Dinner Diaries

Ha! Day 2 of the November Blog every day challenge and it's not even noon and here I am. I'm impressed with myself.


Steel Cut Oatmeal

In an effort to eat healthy food but also spend less money at the grocery I have discovered Steel Cut Oats. Regular oatmeal is fine, but has WAY too much sugar in it. Kashi oatmeal tastes FANTASTIC but is not very healthy for the budget. Once, Alton Brown (FoodNetwork) did a show on steel cut oatmeal. He promised that it was the best stuff in the world and once you tasted it you would never eat instant oats again. I was skeptical. But seeing their very reasonable price and VERY healthy stats.....I gave them a try. I also picked up some fresh cranberries at the store yesterday. Who doesn't love cranberries? (Well, Spencer doesn't, but he's weird.) Here's how it went:

Use a 4:1 water/oat ratio. (This will make 4 servings)
4 cups water and 1 cup oats go in the pan.
Give it a pinch of salt and let it start bubbling away.
Turn down to simmer and wait.
And wait.
And wait some more.
Add fresh cranberries (or whatever fruit you like) and wait a little longer.
After 40ish minutes have gone by, things should be pretty ready. You'll know when the oats have absorbed most of the water.
Scoop you some in a bowl and add butter and sugar. (Yes I said butter and sugar. I'm all about healthy but it still has to taste good. It's still less than if it were the prepackaged variety)

Here is the part where I was still skeptical. I completely expected them to taste just "okay". I kept reading how steel cut oats have a "chewy" texture. I read that to mean "rubbery". NOT true! I didn't think they were chewy at all. In fact, I liked the texture a lot. Definitely different than instant oats, but in a good way. I love them. I'm sold. And the cranberries were tart but sweet (thanks to the added sugar). Yum.

Now....before you start all that complaining (I don't have 40 min to make oatmeal in the mornings!) I have an alternate solution. I also read about an overnight cooking method. Goes like this:

Put water in pan and bring to a boil. Add oats and boil for ONE minute. Put on lid and let sit at room temp. overnight.
Next morning - Bring back up to a boil for 6-7 minutes. DONE.