Overnight Steel Cut Oats and My Favourite Healthy Breakfast

In the New Year, I thought it would be nice to make a better effort to eat less sugar and processed food.  I wanted to try make steel cut oats a part of my breakfast since oatmeal has so many health benefits.  

Steel cut oats are not rolled and they look like broken up bits of brown rice. They take much longer to cook than old-fashioned rolled oats but that is part of its beauty.  Since they are less processed, they take longer to digest and keep our blood sugar even.

According to the package, it takes about 10-20 minutes to cook.  Our busy mornings do not afford this time, so I make a few days worth the night before using an easier method. Whenever I have time (in the afternoons or right before bed), I take 1 cup steel cup oats and 2.5 cups of water.  I like the 1:2.5 ratio.  I like my oatmeal with a little bit of a chew.  

Bring to a boil, cover and simmer on LOW for only 5 minutes. 

Oops!  I didn't turn down the heat low enough and it boiled over.  

Just a peek at the oats after simmering for a few minutes. 

Turn off the heat and let it sit on the warm burner overnight or for several hours until cool enough to put in the fridge.  That's it!  I don't have time to wait for 10-20 minutes for breakfast in the mornings.  Reheat oatmeal in the microwave and eat it the same manner as regular oatmeal.  One serving is 1/2 cup cooked steel cut oatmeal.    

Note:  If you like the texture of your steel cut oatmeal to be a harder/chewier or softer/mushier, adjust the cook time and the amount of water to your preference.   

Steel cut oats have become my favourite healthy breakfast in the new year.  This is what I normally do:  I warm up some oatmeal with brown rice protein powder and nondairy milk in the microwave.  Then top with fresh or thawed frozen blueberries, a tablespoon of ground flaxseed, and sweetened with a teaspoon of raisins and a dash of cinnamon.  

I was able to find unsweetened brown rice protein powder as an alternative because I have an egg and dairy intolerance.  I am hoping this food intolerance is just temporary!  

Everything in my "breakfast bowl" can be swapped for different toppings and ingredients as desired.  This oatmeal provide a nice base for a healthy, sugar-free breakfast.  

The combination of protein powder and oats gives me the energy needed to get the kids out the door and my day started.  I found that just 1/2 serving of protein powder (half the amount to make 1 protein shake) was enough to give the oatmeal the last power til lunch. Without protein or some sort, I was ravenous within 2 hours.  

Overnight Steel Cut Oats

1 cup (8 oz) uncooked steel cut oats
2.5 cups (20 fl oz) water

Bring water and steel cut oats to a rolling boil.  Simmer on LOW for 5 minutes.  Turn off heat and leave on warm burner overnight or for a few hours until cooled.  Refrigerate.  Makes at least 3 cups of cooked oatmeal.  Reheat and serve like regular oatmeal.  

High Protein Berry Steel Cut Oatmeal

1/2 cup (4 oz) cooked steel cut oats

1/2 serving (15g)  protein powder (I use brown rice protein powder)

2-3 Tbsp milk as needed (I use rice or almond milk) 

1/2 cup (4 oz) berries (fresh or frozen and thawed)

1 Tbsp ground flaxseed

1 tsp dried fruit bits (cut dates, prunes, raisins, etc for added sweetness)

optional:  drizzle of maple syrup if not sweet enough

Mix 1/2 cup steel cut oatmeal with 1/2 serving protein powder and 2-3Tbsp milk, as needed to dissolve the protein powder.  Cover and reheat in microwave for 30 seconds or until warm.  Top with 1/2 cup fresh or thawed frozen blueberries, ground flaxseed, dried fruit and a dash of cinnamon.  

I know this is not the prettiest bowl of oatmeal, but it is so hearty and fills this busy mommy's tummy for the crazy day ahead!  

Enjoy!

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Basic Gluten-Free Quinoa Flake Fruit Crisp (Gluten-free, Egg-free, Dairy-free)

OK, going gluten-free, soy-free, dairy-free and egg-free has been interesting for my health.  My skin has improved but I feel like I've lost a bit of energy since I cut out my main protein sources:  eggs and dairy.  With this diet change, I haven't lost weight!  I guess eating rice cakes in place of cheese and eggs has stalled my weight loss for this carb-sensitive gal.  For those who know me, I may look tiny, but I'm really good at hiding my saggy poochie mommy tummy.

I'm still trying to perfect my gluten-free vegan cupcakes but in the meantime, I wanted to throw something quick and yummy in the oven.  From this summer's bounty, I managed to freeze a bunch of rhubarb and summer berries.  

I turned to my Strawberry Rhubarb crisp recipe for inspiration.  I made it gluten-free and vegan (no animal products; dairy-free and egg-free).  I added chia seeds to the filling.  I used quinoa flakes instead of rolled oats.  I was able to find quinoa flakes in the bulk section of my local grocery store.  

