To save money (which we definitely needed to do), we did a week of oatmeal or hot cereal for breakfast. Read about the intro here and and more here. While we often have oatmeal anyway, we usually mix it up with eggs and toast, smoothies, and even leftover soup! By having oatmeal every morning, I saved my eggs, and other foods for lunch and dinner and it certainly did help budget wise! A huge money saver. I also loved the time I saved! It was so simple and easy to just have oatmeal every day.
If you are buying boxed cold cereal (pretty devoid of nutrients, by the way, though I miss is more than I want to admit), you are spending a lot on breakfast. If you need to cut back, preparing oatmeal is a good way to go!
Here’s the response we had to a week of oatmeal.
When I told my husband that I had posted an oatmeal challenge on my blog he said half teasingly, “Great, but do we have to do it?” This surprised me because we do have oatmeal pretty often anyways. When I asked him today what he thought of it after we had completed the week, he said that he thought it was fine. (Whew! I was hoping he was okay with it, because we just might be having oatmeal a lot in the days to come!).
I originally thought that I was going to get uber creative and come up with a new way to have oatmeal every morning. But I guess I am less creative than I thought, because we just liked it pretty normal! Here are a few things I tried.
I added frozen berries on some mornings and I LOVED it. It sweetened the oatmeal enough that I didn’t even need to add anything more.
I also tried, from one of your suggestions, to make a chai spiced oatmeal. I am afraid I was a little too timid with the spices though, so it didn’t really shine through enough.
Usually, we enjoyed it with a little ghee (you could use butter), coconut/palm sugar or honey and milk or coconut milk. Very satisfying.
I ran out of oatmeal towards the end, so I made up a pot of millet, which we sometimes enjoy as a hot cereal. The next day I cut up the leftovers and fried them like corn grits (they are delicious this way, but the millet “pops” all over the place.). Elena loved this with a little maple syrup over it.
Some of you asked for directions for making a large pot of oatmeal to reheat throughout the week. I will try to get that up soon. I want to do a slightly different oatmeal recipe anyways.
Meanwhile, here are a few links that I forgot to give out earlier.
Cream of Wheat (the nourishing way)
Crockpot Whole Grain Breakfast Cereal
Kelly the Kitchen Kop’s, Baked Oatmeal
And, of course, Basic Soaked Oatmeal!
What about you? Did you have any oatmeal this week as part of the challenge? Or did you do the full week? Tell us how it went for you, if you haven’t already!
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Do you know if oatmeal is gluten free? I can’t get a straight answer =(. I’m trying to cute gluten out of my family’s diet.
TIA
Tiffany-
We been going through this too. And the answer is yes, and no.
Oatmeal in it’s self is gluten free. BUT, there is only one manufacturer that I know of that ONLY proccesses oatmeal. Most oatmeal you buy is proccessed in a facility that also processes wheat, and other grains. Stored, next to wheat, shipped next to wheat and even shipped in a container that once held wheat. So, then that makes the oatmeal NOT gluten free.
If you are truely celiac, trace amounts can hurt your gut. If your unsure about your oatmeal call the manufacturer and ask them.
Hope that helps!
Even if the oats are gluten-free, some people with celiac disease (or plain old gluten intolerance) may react to them. I have a friend with advanced celiac disease, and her doctor is taking the conservative route and recommending that she completely avoid oats. I have read anecdotal evidence from celiac patients that they’ve been eating oats every morning for 20 years without a problem, while others say differently. This thread on celiac.com may be helpful to you. I’ve read that it’s good to completely avoid oats for six months, then test them slowly to see how you do.
I tried to insert a link, but it didn’t work. Here goes again . . .
http://www.celiac.com/gluten-free/lofiversion/index.php/t41301.html
We do a lot of applesauce mixed into oatmeal. It sweetens it without using up our honey supply, and gives a serving of fruit in the process. I have tubs of homemade applesauce in the freezer just for this purpose. 🙂
Tiffany, just to echo Katie — oats themselves are GF, but you can’t buy just any old brand in order to bypass wheat contamination. Also, some people who react to gluten react to oats themselves because the structure is similar. The usual recommendation is to use oats very sparingly, especially at first. I’ve been eating McCanns (not certified, but some people tolerate them okay) for 6 months and seem to be okay. McCanns is pretty affordable during Amazon sales.
