Thank You Alice!

Can I please just take a second and tell you about one of my more recent "Favorite Things"?  This is something I'm pretty passionate about.... so pay close attention. This may or may not change your life forever.

So a couple months ago, I went with some friends to visit two lovely, elderly people. One of whom was named Alice. While chatting with Alice, our discussion led to WinCo (a grocery store in Idaho Falls, ha exciting conversation yes?) I told her that I loved WinCo and she of course agreed and mentioned that WinCo was great because they carried Steel Cut Oats. I nodded and agreed, "Yes, yes, that is great!" Truth be told, I hadn't the foggiest idea what steel cut oats were. Yet, for some reason, that snipit of conversation stuck in my mind for a long time. So they next time I went to WinCo, I thought to myself, "Alice seems to be a pretty smart lady, I'm going to take her word for it and check out these steel cut oats."  So I bought myself a small bag of steel cut oats.

The biggest mistake of the night was that I only bought a small bag. THEY ARE AMAZING!

So I don't know if these have been around for forever and I've just been out of the loop, but if you don't know anything about them, keep reading....

Here's what they look like. Mmmmm

Steel Cut Vs Rolled Oats

I'm a big believer in oatmeal, it's my favorite quick, cheap, healthy breakfast. I think it tastes good too.  However....

  Steel Cut Oats

What Are They: Unrefined whole grain groats that have been dried and cut into two to three pieces by steel, rather than being rolled.
Nutrient Information: Rich in B-vitamins, calcium, protein and fiber.
Taste/Texture: Nuttier, chewier taste and texture and they aren't mushy at all, like rolled outs tend to be.
Toppings:  I like to put in a tsp of honey and call it good, unless I have berries or bananas on hand, in which case those go in for sure. My roommate just introduced me to the idea of putting in a tablespoon or two of ground flax seed as well, you can't really taste it, but it ups your nutrient value and I find that it's more filling that way too.

But you can put in whatever you want: Milk, brown sugar, raisins, almonds, cranberries... whatever!

If you haven't yet, try them! I promise after one bite you'll be saying, "Ohhhh so this is what oatmeal is supposed to taste like!"

Oooo this picture gets me everytime

Disclaimer: After trying these you'll probably never go back to eating your good Ol' Fashioned Rolled Oats, so you'll probably have a pantry/food storage containers full of them. Not to worry, those kind of oats are still good for use in oatmeal cookies, I can't really imagine making cookies out of steel cut oats cookies... hmmm but I just might have to try that one out!

Love, Noelle