Savory Spicy Oats

I’ve seen a lot of bloggers, including my sister make these for breakfast and I have to say, I was always skeptical. Well, that all changed today, when I decided to take the plunge and see what happened. I wasn’t quite sure what people put into their spicy oats, so I just googled it and read a few recipes and went from there.

I know it doesn’t look totally fantastic, but it was delish!

I used:

1/2 cup oats
1 1/4 cup water
1 ounce monteray jack cheese
1/2 of turkey bratwurst, diced
picante sauce
salt and pepper to taste

Basically, you cook the oats as you normally would, I just added everything else and stirred it all around. The hot oatmeal melted the cheese and heated up the turkey brat.

At first bite, I wasn’t sure if I liked it. It felt like it was missing something. Then I thought about salt and pepper! Since I was already at work, eating my breakfast while working, I quickly found these babies left over from a luncheon to help!

And of course, some splashes of this:

After searching for other recipes, I came upon a thread of comments about savory oatmeal from 3 years ago. Someone posted these ideas which I am going to try:

I much prefer savory to sweet oatmeal – and definitely steel cut. Stir in butter, chopped scallions, toasted sesame seeds, a generous sprinkling of salt and pepper and then grated parmesan cheese. Or top with stir fried garlic spinach, a poached or fried egg and a drizzle of olive oil (or dollop of creme fraiche). Make oatmeal fritters with the leftovers – form into little patties and either fill with a piece of cheese, or dip in grated cheese and then sesame seeds and sautee in butter until golden and toasty on the oustide.

The thread was so old, the person who posted these great ideas was no longer active, so I can’t give due credit. I also read about cooking the oats in chicken broth as well. Either way, the possibilities are endless. My 6 point breakfast was great and it kept me full until lunch, so its definitely a keeper!

Does anyone have a favorite way of making savory oats?

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I want to give a shout out to my cousin Kelly for sending me this link for 101 ways to eat salads this summer from Mark Bittman, columnist for the New York Times

I got so many great ideas from that! Thanks for passing that along to me Kelly!