Food storage: Eating what you store - oatmeal

So - how are you doing getting around to eating all that food in your food storage??  You have started right? Anything in your food storage that you haven't really added to your main menu? Some things are easy to incorporate and others we needed a little help getting into the habit of using regularly.  Since storing boxes of cereal is bulky and expensive I knew we needed to start eating hot cereal more regularly.  I like oatmeal but other things seem easier when I'm tired and not quite awake.

One of my goals in life is to make the mundane thinks in life run on auto pilot so I cooked up this way of having my cereal and eating it too.  One of the grains I store lots of is oats - my favorite kind is the steel cut variety and it has a great storage life (12-15 years if stored properly).  There are several other options for oats all of them good and healthy but the instant ones are the least nutritious.  Steel cut oats take a little longer to cook so I had to find a way to make it simple and automatic.  Enter the humble crock pot.  I have a smaller sized crock pot that works really well for this - it holds about 6 cups in total.  The larger crockpots work better if you double the recipe or add extra water. When teamed with a timer I am all set.

This is a simple recipe that can be changed a million ways to suit your tastes. The idea is that you put it together as soon as you clean out the crockpot from the day before. The grains soak throughout the day and the timer turns it on so it's ready to eat the next morning. 

Makes 2-4 servings

1 cup steel cut oats (you can use part quinoa, millet or anything else you like)

Opt. chai seeds, almonds, flax seed, etc.

1 tbsp. of lemon juice

1 tbsp. wheat or kamut flour

4 cups lukewarm water

Rinse the oats under cold running water for a few seconds.  Place everything in the clean crock pot.  The soaking time in the room temperature water along with the acid (lemon juice) and the flour helps to make the oats and seeds more digestible by starting the sprouting process which means you'll get more nutrition out of your food.  The flour may seem like a strange addition but it contains an enzyme that neutralizes the coating on the grains that prevents them from spoiling and that kickstarts the sprouting into gear.

  

Use a timer to turn the crockpot on at 2am and off at 8am.(or change the times to suit your breakfast habits) Cook on LOW. It's ready to eat after approx. 6 hours but it won't hurt it to sit longer. If you forget to turn it on or the timer gets messed up and doesn't turn after a power outage you can cook it on HIGH for about an hour and a half or until its as done as you like it.

Top each bowl with any of the following:

Flax seed oil, Udo's oil, butter

walnuts, raw cashews, coconut

Dehydrated or fresh apples, blueberries, strawberries etc.

Cinnamon, ginger

Raw honey, agave syrup, stevia to taste

Add anything else that you are supposed to eat every day and forget to eat like wheat germ, bran etc.

A healthy breakfast that gets you started on the road to STORING WHAT YOU EAT AND EATING WHAT YOU STORE.