Your Breakfast Awaits

posted November 1, 2006
  by Pamela Chester, The Savvy Slow Cooker

My usual breakfast routine consists of grabbing something quick--a banana or some granola--on the way out the door in the morning. If I am really pressed for time, I wait until I get to work and then eat a bowl of cold cereal there (I keep a box in my desk for emergencies). But sometimes, it is nice to have a more civilized first meal of the day.

With the weather getting colder, a hot breakfast sounds like just the ticket to start off the morning right. But if you are anything like me, hot breakfasts are a rare occurrence, happening only on the occasional weekend morning. I have decided it’s time change that and to treat the most important meal of the day with the respect it deserves.

On a trip to Ireland, we had the pleasure of staying in bed and breakfasts across the country. Each B&B offered an elaborate and filling full Irish breakfast, some with slightly different regional variations: two fried eggs, brown bread, bacon, sausage, grilled tomato, and coffee or tea. Sometimes there would be white or black pudding—a type of sausage made with oatmeal, mushrooms, or baked beans (a more British tradition). You know you’re going to have a good day when it starts off with three different types of meat!

These hearty breakfasts sustained us throughout the day so we rarely even stopped for lunch. But by about the seventh morning I was starting to feel my arteries harden and was ready for something comparatively lighter. That is when I tried steel cut Irish oatmeal for the first time. The nutty, rich flavor was unlike the instant and quick cooking boxed oatmeal I had grown up eating. The difference is that the oats have been cut into two or three pieces rather than being rolled. It is the perfect beginning to a chilly day. There is only one catch—Irish oatmeal takes thirty minutes to cook to create the proper texture.

When we returned home, we bought a tin can of McCann’s Irish oatmeal. The arduous long cooking process used to keep me from even thinking of making this as a weekday breakfast. But then I realized that you can make steel cut Irish oatmeal in the slow cooker, by starting it the night before. Below you will find the recipe for cooking steel cut oats to perfection overnight. Optional add-ins include dried fruit such as cranberries or figs. You can also stir some brown sugar or honey into the oatmeal in the morning to sweeten it up a bit. Of course if you want to make a more savory breakfast such as the protein packed full Irish breakfast, you could also cook baked beans in the crockpot overnight so they will be ready to eat in the morning with the eggs and meat.

Next time you want to nourish yourself with a substantial start to a long day, pull out the slow cooker the night before, and you will wake up to a great beginning. The thought of a warm slow cooked breakfast is enough incentive to get me out of bed without hitting the snooze button in the morning. Now if I could just get myself to go to sleep earlier!!

Irish Oatmeal Recipe
http://www.cdkitchen.com/


Serves/Makes: 4
Ready in: > 5 hrs

* 1 cup steel cut oats
* 1 cup dried cranberries (optional)
* 1 cup dried figs (optional)
* 4 cups water
* 1/2 cup half-and-half or milk

In a crock-pot, combine all ingredients and set to low heat. Cover and let cook for 8 to 9 hours.

Stir and remove to serving bowls. This method works best if started before you go to bed. This way the oatmeal will be finished by morning.

©2008 CDKitchen, Inc. No reproduction of this article may be made without express permission from CDKitchen, Inc.



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