Oat Groats

Yes, I know I haven't posted in like 2 months. I've been busy! And exhausted. I was without child care for weeks and still having to work. I'm extremely lucky to now have family coming in to help out or I would really be up a creek. There's a lot to catch up on - like a visit from my mom, sister and brother-in-law in July with lots of kid pictures and the fact that I'm now 38 weeks pregnant. (YIPE) I haven't taken a belly pic in ages, mainly because the shirt I usually wear has been in the "laundry to do" pile for months. And when it comes out it gets dirty again before picture day. lol Anyway, to get back in some kind of writing groove before having this baby, I will tell you about my amazing discovery.

I'm not one of these organic, raw, healthy foods only people. Yes, I get some organic fruits and veggies, but I almost never shop at places like Whole Foods. Anyways, I saw an herbalist/shiatsu lady on Sunday and of course the first thing she wants me to do is switch things I'm eating. Like buying local goat milk instead of the stuff I get at Stop & Shop. HAHAHA Yeah right. And she suggests I buy seaweed to eat. Except it's like $30/lb. Heck no. Not unless I win the lottery. I have no problem eating seaweed, but I can't afford that kind of a pricetag. Then she suggests I buy oat groats to eat for breakfast instead of cereal. Ok, oats I can deal with. I like oatmeal, and she assured me it was very similar and that I would love it. Hmmmm.

So I ventured into Whole Foods, which is the only place on earth I could find oat groats. And lo and behold they have them in the bulk containers for like $1 something/lb. WOOOO SCORE! CHEAP OATS! Much cheaper than the quickie oat stuff you get in packets and with no added crud (like sugar or worse). But of course it needs to slow cook. Luckily I actually randomly have a quart-size crock pot that has never been used, so I figured I would put it to good use and have some oat groats. I set it up to cook overnight last night and served myself this morning. At first taste it wasn't bad but definitely needed a little sweetening, so I put in a little Splenda. That was a good move. Then I added raisins. That was an even better move. Then I devoured the whole bowl. OMG OAT GROATS!

My mission in life is now to get everyone to eat this for breakfast. lol If you want a healthy & cheap alternative to cereal and quickie oats, THIS IS SO IT! Yeah, you need a mini crockpot (unless you're planning to make a ton of it, which actually wouldn't be such a bad idea if you're feeding the whole family oats for breakfast) and it needs to be set up before bed, but that took all of 2 minutes. Here is my recipe for the awesomest breakfast ever:

1/2 cup oat groats
2 cups water

Put oat groats and water into crock pot. Set on low. Cook approx 8 hours. Add sugar/Splenda/Stevia/honey to taste and chuck in some raisins if you want. Makes just about 2 servings.

I think the difficult part of this is going to be cleaning the crock pot. lol Excuse me...my oat groats are calling...