Oats! They are a powerhouse of nutrition and awesomely delicious breakfast goodness. Here are five ways to eat healthy, scrumptious, nutty oats — and none of them involve mush.
Rolled oats, flattened under extreme pressure, on the left. Steel-cut (or Irish) oats on the right. They are the whole oat groat, chopped into pieces.
We love oats so much! Here are some of our favorite ways to eat oats. What about you? What are your favorite nutritious ways to your oatmeal?
- Steel-cut! - Really, the only way to eat oats for breakfast. The non-flattened, steel-cut oats, soaked overnight in hot water and cooked up in the morning into pearly, chewy grains of utter whole-grain nirvana. Here's how to cook steel-cut oatmeal. Also try it in a slow cooker. And here's a recipe for savory oatmeal with gorgonzola.
- Raw, as muesli - Muesli (real muesli, not the boxed sort) is just rolled oats soaked in milk all night. Really nutritious and delicious, and takes zero work. Unless you count pouring milk as work, in which case, we cannot help you.
- In DIY instant oatmeal packets - Make your own instant oatmeal packets and quit buying sugary stuff from the store. Here's how to make homemade instant oatmeal to stash in your desk drawer.
- As bread - Oatmeal bread is nutritious, marvelously good as toast, and just is an all-round good thing. Here's an easy recipe for oatmeal bread. Also try this blueberry oat quick bread.
- In a cookie - Yes, just had to sneak in these oatmeal monster cookies, chock-full of peanut butter and chocolate bits. You have to reward yourself for eating healthy sometimes, right?
Here are a few more tips and resources on oats.
• Good Question: A Foolproof Recipe for Oatmeal?
• Breakfast for Lunch: Steel-Cut Oats with Dates, Coconut, Cinnamon and Pecans
• Make-Ahead Breakfast Recipe Review: Oatmeal Clafoutis
• What's For Breakfast? Irish Oatmeal
• Weeknight Recipe: Oatmeal-Brown Sugar Baked Apples
(Images: Faith Durand)
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What is in the photo above? It looks amazing!
Oatmeal for breakfast, several times a week has cleared up my digestive problems and lowered my blood sugar. It's been a easy, almost joyful way to address some of my health issues. I stay "full" for hours.
Oh, pictured recipe is second in the links there -- dates, coconut, nuts (walnuts, actually), and cinnamon...
Try whole oats for breakfast sometime. I always have oats for breakfast and then alternate between making steel cut and whole oat oatmeal. Whole oats cook up in basically the same time as steel cut and they're really delicious. They're more chewy than the steel cut oats, but not in an unpleasant way at all.
I usually make the whole oats by cooking 1/2 cup of dry oats in 1 1/2 cup of water. It takes about 25-35 minutes to simmer until it's softened and the water is absorbed. Of course you'll want to flavor it with whatever you prefer (I like cinnamon, maple syrup, and tart cherries, myself).
I like a bowl of oatmeal with coconut milk, shredded coconut, pineapple chunks, and macadamia nuts. It's also good with cinnamon, walnuts, and cooked apple.
I use gluten-free oats in place of bread crumbs when making burger patties, meatloaf, or felafel.
This past winter, I had been eating steel cut oats prepard in the slow cooker just about every day. I switched to yogurt during the warmer months and now that it is cool again, have switched back to oatmeal. However, my first preparation in the slow cooker this season turned out horribly. The oats were gummy and felt like a lead balloon in my stomach all morning. After two servings on consecutive days, I actually ended up throwing the rest out. Didn't really do anything differently except I always knew the liquid/oats ratio to be 4:1. I'm hoping I'm just a bit rusty as it is truly the best way to eat oatmeal, IMO.
I make this in the winter months and you can keep in the fridge up to a week and reheat and pour cold almond or soy milk over it.
Baked Oatmeal – Peach fresh or frozen
2 cups oatmeal
1 cup oat bran
3 cups soy milk
1 cup water
2 eggs
½ cup maple syrup 0r Sucanat which is better for you
½ teaspoon almond extract
½ teaspoon vanilla
¾ cup almonds, chopped fine
2 – 3 peaches, peeled and chopped, also I add blueberries too.
Place dry ingredients and fruit in a casserole/cake pan, mix wet ingredients and pour over dry mixture, stir until blended. Bake 375 degrees, 45 minutes.
Alternative: Apple juice, apples, cinnamon, cherries or dried fruit.
Steel-cut oats do often take a log time to cook, but I've found an excellent alternative at Trader Joe's. They have these frozen steel-cut oat pucks that can be microwaved and eaten, all in less than 5 minutes. I like to add a bit of cream, some brown sugar, and a dash of cinnamon.
There's a fantastic granola recipe on the bbcgoodfood.co.uk site, called "good for you granola" I think - it starts with a whole load of oats, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds/linseed/chia seeds and flaked almonds, stirred into a maple syrup/honey/veg oil mix (I always skip the vanilla they state), baked for 15mins, then stirred up again with flaked coconut and dried fruit, and baked for a final 15mins. It's soft when it comes out of the oven, but crisps up really well, and is delicious on yoghurt in the mornings.
On cold mornings, I make all-milk porridge - 50g oats and 300-350ml milk in a saucepan and cooked together until good - I love that boiled milk flavour. Plus of course it's a great excuse for some golden syrup!
I'm going to have to find myself some steel cut oats though - I've never tried them, and now I'm intrigued...
I mix whole rolled oats (raw) with nuts and dried fruit, and I eat it every morning with yogurt for breakfast. It's delicious and it keeps me full for so long!
i love this savory preparation of oats:
http://beetgoeson.blogspot.com/2008/12/avena-con-setas.html
Anyone know a good recipe for breakfast cookies? I love the premade ones but I would like to make my own.
I toss rolled oats in my coffee cup at work, then fill the cup from the office hot water dispenser. In 5 minutes they are soft enough to eat; add some raisins and sunflower seeds, eat while sorting last night's email. It's no leftover pizza as food goes, but it should be good for cholesterol.
I'm ovo-lacto vegetarian and can not eat gluten. Steel Cut Oats sounds so perfect except for the gluten. Any suggestions?