This is a very flexible recipe!  Feel free to make changes depending on your palate, diet, or whatever ingredients you have on hand.  You can make it sweeter, use whole wheat flour, rolled oats and real butter.  This is a great starting point.  

For my 6 cups of fruit, I used 1 diced gala apple, 1 cup frozen blueberries, 1 cup frozen raspberries and 3 cups frozen rhubarb, thawed and drained.  Frozen rhubarb releases water too quickly for pies and crisps, thus making the filling watery and runny.  To counter this, thaw and drain the excess liquid from frozen rhubarb but do not squeeze it dry. 

Basic Gluten-Free Quinoa Flake Fruit Crisp

Filling:
1/3 cup sugar
3 Tbsp cornstarch or tapioca starch (I used 1 tbsp chia seeds + 2 Tbsp tapioca starch)
6 cups mixed fruit and berries (I used 1 diced gala apple, 1 cup frozen blueberries, 1 cup frozen raspberries and 3 cups frozen rhubarb, thawed & drained)
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Topping:
2/3 cup quinoa flakes (or gluten-free oats)
1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup gluten-free baking mix* (or all-purpose/whole wheat flour, if tolerated)
2 Tbsp vegan margarine, melted (I used Earth Balance buttery spread)
dash of cinnamon

Mix first 4 ingredients for the fruit filling.  Pour and spread evenly in a 2.5qt/L dish.

Mix topping ingredients, spread evenly over the fruit base.

Bake at 350F for 45-55 minutes until bubbly.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

-  Adapted from  SparkRecipes: Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

*Gluten-Free Baking Mix

from  Simply Gluten-Free Perfect Pie Crust Recipe

Combine and whisk together:  

3/4 cup super fine white rice flour 

1/4 cup potato starch (not potato flour)

1/4 cup sweet rice flour

1/4 cup tapioca starch (use Asian tapioca to avoid an “off” taste to the tapioca)

1 teaspoon xanthan gum

Makes about 1 1/2 cups gluten-free all-purpose flour mix

The tart raspberries and rhubarb made the crisp sooo addictive!  If you find this too tart, a little drizzle of maple syrup can sweeten things up if needed.  
  

Enjoy!

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Half-Sugar Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp with Chia seeds - Whole Wheat or Gluten-Free

Growing up in a Chinese household during the 70's and 80's, my parents would predominantly cook Chinese meals for dinner.  Usually, we had the classic stir-fried vegetables with slices of meat and lots of fluffy white rice.  If we were lucky, we had ice cream for dessert.  How much we looked forward to hauling out that 4L/gallon bucket of Neapolitan (strawberry/vanilla/chocolate) ice cream!

What a contrast nowadays!  I guess I got tired of Asian food and wanted branch out.  Rhubarb is not what we ate growing up.  I have two rhubarb plants in my garden and this season, I have harvested and frozen enough to last the year!  It's mid-August and in my rural BC town, my rhubarb plants are still producing!  After playing around with Strawberry Rhubarb pie, I wanted to try a lower sugar version of Strawberry Rhubarb crisp.   

There are so many recipes out there but I wanted something super easy and not loaded with too much sugar and fat.  Of course, if you want to add more sugar and butter, be my guest!

This basic recipe uses whole wheat flour and half the amount of sugar compared to conventional recipes.  It got rave reviews in our household!  The kiddies wanted it for breakfast the next day.  I was worried that it would be too sour, but it wasn't for us.  Our strawberries were sweet, so that helped. 

For fun, I also made this gluten-free with great results.  Oats can be contaminated with gluten during processing, so if you are serving oats to guests who are gluten-sensitive, make sure they are certified gluten-free on the package. 

Instead of using whole wheat flour to thicken the filling, I mixed in chia seeds and arrowroot starch.  I bought a few scoops of chia seeds from the bulk organic section my grocery store to try.  Apparently, it has great thickening properties, extra fibre, and plant omega-3s, like flaxseed, according to the Globe and Mail.   I like to try different kinds of food... sometimes it's healthy...sometimes not! 

In the lower left corner in the picture above, you can see the chia seeds in the sauce.  The chia seeds swell up, like tiny tapioca pearls.  They absorb the extra liquid and I don't notice a difference in taste. 

Next time, I will try using quinoa flakes in place of the rolled oats.  With these substitutions, this has been very forgiving recipe with whatever ingredients on-hand!

Half-Sugar Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp with Chia seeds - Whole wheat or Gluten-free

Filling:

1/2 cup sugar (I used 1/3 cup sugar)

3 Tbsp whole wheat flour or cornstarch (I used 1 Tbsp chia seeds + 2 Tbsp arrowroot starch)

3 cups quartered strawberries

3 cups diced rhubarb (about 1/4-1/2-inch chunks or about 1.5cm)

1/4 tsp cinnamon

Topping:

2/3 cup rolled oats (I will try quinoa flakes next time!)