You can read Gluten-Free Girl’s perspective on McCann’s here:
http://glutenfreegirl.blogspot.com/2006/11/oh-my-god-granola.html
And she wrote about going off it later, here:
http://glutenfreegirl.blogspot.com/2007/12/oatmeal-cookies-again.html
In the winter we eat oats pretty much every day. We particularly like oat groats, and I make up a big pot each week and we reheat it each morning. Its the perfect winter breakfast. In the summer we’re partial to toast, scones, or muffins, usually made with fruits/nuts whatever is in season (right now it’s zucchini bread). We also enjoy a big latte made with raw milk – MMMMMM.
We often have oatmeal as a school morning breakfast – Scout’s lunch time this year is the latest in the day – after 12:30 PM so he needs to eat something that will keep him going until then. The Man also often eats oatmeal as a nighttime snack – we love oatmeal…
I love oatmeal and eat it pretty regularly, so I participated without being part of the challenge per se! This week I posted my Zucchini Bread Oatmeal (basically oats with grated zucchini added for extra veggies and nutrition!). Berries in oatmeal are also delicous–but then again, I love oatmeal pretty much any way! 🙂
I have really been enjoying your blog. We have oatmeal at least once a week for breakfast and many times for a snack as well. This week I added a few grain sweetened chocolate chips, dried cherries, and coconut to our oatmeal. It was so good! The chocolate melted and we felt like we were eating cookies for breakfast.
I’m pretty plain with my oatmeal also. I usually just inject it with honey, sunflower seeds, raisin, cinnamon and a table spoon of flax seed oil. It’s rather delish. Some summer morning, I don’t bother heating up the oatmeal I’ve soaked over night. The waters already done it’s job “cooking” it. Peanut butter and yogurt are on my list of things to try in oatmeal – give it a little more heartiness.
Oh yeah and use the flax seed oil as a substitute for milk. I don’t think it does the best with milk flavor wise and it’s already give you a fantastic serving of fat.
Hi Kimi – I didn’t do the challenge because of constant traveling the last few weeks, but I rarely eat it anymore since discovering oat bran, which my boyfriend and I love. Does oat bran need soaking to be more nutritious? I think it beats regular (rolled) oatmeal nutritionally, with the steel cut next and then groats (this is from memory, might be wrong). I love the texture and add warm milk, chopped toasted nuts and a sprinkling of palm sugar. So good.
Neat post! We have steel cut, thick cut, organic oats every morning. It helps to keep my daughter regular. One thing I noticed is that it fills me up way more than cereal and toast together! With this breakfast, I don’t feel like eating anything until lunch (and I usually am a snacker). We put in about 2 tablespoons extra virgin coconut oil, sunflower seeds and cranberries while cooking. After we sprinkle on ground flax and a really amazing lemon fish oil called “omega swirl” (which does not taste like fish at all). My daughter adds vanilla yoghurt and I use vanilla rice milk. At first she resisted having hot cereal every day, but now we love it. We eat it on the hottest days, no problem. I wouldn’t say it is a cheap meal for us- the oils we use are really expensive, but we dry our own fruit and usually buy discount yoghurt and rice milk from a discount warehouse.
Lately I like soaking my oats (either GF rolled oats or Scottish oatmeal) overnight with azuki miso. In the morning, I reheat it with a little almond or sesame milk preferably (I find that a nut/seed milk works best with it) and add a few raisins.
Then once poured in a bowl, I usually add 1 tbsp homemade carrot butter or homemade pumpkin butter (I don’t like it very sweet or too spicy) – unsweetened applesauce works also but it’s less tasty. I usually don’t add any sweetener but sometimes I add just a little bit of maple syrup.
I find it to be a very tasty, comfy meal to start the day and the carrot/pumpkin butter gives it a little foretaste of the Fall ;).
hmmm… This is something I’ve been trying to work out w/ my family. My husband eats at work and the boys got “tired” of oatmeal. I have to admit I only like it so so. But I really want to get away from cold cereal!!! As it is our boys practically eat us out of house and home. During the winter it is even worse as they are involved in sports! (plus our winter is about 7 months long!) I was noticing Alchemille mentioned homemade carrot butter. We make pumpkin butter but have never heard of carrot butter. Do you think we might be able to get the recipe?
