I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I kind of disappeared into the chaos of traveling during the holidays and wanted to make the most of it spending time with loved ones, which explains the lack of updates after my pumpkin recipes.

What are your thoughts on steel cut oats? Love ’em? Hate ’em? For me, it was a long time before I even gave them a shot. Finally, I gave in and decided to give them a try. I was the same with oatmeal; I never ate it as a child and only started eating it when I moved out of my house. I don’t know why that is, we just never had any oatmeal around the house. I assumed oatmeal was strictly used for cookies.

Now, as a flight attendant, I eat instant oatmeal about three times a week. It’s convenient, fast, and does a fairly good job on curbing your hunger.

Steel cut oats became popular a couple of months ago and pretty much appeared out of nowhere. All of a sudden, it was on breakfast menus, stocked on your grocery shelves in a variety of brands, and used in everyday recipes.

I actually first tried it at Panera because the picture of it looked so good. Sure enough, it didn’t disappoint me. The crusty brown sugar topping that Panera uses gave it the sweetness that I needed to eat these steel cut oats. If they were plain, I’d never be able to muster a bowl down into my belly.

I figured it was probably ridiculous to pay four-five bucks for a bowl of oatmeal, so I bought some steel cut oats at the grocery store and went home trying to find a recipe I’d like for myself. They take a lot longer than regular oatmeal to cook, so I threw it into the crockpot the night before I went to bed.

I woke up to a lovely smelling kitchen and breakfast ready to eat. The edges burned a bit and the oats were a little dry, so I’d lower the crockpot time by two hours next time.