Miss Menu is the kind of girl who simply must eat breakfast first thing in the morning, every morning. In fact, you might even say that, on a work day, an almost comically large bowl of cereal is the only thing that really gets this girl out of bed.
It’s that big bowl of cereal that’s put me in something of a breakfast-menu-rut as of late. For years now–practically my whole life–I’ve been stuck in what I call the cereal cycle. When I was younger, it was Rice Chex that filled my cereal addiction. After four or five years, I switched over to Banana Nut Crunch, before Multigrain Cheerios gained my allegiance. Today, and for the past several years, it’s been Honey Bunches of Oats (with Peaches) that beckons me from bed every morning. I pour myself a big bowl, douse liberally with skim milk, and tucker in alonside my (growing) pile of cookbooks for some inspirational morning reading.
While this is a perfect lovely way to start my day, I’m wondering if now isn’t the time to break out of the cereal cycle. And so this week, I’ve started experimenting with a new-to-me breakfast food: steel-cut oats.
Some might argue that oats aren’t too much of a departure from cereal. Afterall, it’s just subbing one bowl of grains for another. But it’s what you can do with the oatmeal that makes a difference.
Yesterday’s incarnation featured the oatmeal, reheated, mixed with a swirl of agave nectar and layered with Greek yogurt, fresh raspberries, walnuts and dried cranberries. This morning, I got creative by forming the oatmeal into patties and cooking them on the stove top in a bit of oil, then serving them with a spread of pumpkin butter (my favorite fall addiction from Trader Joe’s), plus more of that same yogurt, walnuts and cranberries. Tomorrow I’m going to add mango to the mix, and the next day will highlight dried banana chips and pomegranate seeds.
The sheer variety of “mixables” for the oatmeal is super-attractive to a girl who’s been a monogamistic-cerealist since infancy. But aside from the fantastic and fun flavor profiles, the most important thing about a weekday breakfast for me is that the assembly must be super quick – three minutes, max, for this hungry girl. By fixing a big pot of oatmeal on a Sunday and refrigerating it, I’m good to go by just popping a portion in the microwave for two minutes. A few seconds of chopping and stirring and I have myself a rut-free breakfast.
Steel cut is an important distinction when you’re talking types of oatmeal. Steel cut oats are basically oat kernels that are cut into several pieces. They take quite a bit longer to cook than quick cooking rolled oats, which are flattened. Most would say that steel-cut oats have a much more toothsome quality, and are well worth the longer wait (about 30 minutes of cooking time).
The idea behind this rut-breaking is not necessarily to eat less food, or even to consume fewer calories, but to make the calories that I do eat count a bit more. So breakfast features loads of fiber, maybe a bit of potassium, and a few vitamins and antioxidants thrown in for good measure. I’m about as far from a health food nut as a girl can get, but I’m resolved to add more nutritious food to my diet (without taking away any of my favorite indulgences). Breakfast seems like the perfect place to start this new, tasty resolution.
Miss Menu wants to know: Do you have any unique oatmeal menu possibilities to share?
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