New 52 | Week 19: Steel Cut Oats

Breakfast has always been a problem for me.  I'm almost always running late in the morning and I don't have time to eat a proper breakfast at home.  In the past I've gone to work and bought scrambled eggs and potatoes at my work cafeteria, but that's not healthy to eat every day.  So this year I started keeping some soy milk in the little fridge in my cubicle and some cereal.  That was okay, but cereal can get tiresome.

I had been reading lately about the resurgence of eating steel-cut oats.  I guess people have been coming back to a more wholesome slow-cooked breakfast, rather than the instant oatmeal that has no texture.  Don't get me wrong, I've eaten my share of Quaker 1-minute Oatmeal in my life, but I wanted something nuttier, heartier, and healthier.  So when Todd came upon a Lifehacker article on "How To Prepare Breakfast For The Week In 5 Minutes", we decided it was time for us to put this into practice and cook some steel-cut oats.

We bought steel-cut oats in the bulk section of our local Sprouts store. I'm sure you can get them at Henry's or Whole Foods as well. We didn't put each portion into mason jars, like in the Lifehacker article. We had the oats sit in the covered pot overnight, then the next morning we scooped some out to eat and put the rest into a big glass container with a lid. Then each morning last week, we took the container out of the fridge in the morning and scooped out a portion into our bowls. Then we added milk or soy milk and some brown sugar and heated it up in the microwave, then added any fruits we had on hand. I LOVE the chewy texture of the steel-cut oats!


I even brought small pyrex containers of it to work if I were running late. It was so convenient! Just cook this on Sunday night and you have breakfast for the entire week, plus it's so healthy. I'm sold on this! I can't believe that we had never cooked steel-cut oats before. Now I hope to do this often. :)

Some more resources if you want to find out more about steel-cut oats:

Oatmeal in Jars: Make a Week of Breakfast in 5 Minutes
How To Cook Steel-Cut Oats for Breakfast the Night Before
Steel-Cut Oats

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About This Project

New52 is a project started by Peppermint and I to encourage each other and others around us to try something new every week in 2011. The "new" each week doesn't have to be something big. It could be something as simple as ordering a new dish instead of old standbys at your favorite restaurant. It's simply opening your heart up to NEW possibilities.

Don't worry if you're late getting started on joining in. It's totally OK if you miss a week here or there. We encourage everyone to keep an open mind about trying something new. This is a life project, and a photography/blog and even scrap challenge if you wish. If you participate this week, please leave a link to your blog post in the link list below. You can also post images to our New 52 Flickr Group! We would love to see what you were inspired to do.