Planning on trying out the oatmeal challenge next week (if hubby gives the go ahead…)
Thanks a bunch!!
Peggy in AK
We did it! My husband was very excited about the challenge, b/c oatmeal is his favorite breakfast anyway. We were supposed to get a 25-pound bag of oats the day before the challenge started, but it was forgotten…so I bought a 42-oz box instead (and it was GONE by Thursday after oatmeal every day, baked oatmeal, granola and granola bars!). Hubby never got bored by the oatmeal, but I was craving eggs or yogurt. I almost couldn’t do it on Sunday – I wanted to fix eggs so badly! But I persevered with oatmeal every day. 🙂 My daughter, 14 months, loved it every day. She can eat it by herself, and inSISTs upon that part. Messy, sticky hair though. Yeuck.
Anyway – for less than $1 worth of oats plus the add-ins for the entire week, I’m pretty happy with that. Made me realize that when we have scrambled eggs, it costs at least $1.50 for one breakfast. You can see my favorite way to eat the oatmeal in this post from last week: http://www.kitchenstewardship.com/2009/08/18/tuesday-twister-my-kitchen-firsts-this-week/
Thanks for the challenge, Kimi! What’s next? 🙂
Katie
Peggy,
I found the carrot butter recipe in “The Self Healing Cookbook : A Macrobiotic Primer for Healing Body, Mind and Moods With Whole, Natural Foods” by Kristina Turner
It’s basically pureed carrots (steamed or boiled), that are reduced to get rid off the extra liquid (until you get the right consistency). You may (or not) add a little honey or maple syrup if needed (though carrots are quite sweet naturally). The cookbook suggests adding a little tahini to make it more creamy but I don’t think it’s necessary.
Thank you Katie! I am not celiac. I just want to try to eat as little gluten as possible. Thank you for the info =)
I just want to add – Buckwheat!
Mu husband is from Russia and it is a very common hot breakfast there. It’s also usually the first baby cereal as well – it worked for my daughters when they couldn’t digest the rice one.
I often use already cooked buckwheat and heat it up in milk with a little sweetener. My kids love it and so do I. This works very well because my kids don’t like oatmeal – although I love it.
Hi there, you can buy GF oats through Bob’s Red Mill. I have seen them at the grocery store and they are quite a bit more money, so I buy them through our food co-op. 🙂
I did a post on oatmeal this week. Finally learned a way to make steel-cut oats in the crock-pot without all the waste and mess. http://tryingtraditional.wordpress.com/2009/08/26/steel-cut-oats/
Making it again tomorrow with chopped, dried apricots in it and replacing some of the water with milk. Hoping for a peaches and cream similarity 🙂
Loved the challenge!
If you are still really, really missing the old cold, crunchy cereals that most of us grew up on, you can satisfy that nostalgia here, its what i keep around for crunchies on top of yogurt:
http://www.goraw.com/products/Live_Granola
I love oatmeal, especially if they are steel-cut oats because of the chewier texture. I have seen oat groats (and have fed them to my pet birds who loved them :)) but have never used them whole – do they have a hull that needs to be removed?
We hadn’t eaten oatmeal in a while and I forgot how good it is! Thanks for the tip on the Chia seeds. They are SO much tastier than flax seeds. I think eating slimy flax seeds in oatmeal is what got me away from hot cereal. My favorite new discovery is oat groats: whole, unprocessed oats that are half the price of rolled oats at my local food co-op. The clerk said the best way to cook them is to boil them at bedtime, turn off the heat and let them sit all night, then reheat in the morning. I haven’t tried that yet, because I like to use my mini crock pot instead. If you use a crock pot, use the lowest setting and a lot of liquid. I used 3 cups of water and 1/2 cups of groats last night, and by morning it was very thick. Rolled or steel cut oats are not as good in the crock pot because they lose most of their texture with the long cooking time. Oat groats have a wonderful chewy, yet creamy texture in the morning. YUM! Thanks for inspiring me to return to oatmeal. It gives me a new option for breakfast on the days I want to serve egg salad for lunch, or quiche for dinner. And it feels easier than making homemade granola.
Mary, I didn’t see your comment when I was writing mine. The groats I buy do not have a hull that needs to be removed. Give them a try! If you like steel cut oats, you will love groats. And they are so cheap, you have very little to lose.
