I'm working on making my daily diet more fiber-rich and plant-based. It's been easy for me to eat way less meat than I used to, but getting the "right" foods in has always been problematic. Eating steel-cut or old-fashioned oatmeal with fresh fruit is a delicious breakfast, but not as easy as popping waffles into the toaster!
I started googling various shortcuts to preparing the steel cut oats, which my father prepares quite deliciously by simply cooking them on the stove. His method isn't particularly hard but still more work than I'm willing to put in on a daily basis. Here is how he does it:
Boil quantity of water per directions on oat package.
Chop up an apple or two, depending on how many servings. (He peels them too, but I don't think you would need to)
After apples are soft and cooked, add the oatmeal.
Stir and cook for about ten minutes, until oats are soft.
Now here is the magic ingredient he adds that elevates it:
Spray a nice dollop of whipped cream into the mix.
The result is outstandingly delicious, especially since he serves it with more cream and brown sugar to add. So not quite as healthy as could be.
A few months ago, I found many recipes that called for assembling the oatmeal in a slow cooker or crockpot and then cooking overnight at low heat. This sounded appealing and there were some fruit additions, like cut up apples or blue berries. However, I found that I was never interested in putting it together in the crockpot when it was late at night, especially since I'd have to make a large quantity. Although honestly, it is supposed to be reheatable even if no one else was interested in it.
Finally, I came across some easier methods. Placing the oats, liquid, and other flavorings in a glass jar overnight. In the morning, swirl and eat it cold. Sounded perfect for this time of year, as hot oatmeal isn't so appealing as summer moves in.
So I conducted a few experiments using this method shared on the blog The Yummy Life, which has six different suggestions for ingredients, but follows the same basic method each time. Here are my results so far:
Peanut Butter Banana: I made this and almost liked it a lot. What was wrong was that I used Smart Balance Peanut Butter which doesn't really have the best flavor. It would have been better with Skippy. Also, the peanut butter clumped a lot, although vigorous stirring helps, but didn't eliminate the blobs. As for the banana, I would recommend holding that out for the overnight process and adding it in freshly cut before eating. (There is an oddness is the flavor of bananas that bothers me anytime I eat them raw but not immediately.)
This recipe called for 1 tsp of honey, but I added at least two. That wasn't sweet enough so I have to say it takes about a TBSP of honey to make it sweet enough for me. Possibly that would be resolved by using a sweeter peanut butter and adding bananas as I suggest.
The second experiment was with berries. I had fresh strawberries and blackberries and I liked the results a bit better, although again, some of the fruit just tasted off. I think I'd add this type of fresh fruit just before eating.
My last effort was my own ingredients with the same method. I used canned light coconut milk which was leftover from another meal. I also added some fat free half and half and a tbsp of rock sugar. It came out with good flavor (assuming you like coconut flavor) but the texture didn't work at all. I stuck it in a microwave bowl and microwaved for about a minute and that was much better.
My conclusions on this experiment are this. It is easy to assemble the oatmeal, liquid, and some sweetners in a jar to eat the next morning. You don't have to do it late at night as with the crockpot method, because the mixture is good for several days. If you eat it the next morning, it is rather chewy, which I don't mind. However, microwaving it a minute or so will soften it up nicely and be a warm bowl of oatmeal, which some might prefer. I will stick to adding fresh fruit before I eat, rather than overnight for the time being, but might try again with applesauce or canned fruit in the winter.
