Mostly because it involves coffee. And let's be honest with each other - Coffee rocks. For those of you who don't drink it...start. Because God gave it to us and it's wonderful.
Anyway, back to breakfast. One of our favorite choices for breakfast is oatmeal. It's healthy, simple, and wonderfully delicious. While oats don't exactly scream of an innovative and cutting edge meal, it's important to appreciate them for their humble goodness. Plus, they don't have to be the soggy, bland version you may be used to. Kick up the goodness with various toppings: maple syrup, peanut butter, apples, raspberries, cinnamon, flax seed, coconut, walnuts, almonds, and so-on and so-forth.
We recently began soaking our oatmeal, after I read Lindsay Edmond's blog post on the benefits of soaking, here. So, onward and upward to oatmeal!
Soaking for 24 hours is ideal, but do what you can!
Step One: In a mason jar (or bowl, doesn't matter) cover 1 1/2 cups oats with roughly 1 1/2 cups water until the oats are just covered.
Step Two: Add two tablespoons of your chosen acid medium (lemon juice, kefir, yogurt, or whey). This will help break down the phytates in the oats and allow for easier absorption of the all the nutritional goodies the oats have to offer! You can use the yogurt you made earlier this week from my homemade yogurt post! (Everyone made that, right?....Hello?.....Anyone?)
Step Three: Add nuts to the jar, if you like. Soaking is great for nuts too!
Step Four: When you are ready to eat, heat the oats in a pan with an additional cup of water and cook for roughly 5 minutes, until it looks done to your liking. We always add a pinch of salt at this stage.
Don't let it fool you - oatmeal can be decadent. Rich. Fancy. Like creme brulee.
Okay, well, maybe not quite that fancy.
I'm going to try soaking our oatmeal and bread. How much acid medium do you use? I looked for a soaked whole wheat bread recipe on here but could not find one. Do you have any tips for that? I'm greatly intimidated by this process.
ReplyDeleteI totally do - it's one of my most popular posts to date! http://theelliotthomestead.blogspot.com/2011/07/soaked-whole-wheat-bread.html Don't be intimidated - you can do it!
DeleteOh, and I use about two tablespoons of yogurt or kefir or one tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar. Hope this helps!
DeleteThanks so much!! Now that you've responded I realized if I had just scrolled down a liiiittttle further I would have seen the recipe listed. Hehe...I'm a tad impatient.
DeleteI did it!! I made soaked whole wheat bread and it wasn't nearly as bad as I was anticipating. It was delicious and the best looking loaf of bread I have made in a long time. It looked like I bought it at Panera. Yay me! Thanks for all your help!
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