Oatmeal Recipe

Makes 1 serving 

Ingredients:

½ cup rolled oats OR ¼ cup instant steel cut oats

For rolled oats, 1 cup of water or milk (I don’t drink milk, so I use almond milk. You can also use rice, coconut or soy milk!)

For steel-cut, ¾ cup of liquid

½ tsp Vanilla extract

½ tsp Cinnamon

Sweetener to taste (I usually use maple syrup or honey, but you can use cane sugar, brown sugar, agave syrup, stevia, etc. depending on your preference or accessibility!)

Toppings:

frozen or fresh fruit (frozen blueberries are my fave!)

Chia seeds

Flaxseeds

Sunflower seeds

Pumpkin seeds

Coconut chips/flakes/shreds

Dried fruits like raisins, cranberries, etc.

Nuts like walnuts, pecans or slivered almonds

Nut or seed butter

yogurt, Greek, coconut or regular

Additional milk 

Instructions

1. Start with your water or milk. Add it to a pot with a pinch of salt (crucial! It really brings out the flavors of the other ingredients) and bring it to a boil. Once it comes to a boil, add your oats and take the heat down low, bringing the oats to a simmer. For cooking times, it really depends. If you are using rolled oats or INSTANT steel-cut, my usual cooking time is somewhere between 5 and 7 minutes. If you have regular steel cut oats, they can be used, but they can take up to 20 minutes to cook. They both work fabulously, but you just may have to spend an extra 15 minutes in the morning if using non-instant steel-cut oats.
2. Next, add the vanilla extract. I eyeball it and usually add around ½ a tsp to a full one. You can skip this step, but do it at your own risk. I think it really makes the oats. This would also be a great time to add some cocoa powder for…CHOCOLATE OATMEAL… Still healthy, as long as you don’t add too much extra sugar.
3. Continue cooking until the 5-7 minutes is up, or until the mixture starts to thicken and oats are soft all the way through. I prefer runnier steel-cut oats, and more pudding-like rolled oats, so you can adjust cooking times if you prefer your oats one way or another.
4. Transfer to a bowl and top with a hefty sprinkling of cinnamon and a drizzle of sweetener.
5. My favorite part, toppings! I usually start with seeds or nuts. My favorites are chia and flax seeds, but you can add pumpkin or sunflower seeds too. Nut butter would also be delicious. Then, I move onto fruit. I love berries in mine, and we always have some frozen berries on hand, so I tend to add a large sprinkle of blueberries, strawberries or raspberries to every bowl. Fresh ones are great too! Really, anything works, just think about your other toppings and adjust depending on the combination of flavors. Yogurt is usually next for me. You can use all kinds, Greek, cream top, vanilla, and even a vegan-friendly version, like coconut-based yogurt.
6. Finally, I sometimes top mine with additional almond milk, as it just makes the oats like a fun bowl of hot cereal!