Let me tell you the many ways I love Steel Cut Oats! They are amazing. If you don’t know what they are… here we go. They are the original, un-processed form of OATMEAL. Instead of being rolled, crushed, flattened and dried, they are beautiful little nuggets. And because they are less-processed, they stay with you longer! Now, I have never really loved oatmeal. Sure, give me a packet of Quaker Instant Oats with Maple/Brown Sugar (and add a scoop of brown sugar..), and I’ll gobble it down. But, I may as well have eaten a Snickers bar, really. Steel Cut Oats now, these are entirely different. They have FLAVOR and TEXTURE! I love their nuttiness, and the nice little nugget they are.

Lately I have been making a pot of SCO each Sunday, and packing up portions for the morning. Works great. But, I found this recipe for using the Slow Cooker I couldnt pass up. I was running out of time in the evening to make a pot, so this was perfect, and really – tons faster and easier!

So, here we go….

INGREDIENTS:

2-3 Apples of your choice. Cored, and chopped up into 1/2ish chunks. About 3 cups worth. You can peel also, if you wish. This is the part that takes the longest of this whole receipe.

2 cups Milk – use any kind of milk here you want. Skim, whole, almond, coconut… Personally, I used coconut because I had an overabundance of it.

2 cups water.

2 packets of Truvia, or similar sugar substitue (stevia based) – or, if you are wild & crazy, use 2 TB brown sugar.

1 TB Chia seeds. OK, this is optional. But I really love my chia seeds.

1/2 tsp Cinammon (or more!)

1/4 tsp salt (or less!)

1 cup uncooked steel cut oats!

p.s. I added 1 mashed up banana. Optional.

DIRECTIONS:

Mix all of the above into a bowl.

Spray your crock pot with cooking spray. This is Very Important. You will probably still have some sticking, but it helps.

Toss everything into crock pot.

Cover & cook on low for 7 hours.

Awakend to a wonderful breakfast made just for you! I typically top with some nuts and maybe an extra splash of milk.

I portion out the oats into about 1 cup portions and toss in the fridge. Then in the morning the rest of the week – a little splash of milk and a couple minutes in the micro and I have a wonderful, totally healthy breakfast.

TRY IT!

This is based off a Tapas plate we get at Sangria in Sarasota. We have recently discovered it, and it is super yum.

Ingredients:
1 sweet onion
Olive oil
Balsamic glaze (optional)
Goat cheese
French bread of some sort, sliced into 6 pieces, about 1/2 inch thick.

Directions:
In a large pan, drizzle 2 tbs olive oil and heat to medium.

Meanwhile, slice up onion into slices. Doesn’t have to be fancy. In fact, you could do a rough chop, too, as they cook down to very little.

Add onion to pan, and stir. Continue to stir periodically, taking care not to but the onions. Heat at medium is good, though I continued to lower the heat. Keep watching and stirring occasionally until onions get all brown and gooey.

I then added a dash of salt and a splash of balsamic glaze… This is optional.

Heat oven to 350, and quickly crisp the sliced bread. Let cool.

Once the bread is cool, layer on some goat cheese, and then top with onions.

The sweet onions with the tang of balsamic and the creamy goat cheese make for a wonderful few bites! A great little appetizer to start off an evening.

This came from Taste of Home years ago, and I hung onto it after making it the first time. So easy to make, but high in calories! Take care with portion size. I made this for work recently, and it got raves!

Ingredients

3 eggs
3/4 cup light corn syrup
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup molasses
1 teaspoon Spice Islands® pure vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups chopped walnuts
1 unbaked pastry shell (9 inches)

Directions

In a bowl, whisk the eggs, corn syrup, sugar, butter, molasses and vanilla until blended; stir in walnuts. Pour into pastry shell. Cover edges with foil.

Bake at 350° for 25 minutes; remove foil. Bake 12-17 minutes longer or until top of pie is et and crust is golden brown. Cool on a wire rack. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours before cutting. Yield: 6-8 servings.

Nutrition Facts: 1 serving (1 slice) equals 537 calories, 30 g fat (9 g saturated fat), 105 mg cholesterol, 242 mg sodium, 63 g carbohydrate, 1 g fiber, 9 g protein.