Walnuts, bananas, strawberries, and milk cover the bowl of oatmeal.
We’ll never understand how anyone older than 8 years old would want to eat, let alone like, those packets of sugary instant oats. Maple and Brown Sugar (really, twice the amount of sugar), Apple and Cinnamon (dehydrated apples—yuck!), Peaches and Cream (makes me want to hurl). Sure they’re quick. Sure they’re easy. But being quick and easy is just a cop out. They are loaded with sugars, they contain very little fiber, and the ones that claim to have fruit in them are usually the ones no one wants to eat anyway. Why not do just a little bit of prep so that you can enjoy some relatively quick, easy, nutritious, and might we add, delicious steel cut oats?
Right now you’re saying: “I don’t have an hour to cook and stir. I’m in a hurry.” Nonsense! With just a little preparation the night before, steel cut oats can be ready and on the table before you decide which packet of sugar-laden oat powder you want to feed your children, or yourself, in the morning.
Quick Steel Cut Oatmeal
Serves 2
2 cups water
pinch of salt
½ cup of Steel Cut Oats
The night before, boil water in a sauce pan. Add the salt and steel cut oats. Turn the heat off and place the lid on top. Let stand overnight. The next morning, turn the heat back on to low medium and in less than 5 minutes the oatmeal is done.
Now for the fun part – the toppings and additions: diced up fresh fruit such as pear, apple or banana (we even love to add pomegranate seeds when in season), dried fruit (raisins, cranberries, blueberries, etc.), toasted nuts (almonds, pecans, walnuts, etc.), spices of your choice (cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, etc.), and warmed milk (we like whole milk as a rule). If you need to sweeten your oats, drizzle a little honey at the very end or, if you have it, REAL maple syrup, agave nectar, or even a sprinkle of brown sugar.
There are no good excuses for relying on those tasteless, artificial, nutritionally worthless envelopes. We’re confident you’ll agree that steel cut oats beat the instant stuff any day.
(y)our food choices™ 
I’ve never tried steel cut, but eat regular cut (? =P) organic oats all the time! (like your regular Quaker oats but organic…) Is there a big difference? My favorite way is with Peanut Butter and Bananas…. And with REAL Maple Syrup and a spoonful of ground flax…. So good!
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Thanks, Liv. Great topping suggestion. How can anything with peanut butter and bananas be bad? Love the sandwich. Now those oats … there is a big difference between the steel cut and rolled varieties. Believe us when we say we were strangers to steel cut oats in our youth, but the minute we discovered them, there was no turning back. But we do eat and enjoy both kinds of oatmeal. Great suggestion on the ground flax. We often add whole flax seeds to oatmeal. We use ground flax meal in our muesli, a cereal staple in our pantry that wouldn’t be muesli without rolled oats and other grains.
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