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Oats are never out of season in my house.

All year round, fresh fruit natural yoghurt and a sprinkling of rolled oats and black coffee.

Just Saturday I came home from Costco with a giant bag of steel cut oats! Gotta love 'em! So much better than rolled...

Oats are year round at my house, too. If I don't have them for a couple of days I start craving them. Mmmm. Though this morning I had a couple of slices of center cut bacon, an egg, and an english muffin.

I mark the passing of the seasons by whether I make a hot or iced latte for breakfast. Just switched to the hot lattes last week.

I have taken to rinsing my steel-cut oats thoroughly before cooking them, and it really helps cut down on the lumps. The one time I made them in the slow cooker, I didn't like the skin or lumps so I'm ready to try slow cooking them again after they've been rinsed. I also want to try them in the rice cooker, but my cooker only holds four cups of water.

I have some leftover oats sprinkled with brown sugar and pecans, and a veggie sausage patty for lunch today! Yum!

Maple syrup and honey are way too sweet for me, so I just soak my steel cut oats in water overnight, with one date added for sweetness. You get the same softness with a bit of chevy texture, less sugar, and you don't even have to spend time cooking them.

I never thought to make a savory oatmeal -- sounds delicious.

I generally resort to eggs -- scrambled with pesto, omelets. A poached egg over polenta. I also like a bowl of warm quinoa with walnuts, berries, and maple syrup.

I make a big batch of steel-cut oats and eat it all week. My current favorite: slice up a banana in the bottom of a bowl, layer some steel-cut oats on top, then add some vanilla soy milk and pumpkin pie spice and microwave for 2 minutes. When its nice and hot and the banana is soft, add some crumbled walnuts and brown sugar. I could eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner!
Also works with an apple instead of the banana. But I like to microwave the apple on its own for a min to soften it.

Oatmeal is also a year-round indulgence for me. As of late, I've been making that date cinnamon coconut pecan oatmeal you listed, which is absolutely divine.

Our "fuzzy logic" rice cooker does a good job of cooking our steel cut oats using the "porridge" setting. We use a little less water than indicated by the lines in the cooking pot.

If we have suitable fresh fruit, we throw that in. Otherwise, we keep a bag of frozen blueberries in the freezer.

Last spring, I picked up a jar of Trader Joe's quick-cooking oats, and didn't have a chance to open them before the heat set in. I'm excited to try them! Has anyone had experience with them.

I'm on the same seasonal eating schedule: yogurt, fruit and flaxseed during the warmer months and oatmeal and fruit during the cooler months. Despite our return to upper 70s here in Northern California, I've officially made the switch over to my steel-cut oats made overnight in the slow cooker.

Now, ScottyT-what part of the country do you live in? I didn't realize that Costco carried steel cut oats! I know each store is different but I'll have to keep an eye peeled for next time.

This weekend we had our first steel cut oats and polenta mixed with veggie sausage ("scrapple"), sliced and fried in butter with maple syrup. yum.

@rosebud- I am in Utah. This is the first time I have noticed them at Costco!

I like to make a point of carefully walking every food aisle of Costco every couple months so I don't miss any great new stuff (like the raspberry chipotle marinade, for example).

I've been loving savory breakfasts lately. There are some intriguing savory oatmeal recipes out there. But lately my favorite is polenta with parmesan, sauteed greens (any kind, but esp. kale), and a fried egg.

@ratheartsbikes -- can you share some links to these savory recipes?

Steel cut oatmeal topped with homemade aplesauce! Sweet enough to not need anything else.

I hated oatmeal until a friend introduced me to steelcut oatmeal. And I introduced it to my parents.

I eat it all sorts of ways but I love it most with something sweet (maple syrup, maple sugar, or brown sugar), something tart (cranberries, apples, apricots), and something crunchy (toasted, chopped nuts). Then pour a bunch of cold buttermilk over the piping hot oatmeal. Or fold in some coconut milk.

My parents make it savory, like congee.

I made savory oatmeal last night!

I sauteed garlic, onions and spinach (out of mushrooms!), then cooked the oats in 50/50 chicken broth/water with the veggies and salt and pepper.

The end result was delicious with fried eggs and hot sauce. My roommates were very impressed, as they had never tried savory oatmeal either. Looking forward to eating the leftovers for lunch!

LOVE steel cut oats. I make them in the microwave, 1 cup oats to 4 cups water, (in my largest mixing bowl covered with a dinner plate) on high for 5 min, half power for 20min. I have time to do other stuff in the morning (like read apartment therapy and drink coffee) without standing in the kitchen watching a pot and I have left over oats for the next couple of days. Favorite way to eat them is with a fried egg. It really holds me through to lunch and I have avoided the "sugar for breakfast" problem. So good.

grits are always in season but i started making barley for breakfast lately and it's been a constant request since.

cooked barley (night before's fine) plus dried fruit, brown sugar/honey, and (vanilla soy) milk warmed in a saucepan. dead simple and pretty quick, too :) i keep a bit soupier with enough milk to pool in the bottom of the bowl.

During the fall, I always make fried apples. Take whatever apples you have on hand (I usually use Macintosh apples), slice them up and put them in a heavy skillet with a little butter, cinnamon and sugar. Let them cook down until the fruit gets a bit soft, almost to the applesauce point. Then serve it on toast with some good sharp cheddar.

Why stop with the yogurt? My favorite way to have steel cut oats is with raisins (that I add during the cooking process) vanilla yogurt, and cinnamon (my HB add a little sugar). Tasty! I find this is a good way to feed oats to my kiddies (almost 3 and 15 mo) without the mess of adding milk.

Hot water in the pot, add the steel cut oats and a little salt (brings out the oat taste), and leave it covered several hours or overnight. No skin, no lumps, reheats perfectly. I usually have it with yogurt and fruit (fresh or dried). Sometimes a little cinnamon, especially with apples. Maybe jam or jelly stirred in. Right now I've got some great local yogurt with blueberry jam mixed in. Yum! It's also great to thicken up a stew or for a change from rice. I had a parmesan risotto-like oat dish that was wonderful, but I've never tried it at home. Hmm....

I also eat steel cut oats year round, usually with greek yogurt and a seasonal fruit. Recently, I have been stirring a big spoon of peanut butter in with a little bit of honey...its like eating peanut butter oatmeal cookies for breakfast--yumm!