Whole Oats

We love oats and usually eat steel cut oats. Mostly we buy oat groats and I can “cut” them into thirds (or close) with the wheat mill or I can “roll” them with the flicfloc.

Whole oat groats will last much longer than already cut or rolled oats so I keep plenty on hand and usually once a week, I’ll cut them or roll them. Since rolling is done by a hand crank, I cut more than I roll.

I feel like oats are one of the healthiest breakfasts we can have. I love them. Also, it’s one pot (Instant Pot) vs. a skillet for baking biscuits, a fry pan for cooking bacon, a skillet for cooking eggs, a saucepan for grits, a grater for cheese for the grits and eggs . . I’ll take one Instant Pot any day.

There are all kinds of posts and articles on the health benefits of oatmeal and this is one I felt was easy to read.

The other day, for some reason, I thought . . why can’t I cook the whole oat groats and not cut or roll them? I googled “how to cook whole oat groats for breakfast” and came across multiple recipes. They’re all about the same but this is the one I followed. Basically – 4-1/2 cups water, 2 cups oat groats, salt. Cook in Instant Pot on high for 18 minutes. Allow to natural release for 8 – 10 minutes. Release whatever pressure remains and serve however you like to serve oats.

The 2 cups of oats made a LOT of oats! We ended up eating all we wanted and still having 1-1/2 pints of oats leftover. They’ll be fine reheated. Vince and I talked about whether I should reduce everything, cooking 1 cup of oats and 2-1/4 cups water but decided it’s better to cook the 2 cups and just reheat the leftovers the next morning.

Vince and I both decided this is the best oatmeal ever! I added a bit of cream, sugar, toasted almonds and blueberries to mine. It was so good!

Here’s what I’ll do when making this: The night before, I’ll put 2 cups of oat groats in the Instant Pot. I’ll put a pitcher with 4-1/2 cups of water next to the instant pot. I’ll add the salt to the oats in the Instant Pot. Whichever one of us gets up first can pour the water in, put the lid on, hit the button and set it for 18 minutes. Once the cooker goes off, we’ll see when it’s been sitting for 8 to 10 minutes and go from there.

Yesterday, I was back downstairs and it actually sat for about 20 minutes after it was done and it was fine.

Let’s talk about the cost. I paid $31.38 for a 25 pound bag of oat groats last week. Each cup of oats weighs 5 ounces. One cup of raw oat groats cooked is more than enough for both of us for breakfast. That one cup of oat groats cost 39 cents, or less than 20 cents per serving. Of course, there’s the addition of almonds or walnuts, fruit, sweetener.

Currently our Walmart has an 18 oz. box of Cheerios for $3.98, or 22 cents/ounce. A google search tells me that a serving size is 4 oz. so that’s 88 cents per serving.

Our Walmart also has a carton of 18 eggs for $3.00. That’s 16.6 cents per egg. If Vince eats two eggs, that’s 33 cents and then he’ll want toast and bacon and grits.

So, not only are oats healthy, super easy to fix but they are very inexpensive right now.

I will add, sadly, that the oat groats I paid $31.38 for last week are now $35.54, and the cost per cup is now .44, so each serving is 22 cents. By this time next week, that cost will probably be higher!

Aldi has a 30 oz. container of steel cut oats for $3.45. That makes it 11.5 cents per ounce. Assuming one cup is about 5 oz., and the same one cup would be two servings, that would be 57.5 cents per cup/2 servings or almost 29 cents per serving.

We’re at a time where we do the math. If I like “A” and “B” equally and “A” is a good bit less over the coarse of the month, I’ll go with “A”. If I can’t stand “A”, even though it’s half the cost of “B”, I’m still going with “B”, at least til I see next week’s grocery prices. I’d like to put a smiley face, like “I’m just kidding”, but I’m not. The grocery prices are changing at least weekly around here and they are not going down!