Today we’re celebrating one of the sweetest bloggers around Cynthia of Two Red Bowls and the birth of her new baby boy Luke! If I am being honest, I’m having a difficult time writing this post because it makes me feel so many feels and I just keep writing and deleting and starting over and what I really want to say can’t totally be said. It’s totally impossible to really describe with words the sensation of being just completely and utterly consumed by a new life. It’s truly overwhelming and seemingly impossible the way your heart just explodes with fresh love for this person you have just met.
In those hazy, hectic, sleep-deprived first months (and if I’m being honest, for me it was the entire first year) of new parenthood, it is so easy to forget to take care of yourself. It’s so easy to get lost in the shuffle of diapers, and feedings (so many feedings), and precious baby snores that sound like tiny elves sawing tiny logs, and the sweet indescribable scent of a newly born baby, and-and…and just so many new and overwhelming things. It was an honest to goodness struggle to not just consume an XL bag of gummy bears while nursing and watching Call the Midwife while crying and trying not to just zonk the math out right there on the couch with half of your chest exposed. Maybe that was just me, but I know those first days were the real deal and when your energy has been depleted and all you want is to simultaneously sleep for a week and somehow luxuriate in every-single-moment of the day with your newborn, it is damn hard to think about feeding yourself, let alone make it happen.
So, this recipe is for those mornings when you’re really just in it, and for the days after when you’ve found some semblance of footing and you just really appreciate a solid bowl of oats without a lot of effort. My trick for making perfect steel cut oats with virtually no hands-on time is the rice cooker! It makes perfect oats that are creamy, but not too thick or too soupy. Bonus, you can totally pop everything into your rice cooker, set a delayed start and BOOM! warm, perfectly cooked oats ready when you wake up. It’s the ultimate time-saver on mornings when you need something hearty, warm, and nutritious. Obviously, I couldn’t just throw a bowl of oats at you and call it good, no matter how well cooked. I had to top them with a drizzle of vanilla bean speckled cream and brûléed bananas. Yes, friends, brûléed bananas on our oatmeal because we are amazing human beings who deserve fancy-pants fruit atop our otherwise practical oatmeal breakfasts.
This post is just one of many, so please head over to both Alana and Steph’s blogs for the full lists and links to all of the contributions! And, be sure to pop on over to Two Red Bowls to peep some pics of baby Luke and maybe leave a congrats!
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 cup steel cut oats
- 3¼ cups water
- dash of salt
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 vanilla bean
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- 1 banana
- coarse sugar
- optional toppings: maple syrup, chopped nuts, hemp hearts
- Heat the butter in a skillet to melt and add the oats. Cook over medium-high, stirring frequently until the oats become golden and smell toasty. Scrape the toasted oats into the bowl of your rice cooker. Add 3½ cups water and a dash of salt. Set your rice cooker to the porridge setting, close the lid, and press start*
- While the oats cook, whisk the seeds scraped from a vanilla bean into the heavy cream. Whisk in the maple syrup.
- Once the oats are done cooking, spoon them into a bowl (or bowls). Slice the banana and arrange over the top of the oatmeal. Sprinkle the tops of the banana slices with enough sugar to create a crust. Using a kitchen torch, torch the sugar coated banana slices until the sugar melts and caramelizes creating a crisp crust. Scatter chopped nuts and hemp seeds over the top, if you’d like, and drizzle with the vanilla bean cream.
- *Most rice cookers allow you a delayed start function. I use this all the time for my oats and it works wonderfully. Just proceed with the recipe and instead of pressing the start button, set the delayed timer for whatever time in the morning is best for you.
These oats look bossy and I love it! So much flavour packed into breakfast!
WHY haven’t I bruleed bananas for my oatmeal yet?! This is brilliant! Cheers to B3!
Yummmm…Will you come to my house and make this for me?!?! Okthanksbye
i love bruleed bananas! and rice cooker oats are mom genius 🙂
xoxo
Aww. I hear ya, mama. Love the fancy addition to these oats – !
Oh, Cindy — you’ve described the early days so perfectly. I’m already nostalgic for this time, sleep deprivation and all, and it’s not even over yet. (Also, the tiny baby snores made me lol — YES.) I’m also SO obsessed with the idea of rice cooker oats! I need to try this ASAP. I’ve been having oatmeal every morning with bananas, but it’s nowhere near as wonderful as oatmeal with bruleed bananas (!) and that luscious vanilla bean cream. Thank you so much for being a part of this! It really means the world.
These caramelized bananas look out of this world good! P.S I seriously need to invest in a rice cooker, so smart.