While Mom has since abandoned oatmeal for Cheerios, I've continued to have oatmeal for breakfast most mornings since then. I use Quaker large-flake rolled oats (the yellow label bag -- at least, it's yellow here in Canada) -- about 1/3 of a cup of oats (and sometimes a bit more -- and sometimes a spoonful of oat bran, for added fibre) into a bowl with 2/3 of a cup of water. (Maybe a little less -- I like my oatmeal fairly thick, and if you use too much water, it's liable to overflow the bowl while it's cooking.) Microwave on high for 3 minutes. I like to top mine with brown sugar & cinnamon, and some milk.
Oatmeal is a good source of fibre, which helps reduce cholesterol (a primary concern for dh & me lately). The less processed the oats, the better. (The instant oatmeal that comes in individual packages, often with added flavouring, is generally considered the worst.) The large-flake oats that I use are pretty good, but the best, nutritionally speaking, are steel-cut oats. According to WebMD, "Steel-cut oats and rolled oats have about the same nutrition, but steel-cut oats have a bit more fiber. They also have a lower glycemic index and take longer to digest, keeping you full longer."
A lot of people have been singing the praises of steel-cut oats to me lately, so I decided to give them a try. I bought a container of them and cooked up a batch one morning recently, in a pot on the stovetop. The directions on the package also provided microwave instructions -- but it would still make two portions, not just one, and there were still multiple steps involved. I figured if I was going to be making multiple portions, I might as well make the larger recipe and then have more to refrigerate or freeze for future breakfasts! -- so, stovetop it was!
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| Cooking up a pot full of steel-cut oats. About 4 portions. |
The instructions said to bring the water to a boil and let the oats cook for (at least) 20 minutes. I left the pot cooking for almost half an hour -- and the mixture was still not as thick as I would have liked -- but I was getting hungry! lol I scooped out a portion into a bowl, and put the rest into a container and into the refrigerator. It keeps there for several days. (You can also freeze it in individual portion scoops.) I would scoop a portion out of the container -- now quite thick! -- put it into a bowl and mash it up a little, add just a splash of milk (or water), and heat it up in the microwave on high for about two minutes total. (I removed the bowl after one minute, stirred things up a bit and then put it back in for another minute.) Add more milk and whatever toppings you like.
I concluded that I will probably cook up a batch now & then, just to use up the container I bought -- but I think I will mostly stick to my large-flake oats. It's a little less fussy to cook, and I still like the texture better (although I might be able to improve that for the steel-cut oats with a little more experimenting).
How about you? What do you usually have for breakfast? Have you ever tried steel-cut oats? (Any tips for me?)
* (Genetics probably played a role in Dido's longevity as well! -- at least one and possibly more of his siblings lived to be more than 100 years old! Five of Dido's 10 children are gone now; my one aunt died as a baby in the 1930s from an illness that's now treatable with antibiotics, and one uncle died at age 89, but the other three all lived into their 90s. The other 5 currently range in age from 77 to 93!)
(Of course, it could also have been the glass of rye whisky he had with his dinner every night?? lol)
You can find more of this week's #MicroblogMondays posts here.
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