Steel Cut Oats

Ever wonder what is so great about steel cut oats?  I was over at the Deals to Meals Blog and learned a bit about the difference in groats, steel cut oats, instant and regular oatmeal.

http://dealstomeals.blogspot.com/  Check-out Tuesday's post. 
I also got these recipes from the post:  I cut and pasted the recipe, I haven't tried it myself.

Jamba Juice Oatmeal
In a large crock pot I added
4 c. steel cut oats
9 1/2 c. water
1 t. salt
2 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. nutmeg
I cooked them on LOW heat for 8-9 hours (overnight works great!). In the morning they were a creamy consistency and most of the water had been evaporated. You want the oat kernels to be soft, but not mushy. A little bite to them is what makes them a fun texture to eat.

I then added about 1/2-1 c. of milk (I just used skim). Supposedly Jamba Juice uses Soy Milk--I didn't have that on hand, so I used regular milk.
I then made the HEAVENLY brown sugar crumble that they serve on top of all of their oatmeal. It is the following:

4 T. butter, melted
1/2 c. brown sugar
2 T. flour
4 T. quick or regular oats
Dash of cinnamon Mix these together and set aside as topping. (Yes, to save calories you could just use brown sugar and no butter--but oh, not as good!!)


Now, for the apple filling. I bottle my own apple pie filling so I just cut the apples up into large chunks and added them on top of my bowl of steel cut oats. If you don't have your own apple pie filling you can use canned pie filling (blueberry, apple, cherry-any would be great). Or..you can just simmer on the stove a fresh apple that has been cut into cubes with a little bit of water and cinnamon until the apples are tender.


To compile:

Put a scoopful of the oatmeal in a bowl, add a large serving of apples (bananas, berries, etc.) on top and then sprinkle with a spoonful of Brown Sugar Crumble and a nut of your choice (I used almonds, but you could use pecans, walnuts, etc.)

I was inspired to make the apple pie filling, not the oatmeal.  What does that tell you?  As a matter of fact, the only way I like oatmeal is in cookies or meatloaf!...I guess my DH gets oatmeal with the apple pie topping.