Easy Overnight Rice Cooker Steel Cut Oats!
Why Steel Cut Oats?
A Poor Diet
My husband and I knew that we needed a change. We had been eating a poor diet high in processed sugars which had been contributing to too much weight, higher cholesterol (in my case my doctor confirmed lowering sugar would help with my cholesterol*), and had been setting a bad example for our children.
We knew we needed to change, but how? Like most, we have busy lives — and with four kids we needed easy solutions. We both began researching the best way to improve our overall health, and what we found was quite astonishing. Contrary to what most have been led to believe, we found that fats were not the problem, but rather sugars were the major player in our poor health.
Making Changes – Eliminating Processed Sugar
Since looking into changing the way we eat, we found sugar to be a huge culprit in leaving us feeling fatigued, adding on weight, and just poor health*. We both were very interested in a clean-eating lifestyle, which means less refined foods and more fresh products.
This change means that most food is going to take longer to prepare since processed foods were born out of convenience and profit. In addition, we’ve had to come up with alternative ways to spice up our foods since refined sugars are definitely out.
This decision has drastically changed the way we eat, and over the past couple of months my husband has stumbled upon an amazing way to have breakfast ready and waiting for us every morning, plus it tastes fantastic – Rice Cooker Steel Cut Oats!
Overnight Rice Cooker Steel Cut Oats Made Easy
A rice cooker is an amazing device, and when we aren’t using it to cook rice you will find a perfectly cooked bowl of oatmeal in ours. In fact, I don’t think the rice cooker has left it’s spot on the counter in months — we have been using it that often!
The biggest question people ask is how have we been making our oatmeal not so blah if we aren’t adding sugar or much of anything else to it?
Simple. Fresh ingredients, real ingredients, and time.
We add a ripe banana right into the rice cooker to allow the natural sugars from the banana to flavor the oatmeal as it cooks. You can add any number of different fruits to suit your tastes, but the trick is to get the right ratio of water to oats. If you are adding fresh ingredients you need to account for their water content as well.
Bananas don’t add much water so our basic recipe is 1/4 cup steel cut oats with 1 cup of water and 1-2 bananas.
After cooking we also add toppings like flax seed, ground up or whole almonds, chia seeds, or any fresh fruit we didn’t add during the cooking process. We have learned through a bit of trial and error that blueberries, for instance, taste much better if added after cooking instead of during the cooking.
Pro Tip – Get a Good Rice Cooker!
If you are interested in making this for yourself, I suggest investing in a quality rice cooker. We have had ours for several years now, and although I kind of scoffed at the price tag when we first bought it, it has paid for itself in spades now and I’m glad we have it.
See Top Rated Rice Cookers HERE
We have the Zojirushi model and couldn’t be happier with it. I’m sure any model will work, but the overnight oatmeal directions are for the model rice cooker we have.
If you play around a bit, though, I’m sure you can experience similar results in any rice cooker. In fact, we now also have the popular 7-in-1 Instant Pot Multi-Cooker that not only cooks rice and oatmeal to perfection, but also functions as a pressure cooker, yogurt maker, and more!
Steel Cut Oats Recipe
Serves 2
An easy way to have breakfast ready and waiting, overnight steel cut oats are great to eat and great for you!
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup steel cut oats
- 1 cups liquid
- Optional fruit add-ins (bananas work really well)
- Optional seasonings (cinnamon, nutmeg, etc.)
- Optional toppings (raisins, almonds, etc.)
Instructions
- Make sure to use the PORRIDGE setting on the rice cooker or you may end up with a mess!
- Once the rice cooker has finished you will need to stir the oats. It will seem runny, but that is only because the water settles on top and you simply need to stir it back in. Once you stir it it will be perfectly creamy.
- Serve with toppings of choice.
Notes
Water: the recommended ratio for steel cut is ¼ dry oats to 1 cup water but you may have to play around with the right ratio depending on the add-ins you use. Bananas don't affect the ratio, but apples, for example, have a higher water content so you may need to use less water when cooking.
Nutrition
Let us know – Have you ever made Rice Cooker Steel Cut Oats?
Healthy Living Resources
If you are interested in better for you recipes, you can find additional recipes at our sister site, Healthy Cupboards. You will also find fitness tips, ingredient swaps, and tips to help you live a clean eating lifestyle.
You can also join our Healthy Cupboards Facebook group for more recipe ideas, support, and a great place to discuss ideas with like-minded individuals!
More Fitness and Healthy Living Articles
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Diabetic Friendly Quinoa Pancakes
No-Bake Cereal Bars with Ancient Grains
The initial spark that brought us to our new understanding of food and how it affects our bodies was my husband’s original story of weight loss and losing 100 pounds just by changing his diet. You can read his full story here.
As of that post he had lost 42 lbs, but overall he ended up losing over 100 pounds and keeping most of it off even three years later!
*Please consult with your own doctor for medical advice. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and this post is not meant to diagnose or treat any disease. All opinions are my own.
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