Friiiieeeeennnnddddsss! Oh how I’ve missed you so.
How was New Years Eve? I want to hear alllll about your cray cray resolutions! Are you gonna drink ten green smoothies a day and have easy overnight steel cut oats for brekkie every morning until 2015?? OMG me too!
Sooo the oatmeal fairy came last night.
Would you believe it if I told you that if you mixed together a bit of this and a bit of that and brought it all to a boil for a couple minutes and let it sit overnight that you’d have perfectly cooked oaties waiting for you in the morning? Believe it, sista!
Steel cut oats are the closest thing to whole oat groats. They’re less processed than old fashioned oats and much less processed than instant oats. That’s all fine and dandy until you realize that these little beauties take thirty minutes to cook and you’re all like, “I’m sorry, I must not have heard that right. Come again?”
Instead of waiting three days to get your oat fix tomorrow morning, take five minutes tonight to prep and mentally prepare yourself for oatmeal heaven in the a.m. Let me tell ya, I don’t hate waking up to the smell of sweet apple cinnamony goodness and breakfast waiting on the stove.
It’s the new year. It’s a fresh start. The time has come to say goodbye to the packaged crapola and make your own!
Everyone has five minutes. No excuses.
PrintEasy Make-Ahead Apple Cinnamon Steel Cut Oatmeal
Prepare these apple cinnamon steel-cut oats the night before and wake up to a healthy, wholesome breakfast!
- Prep Time: 8 hours
- Cook Time: 5 mins
- Total Time: 8 hours 5 mins
- Yield: 4 1x
- Category: Breakfast
Ingredients
- 4 cups water
- 1 cup steel cut oats
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 medium apple, cored and diced (I used Honeycrisp)
- 2 tbsp ground flaxseed
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 2 tbsp pure maple syrup
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- In a medium pot over high heat, bring water to a boil.
- Once water is boiling, add oats, salt, apple, flaxseed, cinnamon and maple syrup. Boil for about two minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent overflow.
- After two minutes, remove pan from heat. The oatmeal should stop boiling. Stir in vanilla. Cover pot and allow mixture to sit overnight.
- In the morning, heat pot over medium heat to warm through. Top with additional cinnamon and maple syrup, if desired.
Notes
Adapated from Marin Mama Cooks
Sounds delish…but where does the apple come in?
Wow–I must have left my brain in bed when I wrote this post this morning! Thanks a bunch for pointing that out 🙂 I just fixed it. Happy cooking!!
Fabulous recipe! I absolutely love the fact that it’s a make ahead meal. Since I’m always running around like a crazy person in the a.m., this will definitely make my life much easier!
That looks divine! And I love the idea of prepping once and having breakfast for the week. Yum!
Prepping once a week really does save so much time and thought in the morning!
This looks perfect for the extremely cold weather we’re having! A warm breakfast right now is a must.
I’m all about the warm breakfasts lately, especially with this ridiculous -3 degree weather we’re having! Gah!
Will totally be trying this!
Let me know how you like it!
This is a BRILLIANT way of cutting down the time involved in making steel cut oats! And apple and cinnamon – win win combo! Happy New Year Alexis
Isn’t it exciting?! I’m already dying for breakfast tomorrow! It’s UNREAL topped with Justin’s Maple Almond Butter….just sayin’ 😉
Sorry if this is a stupid question, but do you leave the covered pot out all night? Or do you put it in the fridge? This looks great! Can’t wait to try it.
Not a stupid question at all, Sam! Yes, you do leave the pot out all night. Just remove it from the heat and keep it covered all night. Enjoy!
Thanks! I just didn’t want to give anyone steel cut food poisoning : )
Girl you’re making me feel bad for avoiding steel cut oats all these years because of their cooking time! 😉 I gotta try this!
I avoided them for years until lately! This method makes it SO easy 🙂
Thank god you’re back. I was feeling distraught without you. The fact that you got to frolic on the beach while I froze my ass off is made up for by this recipe. Jokessss I still love you!
Guuurrrrrlll I was feeling distraught without YOU. Give me alllll the morning glory muffins puhhhlease 🙂
I’ve missed you toooooo! I’m so happy you’re home safe and sound with all the good foods!! Love this apple cinnamon oatmeal and happy 2014!!
★★★★★
Weeee happy 2014 mah lady!
I’m all about make ahead oats. They are my breakfast of choice during the week. Awesome recipe – I’ll save this one for later ;).
I’m so glad you’re on board!! Let me know if you give it a try.
YUM! This looks so good. I love making oatmeal ahead of time, it makes breakfast in the morning easy, especially when you’re rushing!
It’s the best when you’re in a huge rush and it suddenly dawns on you that there’s a big ol’ pot of oatmeal in the fridge!
Uh WUT!? This is genius. And I want it yesterday! Good thing I just bought apples! Nom Nom breakfast.
Awesome recipe! I never buy steel cut oats because I never know how to cook them properly. This looks totally do-able. Thanks for sharing!