1/3 cup brown sugar, packed (I used 1/4 cup)

1/4 cup whole wheat flour (or your fave gluten-free baking mix*)

1 Tbsp butter, melted (I needed to use 3Tbsp melted butter with the gluten-free flour)
dash of cinnamon

Mix first 5 ingredients for the fruit base. Pour and spread evenly in a 2.5qt/L dish.

Mix topping ingredients, spread evenly over the fruit base.

Bake at 350F for 45 - 55 minutes until bubbly.

Serve warm or at room temperature.  With ice cream is good too.  

- Adapted from SparkRecipes: Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

*As for the gluten-free baking mix, I tried  Bob's Red Mill Gluten-free All-purpose flour mix for a different recipe and I didn't like it.  It had a strong (nasty) aftertaste, due to the bean flour added to it.  To salvage this, I used 2 Tbsp of Bob's GF flour, 1 Tbsp rice flour, 1/2 Tbsp tapioca starch and 1/2 Tbsp potato starch to make up 1/4 cup flour.  Gluten-free flour mixes usually have a combination of rice flour, tapioca and potato starches. 

 We served our strawberry rhubarb crisp with homemade vanilla bean ice cream. YUM!

Enjoy!

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Muffin Tin Snack Day

It's Nessa's turn for Snack Day at preschool and I think I have a system that provides a bit of everything for everyone.  There are 8 preschoolers in her class and I figure that a muffin tin of snacks can provide enough for that number of kiddies.

I tried to offer a variety of fruits and vegetables plus 1 protein.  Veggie cups have mix of cucumber sticks, baby carrots and sweet yellow bell peppers.  Even if the children don't eat their veggies, I know for sure they will gobble the bright red luscious strawberries and juicy watermelon balls.  I threw in the ham sausage slices for protein.  I really like how cute the silicone muffin liners turned out.  I guess the theme is "we eat whatever the supermarket has on sale and in season"!  

I also included a package of baked rice crackers.  Better to have too much food than not enough!

For more great kids' lunch ideas, check out Muffin Tin Mom.

  

Enjoy!

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Muffin Tin Lunch

I love Sundays.  It is our "Family Day" where we all get dressed nicely and spend time together as family for church.  After that, we go grocery shopping, head back home and play outside.  While the kids are playing, I put the groceries away and load up a simple muffin tin lunch for the kiddies. Thanks Muffin Tin Mom!

The children enjoy a lovely variety of different foods.  Food presentation is so important to them (and me!).  I find that they do eat better and it is easier to introduce one new food at a time.  Yesterday's lunch:  carrot sticks, cucumber sticks, bacon Caesar dressing/dip, grapes, pita pizza, diced cheese sticks and imitation crab. 

The wonderful thing:  I had to reload the muffin pans 2 more times!

I lined the cavities with silicone muffin liners.  I like that they help keep the non-stick finish intact, but it was a little tedious to wash all 12 of them afterwards.  It was easy to do, but a little mind numbing.  

They had a very nice picnic lunch in the family room.  My best friend made this gorgeous "Under the Sea" quilt for my son when he was born and we used that as our special indoor picnic blanket.  It was so cute to see the children gather around and enjoy lunch together on the weekends.

For more great kids' lunch ideas, check out Muffin Tin Mom.

Enjoy!

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Muffin Tin Snacks and Meals

This month, Baby has gone to the same preschool as Nessa, so that means there is another Snack Day added to the schedule.  My Baby is growing up too fast!  She too will learn about sharing her snacks with the rest of the class. 

I had mentioned before in my Oatmeal cookie post that her classmate has a sensitivity to wheat, dairy and eggs.   For peace of mind, I always try bring something that everyone can enjoy together.  That's part of the meal times we have at home, so why not school? 

Then I came across Muffin Tin Mom's idea of serving food in muffin tin cups.  Sheer genius! 

I used Baby's favourite fruits and snacks and put them in each muffin cup. I have silicone muffin cups on order, so I can reduce the waste of the paper liners each time. 

The possibilities are endless!  I used watermelon balls, strawberries, fresh pineapple spears, slices of ham sausage, crackers and gluten-free crunchy Rice Chex cereal.  Next time, I will do a myriad of veggies, dip, cheese cubes and fishy crackers.  With this presentation, there will be a little something for everybody.

This idea was so cute, I had to share it!  Over the weekend, I didn't know what to do for lunch, so I put some sausage, cheese, fruit, veggies and some crackers in a tin.  We had a wonderful little picnic on a quilt in the middle of the living room floor.

This idea would be fun for playdates and parties too!  

 Enjoy!

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