A Healthy, Easy Breakfast

I love breakfast.  I often tell the hubby that I should have married a farmer and had ten children, because nothing would make me happier than getting up before the crack of dawn to cook a tableful of eggs, bacon, pancakes, biscuits and gravy, and whatever else I was in the mood to whip up.  (Needless to say, the hubby is not amused by my hypothetical farm family.  He is, however, amused by the idea of me getting up at four in the morning.)

Because we would be hard-pressed to fit ten children and a herd of cows in our home, I'll just have to settle for making little breakfasts in miniature quantities.  One of the easiest and most filling things to cook is steel cut oats, which is what we ate this morning.

"Already with the camera, mommy?"

We buy bulk organic oats from a local health food store, and our toppings of choice are cream and plenty of raw honey:

Mmmmm.

Cooking steel-cut oats is extremely simple.  Bring three or four cups of water (depending on how long you plan to cook your oats- longer = more water) to a boil, then add one cup of oats and a dash of salt.  Reduce the heat to a simmer, toss a cover halfway over the pot, and cook for twenty or thirty minutes.  The longer you cook them, the less chewy your oats will be.

And that's it.  Give them a stir occasionally to keep them from sticking to the bottom of the pot.  Drink your coffee and read the newspaper while they cook.

Oh, and speaking of coffee, you absolutely have to try Peace Coffee.  It's organic, shade-grown coffee that I get from the same place I buy my oats, and it is simply the best coffee I've ever had.

As for toppings for your oatmeal, you can mix in just about anything you can think of.  Honey, brown sugar, maple syrup, bits of fruit, nuts, cream, milk...  Heck, throw in a bit of everything.  This breakfast is almost impossible to screw up.