Why Overnight Oatmeal?

neverstray

Because I love steel cut oats and overnight in the slowcooker make the breakfast quick, easy and ready when you wake up to a wonderful smell!

Wait, you make it in a slow cooker. WTF? How, exactly, do you do that?

This thread is a trip. LOL.

neverstray

steel cut whole oats take almost 20 minutes to cook to a nice texture like you'd get with instant oats or quaker ones. steel cut oats have the whole grain inside still while instant oats or rolled oats do not. it's similar to the difference between eating whole grain breads and white bread. overnight oats allow people to eat steel cut oats without having to cook it for 20 minutes in the morning - plus it's so easy to grab a container out of the fridge and eat it on your way to work! you can also incorporate tons of flavours easily and not have to deal with tons of supplies and dishes when youre rushing out of the house in the morning

Can you make it several days in advance?

Yes, you can make it up to 3 days in advance (more probably depending on recipe variation).

WOW. Interesting.

Can you freeze it?

leolin6

I cook up several servings of the regular oatmeal, put in containers and don't have to cook can eat cold or add milk warm up about 90 seconds, pretty instant this way too

TeaBea

Because I love steel cut oats and overnight in the slowcooker make the breakfast quick, easy and ready when you wake up to a wonderful smell!

Wait, you make it in a slow cooker. WTF? How, exactly, do you do that?

This thread is a trip. LOL.

Throw all the ingredients in the cooker ..... set on low ... cook for up to 8 hours. I prefer 6 hours (texture is chewier) ... but it's up to the individual.

Some people even use crock pot liners .... so there is no clean up

Example:
1 cup of steel cut oats*
3 diced apples
1 cup apple juice
3 cups water

Directions:
For Best Results: Combine all ingredients in slow cooker and cook for 2-4 hours on high or 4-6 hours on low until it reaches the consistency that you like. Be sure to stir every hour or so.

* You can also cook longer without stirring as often, but you have to add more water liquid and it does come out a bit mushier. Add an extra cup of liquid for 7-8 hours in the slow cooker. This recipe makes 6 - 1 cup servings.

sincereme

Never heard of it until today but def trying it out. Love trying new things

girlykate143

Fu*k oatmeal, it creeps me out.

Ditto.
This is why we like it cold. It's not cooked. I think the concept of heating oats, then pouring some cold cows milk over them, and then adding sugar is strange. Hot--then Cold. Blam, yuk.
Coffee with cold milk=win. Oatmeal with cold milk=lose.

rml_16

Breakfast is not a meal to enjoy, just something to eat for nutrition. I enjoy foods later in the day.

really? kind of a bold black and white statement, no? you sound like a nutrition nazi. isn't it ok if we enjoy each meal we eat (including bkfst)? I am looking at lifestyle choices for the rest of my life - I don't want to be stuck punishing myself every morning cuz of some macho-sounding self-flagellation mind-set.

that being said, I think we should all have schedules that allow us 5 minutes to make oatmeal hot if that's how we like it. if you don't have that time, then something is wrong with your life and you will probably age rapidly with over production of stress hormones.

I didn't mean it the way you took it. I just meant that that's how I look at it. I don't care about breakfast, I just eat. If overnight oatmeal requires milk or yogurt, I'm out of the discussion. I don't want that stuff in my breaky.

But why in the world would you bother eating ANYTHING voluntarily that wasn't enjoyable??

Nutritional purposes. I am training myself to ignore taste and preference and just eat for purely nutritional reasons. I fail everyday. But, that is my goal someday is to eat so perfectly, I don't even poo.

That's just weird.

And if you don't even poo, all I can say is, "Enjoy your colon cancer."

johannajebediah

i've never tried freezing overnight oats but in theory i dont see why you couldn't. maybe just let them defrost overnight in the fridge before you want to use them? i'd try freezing a small part of a batch and seeing what happens when you defrost it before doing it as routine.

Ronngie

I cook my oatmeal in my rice cooker.

shelleyspots

Because I love steel cut oats and overnight in the slowcooker make the breakfast quick, easy and ready when you wake up to a wonderful smell!

Wait, you make it in a slow cooker. WTF? How, exactly, do you do that?

This thread is a trip. LOL.

Throw all the ingredients in the cooker ..... set on low ... cook for up to 8 hours. I prefer 6 hours (texture is chewier) ... but it's up to the individual.

Some people even use crock pot liners .... so there is no clean up

Example:
1 cup of steel cut oats*
3 diced apples
1 cup apple juice
3 cups water

Directions:
For Best Results: Combine all ingredients in slow cooker and cook for 2-4 hours on high or 4-6 hours on low until it reaches the consistency that you like. Be sure to stir every hour or so.

* You can also cook longer without stirring as often, but you have to add more water liquid and it does come out a bit mushier. Add an extra cup of liquid for 7-8 hours in the slow cooker. This recipe makes 6 - 1 cup servings.

Thank you! I love the steel cut, but never have time to cook them in the morning I'm adding apples, pecans, cinnamon, honey!

wilmnoca

You dont cook it at all. It expands overnight in the fridge and I prefer it cold. Why are you so "freaked out"? If you dont like it, dont eat it:noway:

wilmnoca

I didn't know you didn't cook it.

That changes everything. :huh:

I will only eat it if I can put raw bacon in it, and it will cook overnight, along with the oatmeal.

