It was a rainy, rainy morning here in Toronto, so of course my thoughts turned to oatmeal. I’d had success with pumpkin butter oatmeal recently so I figured, why not skip a step?
When I make oatmeal for a weekday breakfast I either make instant at work (Nature’s Path maple nut mixed with Ruth’s hemp and chia cereal) or I go all the way and make steel-cut oats at home and carry to work in a Thermos. Steel-cut take a good 20 minutes to cook but if you cook them while you’re getting ready for work, they’re actually more convenient because they cook so slowly. My recipe is a 1:4 ratio – boil 1 1/3 cups water with salt and stir in 1/3 cup steel-cut oats, then simmer until tender.
Once the oats were cooked, I stirred in some cooked butternut squash. (Cut in half, scoop out seeds, roast face down on a parchment-lined sheet at 375F until tender, then scrape out flesh.) If you puree the squash in a food processor it will be smoother, but I kind of like it lumpy. You could use canned as well here. I put in between 1/2 and 1 cup (wasn’t measuring):
And stirred it in. Add molasses and maple syrup:
And spices (here: cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger):
And hemp seeds:
Stir together well. Close-up:
Then, if you’re transporting the oatmeal, transfer into your Thermos. I like to pre-heat mine with some boiling water so it’s not cold from the cupboard.
Topped with a few pecans and ready to go!
