apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

bowl of Kashi Crunch cereal with soy milk and blackberries followed by a cup of coffee on the way to work.

Seared steel cut oats. I took leftover steel cut oats from yesterday's breakfast, poured them into a buttered jelly roll pan and stored them in the fridge. This morning, I cut the chilled oats into triangles and seared them in a pan with a little butter until they had a light crust, like grilled polenta.

Sounds great Arin, never would of thought of that. Great use of leftovers!

"gooey, sticky instant oat gruel." ;)

Or more specifically a piece of cinnamon toast at home and a bowl of archer farms blueberry almond instant oatmeal. It has a lot better texture and flavor than the quaker instant. And it's cheap and fast and most importantly can be prepped at work when I get hungry around 9:30 - 10:00. I wish I'd give myself time in the am to eat at home but it rarely happens.

Leftover broccoli casserole. ;P Leftovers, whatever they may be, fit into my morning routine of wake up, hit snooze, wake up, hit snooze, wake up, hit snooze, wake up, panic, dress, run dog out long enough to go potty, run in and grab my water bottle and two random tupperwares (one for lunch, one for breakfast, both usually containing the same thing), and lunge out the door. What can I say--it gets the blood pumping!

We eat the Irish oatmeal with walnuts, raisens, a bit of milk and a sprinkle of brown sugar. Decadence in a bowl!

is it just me, or has anyone else ever gotten greenish streaks in their steel cut when cooking it? any idea what it is? can it kill me? i'm cooking in non stick, maybe that has something to do with it?

Steel cut oatmeal is so great any time of day. I like to brown the oats first in a pat of butter before adding the hot water. I like maple syrup, splash of rice milk & raisins on mine. Occasionally, I'll make oatmeal brulee by torching the brown sugar topping.

You can also microwave steel cut oats pretty easily. For a nice change from the sweet treatment, add blue cheese (or whatever sort of cheese you like) and veggies for a savory oatmeal.

I also toast my steel cut oats before cooking, and I use 1 part milk to 3 parts water. Very good and worth the wait!

On weekday mornings I generally have some cold cereal (along with my tea), unfortunately. it's not so special, but I can't think enough in the morning to do more than that.

I like my steel-cut oats with diced tart apples, raspberry coulis, walnuts, and brown sugar. I've never toasted them, but maybe I'll give that a shot!

As to instant oatmeal, I'm having a lot of fun with Trader Joe's instant cranberry oatmeal. Not so mushy, a hit of tartness from the cranberries. Delicious. That was breakfast this morning.

It was a bad day for breakfast - I confess herewith to pan frying some cheap (but tasty!) pork pot-stickers around 7:30 am. I haven't felt quite right since...

My normal--regular oats with maple sugar and a little peanut butter.

But sometimes I do mix it up with steel cut oats in the slow cooker. My favorite recipe: mix together 1 cup steel cut oats, 4 cups soymilk (or other liquid, evap milk is great, too), 1 can pumpkin, spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, etc.). Cook on low in a slow cooker overnight. Add sugar, maple syrup, or other sweetener to taste. It's like pumpkin pie for breakfast!

Instead of pumpkin you can add basically any frozen fruit (blueberries are great).

Steel cut oats-- I make a couple days worth of a mix of oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, walnuts, and golden raisins, and put them in a ziplock bag. Then, at work, I put maybe 3/4 cup into my mug, add enough water to cover plus about an inch, and put in the microwave for two minutes. It's still soupy at this point, but I leave it on my desk for a little while, and by the time it's cool enough to eat, the oats have absorbed the rest of the water and it's perfect.

I had steel-cut oatmeal for breakfast this morning! I prepare mine in the rice cooker with dried blueberries, and when it's ready, I top it with chopped pecans and whole milk vanilla yogurt.

One orange purchased in the train station and eaten sitting on a bench waiting for the train. Ah, Monday.

Oo mlt43, that sounds like a great idea! Does it get really stuck to the inside of the rice cooker?

I have tried and tried to love the healthy goodness of oatmeal, to no avail. The texture, whether mushy or chewy, the blandness without additions, and then the sweetness with additions, I just can't make it work. I should probably give it up. I guess I'm just not an oatmeal girl. I wonder what it is about the idea of oatmeal that appeals to me so much?

Ah, these are the primary ingredient in my favorite childhood breakfast meal- goetta. So good.....