I didn’t do the challenge as such but we usually have porridge (English for oatmeal) Monday to Friday anyway. We usually have baked porridge two days (because there’s only three of us so what we make lasts two days) and the other days we do regular porridge but I soak sultanas (I think you call them white raisins?) in with the oats and also add some chopped apple before cooking.
Cooking up a batch of steel cut oatmeal has been this years discovery that we love. It takes just approximately 4 hours in the crock pot; just water and oats. Then we eat through out the week and each day we select the goodies to add. We add goodies such as mashed bananas w/ crushed pecans, or blueberries, or maple syrup to name just a few. This definately keeps us uhemm regular, heathy, and satisfied until lunch.
I’m eating pretty low carb and no sugar, so oatmeal isn’t really the answer for me, as the smell makes me crave maple syrup & oat milk (my absolutely favorite way to have it)! But this morning I had oatmeal cooked with ground flax seed as a side to turkey sausages & a piece each of grilled zucchini & eggplant. What a feast! I really enjoyed the oatmeal without anything sweet (once my nostrils were filled with delicious smell of cooking sausages)… & will do this more. If anyone has ideas of other savory ways to enjoy oatmeal, I would love to hear about them! THANK YOU.
i’ve been eating oatmeal every morning for about 3 years almost the exact same way. so when i saw the oatmeal challenge i thought, i’ll do it differently for a week. big adventurer i am. and i think i found a new favorite! rolled oats, cinnamon, ground almonds or homemade peanut butter, and some chopped bananas. i didn’t even need to sweeten it and this way i’m getting fat and protein which i wasn’t getting before. yay oatmeal challenge! thanks for doing it. 🙂 now if i could get my husband off of the pesky boxed organic granola… 😉
I have oatmeal for breakfast most mornings. Shortly after I get up I put 1/2 cup Old Fashioned Oatmeal in a large microwaveable bowl with a cup of 1% milk. (I have previously tested this bowl to make sure it will not boil over while cooking.)
I go about a routine of checking my email, getting the paper, feeding teh dogs, and etc. After about45 minutes to a hour, I add a heaping teaspoon of crunchy peanut butter and a couple tablespoons of raisins or dried cranberries. I cook them in the microwave for 3 minutes, stir in a teaspoon of honey or maple syrup or sometimes nothing. I then sit down and enjoy a healthy cholesterol lowering breakfast while reading the paper.
I do no bother my sleeping wife and have a great quiet time first thing to begin the day. Mary gets up about the time I am leaving for work and begins her quiet time when I leave.
Works for us.
Mac McFatter
Semmes, Al
I have oatmeal for breakfast most mornings. Shortly after I get up I put 1/2 cup Old Fashioned Oatmeal in a large microwaveable bowl with a cup of 1% milk. (I have previously tested this bowl to make sure it will not boil over while cooking.)
I go about a routine of checking my email, getting the paper, feeding the dogs, and etc. After about45 minutes to a hour, I add a heaping teaspoon of crunchy peanut butter and a couple tablespoons of raisins or dried cranberries. I cook them in the microwave for 3 minutes, stir in a teaspoon of honey or maple syrup or sometimes nothing. I then sit down and enjoy a healthy cholesterol lowering breakfast while reading the paper.
I do no bother my sleeping wife and have a great quiet time first thing to begin the day. Mary gets up about the time I am leaving for work and begins her quiet time when I leave.
Works for us.
Mac McFatter
Semmes, Al
OK, here’s the very best steel cut oatmeal recipe out there. I’ve been eating this for lunch for months now ( I have a whey drink for breakfast).
Start with a SLOW COOKER I have a 6 quart but I think the next size down would work well.
3 Cups of apple juice
2 1/2 Cups of water
3 Cups of steal cut oatmeal
1/4/ tsp of sea salt
I put this in the slow cooker for at least 6 hrs.
let it cool and split it into two containers. One container last me the whole week for lunch and the other container I throw into the freezer for the next week. When I want to eat it I put two servings spoons of it in a bowl, pour some milk over it and sprinkle it with some dried asst. fruit. Pop it in the microwave for 2 min. and sprinkle with honey, or brown sugar or maple syrup depending on my mode. Now how easy is that recipe?