Steel Cut Oats with Dates

Those of you who follow me on twitter, or who follow me in real life, a.k.a. real-life friends/family, know this is a big week! I am working on my research study for my thesis (will be half done data collection after this week), am moving home for a year (I haven't lived at home for more than a few months in 6 years), and am heading to Italy on Friday (I have never been across the ocean).  I have been preparing for a while. Slowly moving some things home, packing here and there, planning for the trip, etc. etc. I have also been trying to reduce some of my pantry and freezer stocks. This has caused me to be a bit more creative as well as reduce my grocery lists. I have also had some help from my parent's garden for supplying me with fresh veggies.

While this week is all about quick breakfasts since I need to be at school by 6 am most days, I had some leisurely mornings last week. This allowed me to cook up the rest of the steel cut oats I had laying around. I also managed to use up a few dates in the process.

Steel Cut Oats with Dates

1 1/2 cups water
1/2 cup steel cut oats
4 small dates, chopped

1. Bring water to a boil. Add oats and stir.
2. Bring back to a boil and reduce to a simmer.
3. When the oats are 1/2 done (5-8 min) add the dates and stir in.
4. Continue to simmer until desired consistency is reached.

These oats were the perfect sweetness for me. I rarely sweeten my hot oats, and usually just top it with a dollop of peanut butter, so this was a treat! It was the perfect amount of sweetness as it was subtle and throughout the oats, due to cooking the oats with the dates. Even with the dates, I still topped it with some peanut butter. It's my favourite.

I made this a couple times and in this picture I used steel cut with some rolled oats since I didn't have enough of each. I finished off two canisters on this breakfast. To me, emptying canisters feels like checking off an item on a to do list. Call me crazy!

I will have at least one more recipe before the end of the week. Todays post is about leisurely breakfasts, but the next one will be a breakfast recipe for those rushed mornings. Stay tuned!