Discovery: Oat Groats (with recipe!)

Where I live, there are is a choice between precisely two grocery store chains: Shaws and Stop & Shop.  Price wars?  We've nevah heard of 'em.  I've been annoyed lately because steel cut oats are $4.99 for a 24 oz. can.  I'd always thought cooked cereals were more economical than ready-to-eat varieties because you pay more for convenience, chemicals, and sugar; however, my research indicates that Quaker Steel Cut Oats are the same price as General Mills Cocoa Puffs, more expensive than Quaker Granola, and way more expensive that Post Grape Nuts, Kelloggs Mini Wheats, and Quaker Cap'n Crunch.

I was, therefore, motivated to try something new when I was in the health food store and saw oat groats in the bulk aisle for $1.79 a pound.  Oat groats are the grain after it's been de-hulled and stabilized with heat, but before it's cut or rolled into oatmeal.  I was told they could be cooked like  oatmeal, so I bought some and gave it a whirl.  Gentle Readers, oat groats make delicious oatmeal.  It comes out a bit creamier than steel cut oatmeal and it's a little less chewy.  Plus, you have control over the sugar content.  You can't say that about Cap'n Crunch.

I posted a recipe for crockpot oatmeal before, but here is a variation without apples.  It's good for when you are putting it together at bedtime and you realize you don't have apples.  It's also good if you're like me and fruit every morning can be hard on your blood sugar.

Crockpot Oatmeal (Variation 2)

1 1/3 cups steel cut oatmeal or oat groats

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

2-3 tbsp. brown sugar (or to taste)

pinch of salt

2 cups water

2 cups milk

1 1/2 tbsp. butter

Your choice of toppings

1. Coat the inside of 3-quart slow cooker with cooking spray. Place oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt in slow cooker.

2. Bring milk, water, and butter to a boil in a saucepan over medium high heat. (Watch this like a hawk. When you see bubbles forming along the edges, yank it off the burner.)

3. Pour milk mixture into slow cooker. Stir everything together. Cover and cook on LOW 7 hours or until oats are tender. (A couple of extra hours does not hurt it at all.)

4. Ladle oatmeal into bowls.  It can be topped with walnuts, raisins, craisins, pecans... whatever you like.

Rise & Shine!

Did you know it's National Hot Breakfast Month?  Neither did I, until I read about it on YumSugar.  It makes sense, though, since February tends to be a cold and dreary month.

Here at Old Maid HQ, the go-to hot breakfast is steel cut oats cooked overnight in the slow cooker.  A few minutes of prep at bedtime and I wake up to a hot breakfast and a kitchen that smells deliciously of cinnamon.  Leftovers can be refrigerated and reheated in the microwave.  What's not to like?

Click here to go to the recipe I use.

Image: Quakeroats.com

It's GRRRRRREAT!

Somebody get me Battle Creek, Michigan on the line, pronto!

Breakfast of Champions

Saturday Morning Breakfast*

Aaaahhhh, the best part of Thanksgiving: leftover pumpkin pie for breakfast.  Of course I had whipped cream on it because dairy is a very important food group.  I'm all about good nutrition.

*Note: whipped cream topping not to scale.

Cereal Killer

During these hot summer days when maiden aunts are subsisting mostly on smoothies and sandwiches, our thoughts naturally turn to food tales of yore.

The Scene: My mother's kitchen, circa 1983. Cereal is kept in a floor-level cabinet so children can serve themselves for breakfast and snacks.

The Players: Me. My sister Rachel, age 6. Our brother Aaron is 13 -- seven years older than Rachel and seven years younger than me.

Rachel: Maria, would you please get me some cereal?

Maria: You can get it yourself. I'll get the milk out of the fridge for you.

Rachel: Can you get me cereal too?

Maria: You can get your own cereal. Open the cabinet and pick the kind you want.

Rachel: I want Cheerios. Get them out for me, pleeeeeeeeease?

Maria: [opening cabinet and pulling out a cereal box] Okay, here you go.

Rachel: Open it.

Maria: Open it yourself.

Rachel: [never taking her eyes off the box] You open it.

Maria: Rachel, you're a big girl! Why won't you do this yourself?

Rachel: I'm scared.

Maria: What can you possibly be scared of?

Rachel: I'm afraid of monsters. In the cereal box.

Maria: What in the world? ... AARON!!!!

Celebrity Breakfast

A delicious breakfast of goat cheese stuffed french toast, fruit salad, and jalapeno bacon.

I am definitely stealing the bacon technique.

It's not very often that I get to have a meals with celebrities. I'm all for the idea, it's just that there seems to be a certain lack of enthusiasm at their end. So you can imagine how exciting it was for me a couple of weekends ago, when I visited my friend Monica of 5 Cats Shy and we drove from her home in Atlanta to Chattanooga, TN for breakfast with singer/songwiter and mountain dulcimer player Butch Ross. (If you don't already listen to his music, you totally should.) He even did the cooking.

