Oatmeal in the Rice Cooker

A warm breakfast on a winter’s morning is one of life’s pleasures!

It’s January…which means most of you are getting back in to the swing of day to day life at both work and school after a lengthy break for the holidays.  If legend holds, many of you are fulfilling your newly found resolutions by going on diets or putting more of your pennies into that ceramic piggy bank than you were just a few months ago. I’m not a big fan of New Year’s resolutions, but I am a huge fan of using the entire month of January to set myself back on track with my commitments to eating breakfast everyday, working out a few times a week, saving money and of course saving my sanity in the kitchen where it makes sense. That’s where making oatmeal in the rice cooker comes into play.

Oats, even the steel cut kind, are budget friendly and since I usually eat them as a warm hearty breakfast, they keep me going all morning long during the long dark winters here in Norway. Steel cut oats are my favorite type of oats as they are one of the least processed grains thus retaining more of their nutty, creamy goodness and much of their nutrients. Dollar for dollar (or kroner for kroner), they are a great value based on the amount of nutrition they offer.

The only downside to oatmeal, and especially the steel cut variety, is that it can take a while to cook on the stove and tends to boil over, making a huge mess – which can be just another annoying hurtle during a hurried morning routine. Making oats in the rice cooker eliminates all that fuss however, as the pot is a self contained cooking unit and nothing ever boils over in it (I have a rice cooker with a hatched, locking lid so once it is on and locked in place, I have to press a release button in order for it to open). I also love that I can add the oats and salt into the pot of the rice cooker at night, then top up with water in the morning just before turning it on to cook and hopping into the shower. By the time I’m done washing up, a warm nutritious breakfast is waiting for me. I do not have a family just yet, but I imagine that cooking oats in a rice cooker could be a great way to get breakfast on the table for a few cute kiddos too.

Try this recipe and find out for yourself just how easy it is to make oats in a rice cooker. I’ve used steel cut oats for this recipe but I imagine it could also work for rolled oats too.