Steel cut oats, The other oatmeal

One other go to breakfast of mine is steel cut oatmeal. I love it. Actually now, I prefer the steel cut over regular rolled oats. If you have never tried it before it tastes like well, oatmeal. The differences lie in the taste and texture, steel cut oats are crunchier than regular oatmeal and have a nuttier taste. Steel cut oats versus rolled or old-fasioned oats nutritionally are almost the same, the difference lies in the processing. Steel cut oats are not processed like the rolled oats, or pre cooked like rolled oats. So, cooking time for steel cut oats is much longer, at least 15 minutes. 

Here is an idea: I have a friend who puts her steel cut oats and water in a crock pot at night on a timer. At midnight the crockpot starts and cooks the oats till 6am when her large family gets up. They have ready made healthy breakfast! I love that idea, leave it to a mom to come up with that time saver!

A typical nutritional label on a container of steel cut oats are as follows:

1/4 cup of steel cut oats:
Calories – 150
Fat – 2.5g
Carbs – 27g
Fiber – 4g
Sugar – 1g
Protein – 5g

Steel Cut Oatmeal
Another way to eat oatmeal other than instantly from a packet.

You can add lots of mix ins to the oatmeal, I do.

Blueberries

Pecans

Walnuts

Cinnamon

Brown sugar- not a lot though

Milk

Apples

Strawberries

How about this fun idea for the kids:

You can use any oatmeal for this, but you will need a mini flan/ creme brulee torch.

(Perhaps you got one as a wedding present, we received two!)

Cook oatmeal according to the directions, sprinkle brown sugar on top, torch the sugar for a few seconds to create a fun, crispy shell on top that kids will love to break open with their spoon!