“I love sleep because it’s like a time machine to breakfast.”
Oatmeal and Fall go together for me like chips and dip strawberries and nutella. It breaks the boundaries of breakfast however when you eat oatmeal plain. It is just not meant to be.
A few years back I was hanging out in Portland with my guy and we went out to breakfast at a cute little place that served chai tea oatmeal. Did I fancy it? Oh yeah. In fact so much that I began experimenting on how to add it to my repertoire for breakfast. It sounded easy just chai tea bags and oats right? Wrong.
The chai tea bags were good but not what I was looking for in my oatmeal flavor. Subtly can be good in many things however rich steel cut oats beg for flavor. Steel cut oats have the texture going for them and the healthy fiber thing but it has to taste fantastic as well. Then there is the process of cooking those steel cut babies. 40 minutes...even I lingering in my pajamas in the morning drinking my coffee don't have that kind of time for breakfast. Okay maybe some days I do😉 but if so then I just want to eat pancakes.😋
Can't be healthy every day.😜
Had to find a way to make oatmeal faster and with that chai flavor that popped. So I decided I needed...
overnight cooking
fresh chai spices
a little sweetener
a bit of chewy crunch
and the chai spice oats with crystallized ginger was born.
As a side note this has been tested backpacking🎒🌲 and got a vote of yum👍 from even non-oatmeal lovers. Woohoo!🎉
Time to get down to the nitty gritty how to cook and add the stuff. What do you make for breakfast? Is it healthy and fast? Unusual and different? Do you prefer savory or sweet in the morning? How about while backpacking? What do you make for breakfast?
Fill me in on the details in a comment below!
Crystallized Ginger from Trader Joe's
Ingredients:
Serves: 2
1 cup steel cut oats
1/4 cup crystallized ginger sliced or diced
pinch of salt
1-2 cups water depending on your method of choice below
1-2 teaspoons ground chai spices- You can make your own or get it here
2 Tbsp maple syrup or more if you like it sweeter
walnut or almond pieces (optional)
1/4- 1/2 cup warm milk
Instructions:
Step 1
If using a rice cooker the night before fill one cup of steel cut oats and place in bowl rinsing oats once or twice and then fill with 1 1/4 cups of water. Set timer for when rice will be done in morning and setting to porridge. Don't forget to turn it on!
If using a small crock pot use 1 cup oats to 2 cups water and turn on before going to bed and let cook overnight. (You can find these small crock pots at Goodwill for very cheap)
If cooking in a pot in the morning buy Quick cooking steel cut oats that will cook in 5-7 minutes.
Step 2
Slice crystallized ginger and prep 2 teaspoons of ground chai spice the night before.
Add warm milk, chai spices, and dash of salt to cooked oats. Stir.
Top with crystallized ginger, maple syrup and nuts of choice.
Enjoy with your favorite cup of Dark Roast Coffee!
Tips
To cut the crystallized ginger spray oil onto knife before slicing in order to keep the knife from sticking to the ginger
Set your coffee and rice cooker on a timer for the same time the night before and you will have breakfast at exactly the hour you want!
No Trader Joe's watch this video on how to crystallize your own ginger.