The first time I ate porridge, I was on a school trip in grade six.

I’m gonna be honest – it was weird.

All I thought was “like, who eats this stuff?”.

It was mushy and beige and just weird to me.

I wasn’t used to this kind of breakfast.  My grandmother used to make me a dish that was day old Italian bread torn into pieces with warm milk poured over the top, sprinkled with sugar and doused with a shot of espresso..and it was served with a side of zabaglione (egg yolks whipped with sugar and marsala).

I know…breakfast of champions, right?  White bread, sugar, caffeine and alcohol – oh, and I started eating this when I was 4.  Yeuup.

And that might seem weird to all of you but it’s what I knew for breakfast.  So getting a bowl of mush did not put me in my happy place.

But fast forward 30ish years and porridge is my breakfast of choice in the morning.  It is soothing, warm, filling, comforting and the best thing I can put in my tummy – especially on a cold winter morning.  It is cheap and so versatile (you can add anything to it!).

I started making these convenient little bags of “oatmeal to go” ( my version of instant oatmeal) but sometimes I want steel cut oats instead of rolled oats – they’re nutty and just a bit different than the regular variety.  But ,they also take longer to cook (so they wouldn’t work with my “oatmeal to go” pouches).

But what if I wanted to have steel cut oats in a flash?  I started thinking about how to make a big batch and reheat individual portions.  My inspiration to freeze them in muffin tins came from this site and the rest is history.

Make up a batch of these when you have a few minutes (you can throw the ingredients together while you’re making dinner or even when your cleaning up the kitchen for the night.  And, let me know if you come up with some really cool combinations…I love hearing from you!!

Ingredients:

1 tbsp butter

2 cups steel cut oats

6 c water

big pinch salt (approx 2 tsp)

extra add-in (pick one: grated apple, blueberries, sliced bananas, chopped pear)

extra flavour (pick one: vanilla, almond extract, cinnamon)

regular sweetener (granulated sugar, brown sugar)

OR

“organic” sweeteners (agave, rice syrup, honey, maple syrup)

OR

my healthy sugar free sweetener

Overnight Method:

1.  In a pot, melt the butter and “toast” the oats in the butter until they become browned and nutty smelling.

2.  Add water and salt and bring to a boil.  Once it comes to a rolling boil, turn off the heat and cover the pot; set aside until morning.

3.  In the morning, simply reheat, add your choice of add-ins, flavorings and sweeteners and enjoy.

4.. With the leftover oatmeal, portion it out like this:

Line a muffin tin with paper liners and fill with mixture; freeze until firm, pop out of the tin and drop into a large Ziploc bag.

5.  When you would like to have breakfast, take one (or 2) out of the freezer and microwave for 1 minute.  Add a touch of milk/almond milk and microwave for an additional 30 seconds to 1 minute.

Slow Cooker Method:

Same as above but place all ingredients (omit the butter) into a crock pot that has been coated with cooking spray (except add 8 c water instead of 6 and add an additional 2 cups of either coconut milk, almond milk or regular milk); set on low for 7-8 hours.

When the cooking cycle is finished, stir, add in any of the add-ins mentioned above and the sweetener of your choice and enjoy.

Store leftovers the same way as described above.

It’s that easy to fill your tummy with goodness before you start your day.  And, whipping up your own oats, without the added stuff in the instant packages, is the biggest bonus of all!!