Breakfast was great, Butch is a really nice guy, and I think I managed not to act like too much of a fangirl. All in all, a very nice way to spend a Saturday morning.

Royal Wedding Breakfast

I wasn't invited to the official royal wedding breakfast (must have been an oversight), so I created my own. I got up just in time to see the Hot Royal Brothers go into Westminster Abbey. Great timing, if you ask me.

Yes, I really am sitting in front of my computer in pajamas and faux jewels, sipping tea and eating freshly baked biscuits. I've also been joining in the commentary on GoFugYourself.com. This is the most fun I've had at a wedding, ever.

Bee Happy -- With Recipe!

I bought The Herbal Kitchen by Kami McBride a few months ago, and I've been having a great time experimenting with the recipes. I went through a pesto phase for a while but I didn't tell you about it because I'll be darned if I can figure out a way to draw pesto -- or pasta, for that matter -- without it looking like a Rorschach Test.


The whole book is great. I struck gold, though, with her recipe for Cinnamon-Ginger Honey. It's so simple to make and keeps for up to a year -- but trust me, you will go through it much more quickly. It's yummy. Try it on buttered toast, oatmeal (if you use the recipe I posted here, I recommend omitting the brown sugar), or as a sweetener for tea. Dissolve a teaspoon in hot water to make a warming, tummy-settling drink.

You will need a clean and sterilized glass jar with a lid.

Cinnamon-Ginger Honey

1 cup honey
2 tbsp. powdered cinnamon
1 tbsp powdered ginger

1. Bring water to a boil in a double boiler (if, like me, you don't have one, just put a heatproof bowl over a pot of water once it's hot), and reduce to a simmer. Pour honey into the jar and place in the top of the double boiler. Let the honey warm for 15-20 minutes or until it reaches a consistency where it can be easily stirred. You don't have to stand over it, but stay close enough to keep an eye on it.

2. Carefully remove the jar of honey from the pot and stir in the spices. Allow to cool, then cap the jar. Stick the flavored honey in the cabinet for two weeks before using. Keeps up to a year.

Breakfast With Betty

It's the most important meal of the day!

Yes, that is exactly what it looks like: beef soup with hotdogs. Waking up to that would put me in a bad mood for the whole day.

The well-buttered English muffins and yellow color scheme are not cheering me up at all.

Lamb chops and kidneys? Really, Betty? For breakfast? I don't think even the British -- who are known for greasy breakfasts as well as excellent muffins full of nooks and crannies -- eat like that first thing in the morning. Here's hoping Penny Dreadful, our Girl On The Street in London, stops by to weigh in on this.

Ah, now that's more like it. What's more All-American than processed breakfast foods made in Battle Creek, Michigan? They're Grrrreeeeaaaat! Let's see what Betty suggests for stir-ins and toppers.

Jello and mini-marshmallows. Why did I not see that coming?

Toaster Mockery

It doesn't matter if I buy the cheapest toaster Walmart has to offer, or an expensive one at Bed Bath and Beyond. Whenever I use it, it mocks me. I hate that in a small appliance.

Auntie's Etiquette Tip

If you drag an Army Dude out first thing in the morning to come to your house and help you with a flat tire, it is correct form to give him breakfast. It also gives you something to do besides freak out.

Crock-Pot Queen (With Recipe!)

I'm really into Crock-Pot cooking these days. A slow cooker is the poor woman's personal chef. I love the idea that things are cooking in my house while I am not home - or even better, while I sleep.

Dust off your crock-pot (you know you have one tucked away someplace) and prepare this at bedtime. You'll heart it too.

Irish Oatmeal with Apples and Walnuts

Makes 4 servings (It refrigerates well and can be reheated in the microwave.)

1 1/2 cups milk

1 1/2 cups water

2 Gala apples, peeled, cored, and cut into half-inch cubes

1 cup uncooked steel-cut oats (also called Irish Oatmeal)

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 1/2 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

Cooking spray

Chopped walnuts

Maple syrup (optional)

1. Coat the inside of 3-quart slow cooker with cooking spray. Place apple, oats, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt in slow cooker.

2. Bring milk, water, and butter to a boil in a saucepan over medium high heat. (Watch this like a hawk. It goes from barely bubbling to a reenactment of the eruption of Vesuvius in seconds flat.)

3. Pour milk mixture into slow cooker. Stir everything together. Cover and cook on LOW 7 hours or until oats are tender. (A couple of extra hours does not hurt it at all.)

4. Ladle oatmeal into bowls, and top with walnuts and maple syrup, if desired. I find I don't need the maple syrup. Goodness knows I'm already sweet enough.