But, seriously, so, you don't ever cook it. It just soaks in something? It sounds gross. But, i'm sure it's sort of awesome, in it's own way. LOL

Raw bacon??? And oatmeal eaters are strange?

anaboneana

I just shove the contents of the packet in my mouth and wash it down on my way out the door.

ha.. i do this.. or i just throw it in a cup of skim milk and stir it like crazy while heading out the door

neverstray

Breakfast is not a meal to enjoy, just something to eat for nutrition. I enjoy foods later in the day.

really? kind of a bold black and white statement, no? you sound like a nutrition nazi. isn't it ok if we enjoy each meal we eat (including bkfst)? I am looking at lifestyle choices for the rest of my life - I don't want to be stuck punishing myself every morning cuz of some macho-sounding self-flagellation mind-set.

that being said, I think we should all have schedules that allow us 5 minutes to make oatmeal hot if that's how we like it. if you don't have that time, then something is wrong with your life and you will probably age rapidly with over production of stress hormones.

I didn't mean it the way you took it. I just meant that that's how I look at it. I don't care about breakfast, I just eat. If overnight oatmeal requires milk or yogurt, I'm out of the discussion. I don't want that stuff in my breaky.

But why in the world would you bother eating ANYTHING voluntarily that wasn't enjoyable??

Nutritional purposes. I am training myself to ignore taste and preference and just eat for purely nutritional reasons. I fail everyday. But, that is my goal someday is to eat so perfectly, I don't even poo.

That's just weird.

And if you don't even poo, all I can say is, "Enjoy your colon cancer."

I HATE cats.

Strangelyinsane

I'm late to this game but I prefer Bob's Red Mill 5 grain rolled Cereal. Much better than oatmeal. I've got a cup of it going in the refer tonight with some chopped apples that I have about 25 lbs too many of (bumper crop for apples here in Washington State).

lax75

Mostly you are referencing instant oats. Whole oats take a bit longer than 5 mins to cook.

The more processed oats get, the quicker they cook. (So "instant" oatmeal has been crushed/rolled/etc..) For eating a bowlful, I prefer the texture of steel cut oats, which have been processed the least, which is different than rolled oats (whether "old-fashioned", "quick" or "instant"). (For baking I still use rolled oats.)

Cooking ahead saves me a lot of time, since steel cut can take 20-30 minutes to cook. So I make 4 servings at once, overnight, eat one the next day and divide up the other 3 servings to put in the fridge for later in the week. In any case, I prefer mine hot, and just microwave whatever I'm eating that day. I bring the water to a boil, add the oats (and sometimes some milled flax seed), simmer for 2-4 minutes, turn off the heat and cover. Then I just let it sit there until morning, when I mix it up before dividing. (Usually there's a small amount of liquid that hasn't been absorbed, but once it's mixed up and heated the liquid is absorbed and the consistency is even.) So this saves me time, and means I don't have to keep watching a simmering pot to make sure it doesn't boil over or overcook and stick to the bottom! (which means I save time washing that pot as well! LOL)

Cordy1228

My deal is that I LIKE my oatmeal cold. It's not about being lazy or having crap time-management skills, it's just better, IMO.

neverstray

Mostly you are referencing instant oats. Whole oats take a bit longer than 5 mins to cook.

The more processed oats get, the quicker they cook. (So "instant" oatmeal has been crushed/rolled/etc..) For eating a bowlful, I prefer the texture of steel cut oats, which have been processed the least, which is different than rolled oats (whether "old-fashioned", "quick" or "instant"). (For baking I still use rolled oats.)

Cooking ahead saves me a lot of time, since steel cut can take 20-30 minutes to cook. So I make 4 servings at once, overnight, eat one the next day and divide up the other 3 servings to put in the fridge for later in the week. In any case, I prefer mine hot, and just microwave whatever I'm eating that day. I bring the water to a boil, add the oats (and sometimes some milled flax seed), simmer for 2-4 minutes, turn off the heat and cover. Then I just let it sit there until morning, when I mix it up before dividing. (Usually there's a small amount of liquid that hasn't been absorbed, but once it's mixed up and heated the liquid is absorbed and the consistency is even.) So this saves me time, and means I don't have to keep watching a simmering pot to make sure it doesn't boil over or overcook and stick to the bottom! (which means I save time washing that pot as well! LOL)

I didn't know that about oatmeal. It doesn't make any sense that steel cut oats are liek twice the price. Weird. Now, it just pisses me off and I'll probably never buy them. I'm not paying more for less. Why is everything like that. The raw unprocessed thing is really expensive. The fully automated rolled baked baged tagged item is half the price. It doesn't make any sense.

Like whole milk and non-fat milk. Non-fat milk should be way more expensive than the kind you pretty much dump in a carton from a cow.

sarah3333

I eat really slowly and so hot oatmeal gets luke warm fast and then it's gross to me. I eat a lot of oatmeal and I always eat it cold. I like it that way and I can eat it slowly and enjoy it. I even cook my breakfast oatmeal at night and put it in the fridge so it's cold in the morning. I'm not trying to save time, I just think it's delish!

summergrl17

You mix the ingredients up and let it sit overnight. It is easier than cooking it and you can get better tastes. If this is freaking you out, then you might want to go lay on a couch a little bit.

LOL - good answer. I wasn't expecting the go lay on a couch response!