Eat: Steel Cut Oats

I will shamelessly admit that I enjoy the contents of those little brown packets of Quaker Oats instant oatmeal. It's what I ate nearly every morning for breakfast while growing up, so I'm a tad nostalgic. Does anyone else remember the different drawings of animals and the description of their local habitat on each packet? I loved it; I would read and re-read theme over and over again while I ate. I wasn't a very adventurous eater so I pretty much stuck to maple and brown sugar. At times, my parents tried to convince me to try the others (cinnamon & spice, peaches & cream) but with enough grimacing and miming like a person poisoned, they left me to my favourite.

I've heard a lot of hype about steel cut oats over the last couple of years so I decided I would give it a try and I have to say that it trumps those little packets. The end result is really worth the extra effort, which is really not much more than washing a dirty pot. Be warned .....I've made it twice and both times I accidentally let it boil over. Do not let this happen to you! Babysit the pot a little more than I did because it is a real pain in the arse to clean gluey oatmeal of the elements. You really just need to stir it and take the lid off every now and then so it doesn't boil over. The resulting oatmeal has the most wonderful texture, both firm and creamy/soft at the same time. I like the bite to it. It's worth making a big batch so that I can portion out breakfast for the week. I usually add a few tablespoons of water and microwave it for a minute or so. It ends up with a texture which is just as good as the first day it was made.

You can tell I'm still self indulgent with my topping choices; brown sugar and a few dark chocolate chips. Nom nom....