Originally posted by Sarah – May 9& 11, 2015
I decided to try Overnight Steel Cut Oats with Maple Candied Walnuts. Your best friend for this one:
The Crock Pot. A safe way to cook food slow and low. Steel cut oats are a hearty breakfast, they have a nuttier flavor and a chewy bite to them. They take longer to cook so I have always wanted to try an overnight cook and wake up to warm steel cut oatmeal. We shall see. Start by placing 1 cup of steel cut oats into the crockpot.
Add 4 cups of water to the oats and set the crockpot to cook on low overnight. Then get the nuts candied so they are ready to just toss in the bowl in the morning. Heat a dry pan over medium high heat. Place 1 cup of walnuts in the pan with two pinches of salt, cook for 1 minute.
Place 1/4 cup of Ben’s Maple Syrup, from your Springdell winter share or a fresh bottle you picked up from the farm stand, into the pan of nuts. Just a tip: I like to spray the measuring cup with cooking spray first so the syrup doesn’t stick.
Cook the mixture, stirring constantly for 3 minutes. As you cook you will see the syrup become thick and the moisture is gone.
You are good to turn these out onto a parchment lined sheet to cool. Place them in an airtight container until the morning.
My oatmeal experiment totally worked. I woke up the following morning to a healthy, warm, and hearty breakfast.
The oatmeal on the left is topped with the Ben’s Maple Syrup And candied walnuts. The oatmeal on the right is topped with strawberry jam and Springdell honey drizzle. The jam was made from the berries in last years summer share. I pulled the last container of it out of the deep freeze and my older son, who likes to take a pb&j to school, actually cheered when he saw it. I will have to share that one with you come the start of strawberry season.
I started to think about oatmeal toppings to share with you and the first idea that popped into my head was pumpkin. I have a few bags left of frozen pumpkin/squash blend from the winter share and wouldn’t pumpkin pie oatmeal be awesome?!
What you need:
1/2 cup almond Milk
Pumpkin/squash puree
1/8 teaspoon Vanilla extract
A pinch each of Cinnamon, Ground ginger, Nutmeg
Brown Sugar to taste
Stir the almond milk into the oatmeal. In another bowl mix the remaining ingredients and adjust to taste. Top with the candied nuts. It’s really fast, simple and the pumpkin topping can be made the night before as well so you really have no prep in the morning.
Other oatmeal topping ideas:
Fresh fruit (can’t wait for the super fruit share!), dried fruit, slivered almonds or cashew pieces, candied nuts, shredded cheeses, jams, syrups, honey, dried coconut, crumbled bacon, chocolate chips………….keep it going!
Enjoy!