Easy, Quick-Start, Overnight Irish Oatmeal

I stopped eating cereal after visiting an organic farm in the Caribbean in 2011. We ate organic homemade granola for breakfast every morning, topped with freshly harvested coconut milk and tropical fruit. After that, I purged store-bought cereal from our diet.

You can’t make out some of the prices in the pic of the Safeway aisle of horrors up above, but a box of Reese’s Puffs, for example (I didn’t know there was such a thing), weighs 1 pound, 2 ounces and costs a whopping $5.49 (!). A pound of organic steel-cut oats, however, costs only $3.38 at Rainbow and is easy—convenient even—to quickly prepare at night and enjoy in the morning.

More important, unlike Reese’s Puffs, steel-cut oats are a whole grain. Rich in fiber, whole grains help reduce cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart disease, cancer and diabetes. And if you buy your steel-cut oats in bulk and bring your own container, they generate zero waste too (no plastic cereal box liners to toss in the trash).

And of course, I must mention the taste! Steel-cut oats have a nutty flavor and chewy texture, plus they fill you up. You can top them with fresh fruit like blueberries, strawberries or apricots; yogurt or milk; a little bit of sweetener; sunflower seeds, hemp seeds, flaked coconut; raisins; and so on.

Ingredients

• 1 cup steel-cut oats
• 4 cups water

Directions

1. Add water and oats to a pot.

2. Heat on medium-high and whisk occasionally.

3. When the oats come to a boil, turn off the heat and cover the pot with a lid. Go to bed.

4. In the morning, heat up the oats.

5. Add your favorite toppings and enjoy. I topped mine with pumpkin seeds, flax seeds, chia seeds, hemp seeds, sucanat, a fresh, chopped peach and my homemade yogurt.

I added so many toppings, you can’t actually see the steel-cut oats in there. I topped this all off with fresh cherries from the yard.

Cooking your steel-cut oats this way saves not only time but energy. If you prepare them the usual way, they need to simmer for 35–40 minutes.

Enjoy!

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Easy, Quick-Start, Overnight Irish Oatmeal

Yields 3–4 servings

Ingredients

• 1 cup steel-cut oats
• 4 cups water

Directions

1. The night before you want to eat your oatmeal, add water and oats to a pot.

2. Heat on medium-high and whisk occasionally.

3. When the oats come to a boil, turn off the heat and cover the pot with a lid.

4. In the morning, heat up the oats.

5. Add your favorite toppings and enjoy.

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Find more breakfast ideas in my cookbook!