You’re welcome! Enjoy 🙂
Helloooooooo! OK, I had an eventful weekend as you saw allll over Insta/FB. Anyways, here is my report: The easy homemade granola is amazing. The first time I made it a week or so ago, I burnt it. Boo. This time I did muuuch better. I may have been a smidge generous with some ingredients (like brown sugar & coconut oil), but I’m okay with that. Those vegan PB date balls = deeeeelish, but a slight hazard to my crappy blender. I made it work, Tim Gunn style and it was totes worth it. Blueberry walnut muffins, OMGGGGGG. So beautious, fluffy and crazy good. Wowzas. The kale quinoa salad I had for lunch today = way tastier than I had ever imagined. I added in some dried cranberries and scarfed it down during a meeting. Last night I got bold and decided to make this oatmeal b/c it was already way late and apparently I wasn’t going to make my 6am workout (gotta get better at time management). I used 1/2 almond milk, 1/2 water. After a kitchen hazard where the boiling milky water w/flaxseed overflowed onto my stove with a vengeance, I still somehow pulled it off. IT SMELLS SO GOOD I couldn’t stop sticking my face into the pot this morn for a whiff. I was a very happy girl eating it for breakfast, too. I guess I need to workout later. 🙂 THANK YOU for giving me the confidence to try some of this stuff! I feel very accomplished. More to come!
★★★★★
Did you know that you’re the best commenter EVER!?! I’m so proud of everything you made this weekend! That was some serious food prep. I haven’t had those blueberry walnut muffins in sooooo long so thanks for the reminder! I feel ya on the balls–they’re super bitchy to make unless you have a food processor :/ Great call on doing half almond milk for the oatmeal! So creamy and fabulous, right?! Grab and go breakfast for liiiifeeeeee. I’m so sorry to hear about your boiling probs, but props for pulling it off anyway! That’s mah gurl. It makes my day that you’re having so much fun (and success) in the kitchen. You go girl!
It’s okay, I can super bitchy sometimes, too. I still love ya, PB/date balls. In the end, we are both sweet & worth the work. Or so I like to think. I also was cracking myself up (in my head) making the balls. I had plenty of DATES and lots of BALLS! Who needs a stinkin’ boyfriend, anyways?! Haha, I am such a nerd. Anyways the oatmeal was even MORE delicious this morning, as if that is even possible. It is just the perfect combo of flavors, and an amazing way to start the chilly day. I’ve got kale salad a-waitin’ for lunch, a blueberry walnut muffin for a snack, and a BALL for a sweet treat whenever my little heart desires. Granola on hand for spontaneous shoveling. Veggie burg for din? Obvi. Now just gotta get my workouts back on track, and with those extra endorphins, I’ll be unstoppable!
Another winner with this recipe! Such an easy breakfast for the week!
Fabulous, Lacey!! Glad you liked it 🙂
I love this recipe and overnight oats. Any other ideas/suggestions for flavor combos to switch it up?
Thanks, lady! Lately I’ve just been bringing a cup of unsweetened vanilla almond milk + 1 cup water + a pinch of salt to a boil. Then I add 1/2 cup steel cut oats and boil on medium high for 2 min, then remove from heat and let it sit (covered) overnight. In the morning I add a tbsp each of chia seeds and ground flaxseed. And THEN I add berries and almond butter….SO good. If you want a sweeter version, add 1/2 cup of blueberries (frozen is fine) in the second minute of boiling. Once you take it off the heat, stir in some unsweetened coconut (2 tbsp?) and some vanilla extract (1/2 tsp?). You could also use coconut milk as the liquid!
I made this last night for this morning. It was super easy and tasty! I used gluten-free steel cut oats and filtered water. The apple held up nicely; it had a nice texture in the morning–not mushy. I added fresh blueberries, almonds, and a dollop of coconut milk yogurt to my morning meal. My meal was a nice blend of wholesome goodness and a subtle sweetness. I shared this breakfast with guests, and they liked it as well. I have enough left over for a couple more breakfasts. Thank you for this!
★★★★
Mmmmm loving your add-ins!!
A thought came to me after reading your awesome recipe, which was to pre-soak the oats seperately overnight to remove the phylic acid, which a lot of people seem to advocate these days. Then drain and rinse them well the next morning before adding the rest of the ingredients and proceeding with the directions as indicated, simmering until the apple is mushy. It would take longer to make the recipe, which kind of misses the whole point, but the cooking time might likely be cut down quite a bit since the oats are pre-soaked. Sorry I haven’t tried it yet to report, but it’s on my to-do-list.
★★★★★
That’s an awesome idea, Margaret! Let me know if you try it out!
Hey girl, question about the toppings. When you add berries that are frozen, do you defrost them first or just add them straight? AND do you heat up these oaties in the morning or eat em cold?
I defrost frozen berries in the microwave or I use fresh berries. I heat up the oats in the morning 🙂
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Do you need flax seed? I want to make it tonight but have no flax seed. Thanks!