. You heard me! Well, I guess you read it. Whatever. I saw the genius Bobby Flay do this on Cooking Channel. He made some apple-y oatmeal, then sprinkled the top with sugar and torched it! Amazing. Sprinkle 1 T sugar over each serving of oatmeal, and brulee them! If you don’t have a little blow torch, you can pop them under the broiler for a few minutes until the sugar melts.
PB & J oatmeal. Just swirl ’em in. Any kind of nut butter is delicious. OR that sickeningly sweet but utterly amazing Speculoos cookie butter from Trader Joe’s.
Chocolate oatmeal. I read an article in a fitness magazine a couple years ago that said adding a couple ounces of dark chocolate to a high-fiber breakfast would help reduce sugar cravings throughout the day. One of their suggestions was stirring dark chocolate into oatmeal. While it completely failed to help my sweet tooth at all, it is a wonderful morning treat!
Savory ideas. I think my first six ideas prove that I want sweets in the morning. Well, morning, noon, and night to be exact. But sometimes, savory oatmeal is a nice change. Oatmeal’s really a blank canvas, and goes just as well with savory goodies as sweets. Stir in mashed sweet potatoes and spices. Top with beans, roasted veggies, salsa, veggie burgers.
Enjoy!
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