Isn’t it nice to wake up to breakfast already made? To have something to eat that will sustain you and doesn’t make you feel cruddy? Especially when you have to get kids out the door early?
I’m sure there are several ways to make this idea a reality, but I’m going to share my own healthy, cereal favorites.
This is the magic appliance I use. It’s a Zojirushi 10-Cup Rice Cooker.
A crock pot could work, but only if it has a warm setting. The low setting still cooks things too much. This rice cooker has 2 settings: cook and warm.
All year of instant breakfast is well worth investing in one of these babies.
Steel cut oats take the prize for the easiest, no-brainer breakfast.
Use 1 cup steel cut oats to 3 cups of water. For 6 kids and 3 adults I triple the batch using 9 cups of water, 3 cups oats.
Many times there are leftovers, which I store in the fridge to reheat for the next morning’s breakfast. Cold leftovers work well in the summer months.
Pour your water into the cooker. Then measure your oats.
Give it a stir.
Close the lid and leave on the warm setting all night. In the morning, vuala!
I pull the pot out of the cooker and add a cup of ice to cool it down fast. This only takes a minute.
I then add my 2 most beloved ingredients, cinnamon and stevia. You can add these the night before if you want your breakfast truly instant.
The stevia is a natural herb sweetener that is non-caloric. A little of KAL Pure Stevia Extract goes a long way. Start with a small amount (it has a tiny spoon inside) and taste to discover your preferred level of sweetness.
These added to most cereals can make it the yummiest thing you’ve ever tasted.
If you’re starting with 1 cup oats to 3 cups water, start with 1/2 tsp cinnamon and a scant 1/8 tsp (or 2 mini scoops) of stevia.
The next 2 winners, brown rice and millet, I put in the cooker at night and just push the cook button, let the grain cook while I’m getting ready for bed, then unplug the cooker, leave the lid closed and serve in the morning. It stays good on the counter overnight.
Alternately, sometimes I’ll measure at night, let the grain soak overnight, and then hit the cook button in the morning. It takes about 20 minutes.
I use brown basmati rice. It has a sweet, nutty flavor, is very nutritious and is good to eat sweetened for breakfast or buttered for dinner.
The measurement is 1 cup rice to 2 cups water. For my family I usually use 3 1/2 cups of rice to 7 cups water.
Then I add stevia, cinnamon and some rice milk to taste. It’s hard to go wrong here. Taste as you go. It’s like having rice pudding for breakfast. Sometimes I blend it with extra milk or water to make cream of rice. Love it!
Millet is a high protein grain with its own nutty flavor that works well for breakfast OR dinner (with butter & garlic salt, of course).
Add stevia, cinnamon & milk. (Am I repeating myself here?)
It tastes soooooo good, especially with fresh strawberries and milk.
I usually try to keep a container of soaked almonds in the fridge to add to my breakfast cereal.
Soaked almonds stay good for several days in water in the fridge. You can chop them if you like.
Almonds are on my top 10 of all-time healthy foods. They have live enzymes which give them a delectable crunch and make them easier to digest. Their calcium is very absorb-able.
A dash of stevia and pure maple syrup added to sliced strawberries makes a beautiful, delicious and irresistible topping for your breakfast table. Sliced bananas or other fresh fruit are also great.
My kids would love to eat this topping straight out of the bowl!
Even the pickiest eaters will eventually succumb to these healthy and oh, so convenient meals!
Save time, truly nourish, and please your palate. Give it a try!
Here are the measurements and stove-top directions:
Steel Cut Oats-1 cup to 3 cups water
Stove top directions-bring to a boil stirring constantly until well thickened. About 10 minutes.
Brown Rice or Millet-1 cup to 2 cups water
Stove top directions-bring to a boil, then simmer, covered until liquid is absorbed. About 20 minutes.
This looks like a great breakfast! I love steel cut oats!
Yum! This sounds very similar to some oatmeal we make over night in the crock pot!
I am so happy to come upon your site! I love steel cut oats. I make that every evening before I go to bed. I have done a similar thing as to start cooking it the night before. I am so excited to try some of the other suggestions you have. Thanks!
This looks like a great breakfast! I love steel cut oats!
Thanks for the proportions. I have made the steel cut oats both in my crock and in my rice cooker.
In my rice cooker it seems to bubble all over the place, and out the lid vent. I did not have the water/grain proportions correct, and have yet to try again.Maybe I was cooking it too high. I set it on ‘brown rice’ setting.
I had better luck in the crock, but yes, it did cook quicker and hotter. I think I’ll give the oats another try in the rice cooker. – Thanks
We love adding honey and cinnamon too, with some raisins…
If you use the rice cooker for oats, don’t push cook. The oats need much less heat than rice. Just leave it on warm or low all night. Honey, cinnamon & raisins…Mmmmm!
Thanks for the tip! I tried it and the oats were perfect.
April
I never thought of using the rice cooker on warm. That solves me problem of wanting to low heat my grains. Thank you. We don’t use any sweetener. Instead we cut up apples or bananas. At first there were a few protests, but everyone now prefers hot breakfast cereal without added sweets except the fruit.