Make Your Oatmeal This Way For A Deliciously Fast Weekday Breakfast

There isn't a breakfast food more reliable than oatmeal. It's already cheap, filling, and fast to make — but making your oatmeal in a rice cooker takes it to new levels of convenience. If mornings are a busy time in your household, this one's a game changer. No more standing over a pot stirring and waiting for your oatmeal to thicken — you can just throw all the ingredients inside your rice cooker, press a button, and get back to anything else you need to do to start the day. Not a lot of people know that there are foods you can make in a rice cooker that aren't rice, but oats is just one of them. You can also cook grains like quinoa and farro. 

All you have to do to make this yourself is throw one cup of oats, one cup of milk, one cup of water, and any sweeteners you want to add into a rice cooker. Turn it on, and leave it for 10-15 minutes until the right consistency has been reached. From there, there are loads of ways to customize your oatmeal. 

Sweet additions are the default for a good breakfast oatmeal bowl. You can add maple syrup or honey as it cooks, or drizzle them on top once it's done, alongside fresh fruit and nut butters. It's also easier than you think to transform oatmeal from sweet to savory by seasoning it with salt in the rice cooker and then topping it with avocado slices, fried eggs, and cheese. 

It's important to note that the differences between rolled oats and steel-cut oats mean they'll cook a little differently. Steel-cut oats are known for being more tedious, taking a long time to cook on the stove. However, the rice cooker method is a fantastic way to cut the time usually involved, since it doesn't require pre-soaking.

As a Scottish person (a country famously fueled by oats), this method feels reminiscent of the stories told about porridge (the Scottish term for a bowl of cooked oats) from generations ago. No, my great grandmother did not have a rice cooker — but she did cook a huge pot of oats at the start of the week that she'd press into a drawer. Every morning, portions would be sliced off and reheated to feed the family. 

Because oats are filling, cheap, and nutritious, that same instinct applies today. Cooking oats in a rice cooker allows you to make a large batch at once to feed as many people you need to every morning, without breaking the bank. You can increase the portions in the base recipe to cook for multiple days or multiple people at a time, reheating the oats throughout the week and saving yourself time and energy. Chop up some fruit and keep that in the fridge, too, so all you really need to do is heat and assemble your bowl of oatmeal in a fraction of the time it would usually take you.