Oat Groats: New Food To Me

 From my earliest youth I have eaten oatmeal.  Often in my childhood our mother used Quaker Quick Oatmeal.  We children did not care much for it in those days.  My sister least of all!

Fast forward to my adult days when we sometimes ate oatmeal.  When we made this breakfast, I almost always added raisins and cinnamon.  Other times we also added chopped apples.  This is such a great meal.

More recently still we have had overnight oats which are so simple to make.  Into a 1-cup mason jar I would put 1/3 cup Old-Fashioned Oatmeal then add in blueberries, ground flaxseed meal, cinnamon, and finally fill the jar with plain unsweetened plant milk.  After shaking the covered jar, I would put it into the refrigerator before going to bed, then wake up to "overnight oatmeal".  Such a treat.

Then I heard a few people I respect speak of eating oat groats instead of oat meal.  Since I could not find a bulk food store near us that was open for bulk foods I went to the internet.  We put in an order for 10 pounds of oat groats.  When it came I was infuriated to find we had received Old Fashioned Oatmeal!  Dear One told me not to send it back.  Well, we can eat this food, and have for months.  HOWEVER, I wanted to try oat groats.  So I ordered again.  I had only a mild hope for the arrival because I had gone back to check to see if the error in ordering was mine.  It turns out that I really did order oat groats the first time....

The real oat groats came!!!  The first day I made breakfast oat groats in the Instant Pot by putting in 1/2 cup oat groats, 3 cups water, 2 cups blueberries, and 1 Tablespoon cinnamon. I let it cook for 15 or 20 minutes, I think.  It was pretty good.  

At about the same time I learned that eating oatmeal can lower your LDL cholesterol.  Since that is something I really want to do, I cooked some plain oat groats.  Now I have breakfast oatmeal and then every other meal I pour on a couple of heaping spoons of cooked groats on whatever I am eating.  It makes me happy to think that I am improving my body from the inside!!

This is what plain cooked oat groats looks like. (By the way, oat groats are the grain from which steel cut oats and oatmeal comes, sort of like bulgar wheat comes from wheat berries.). We store it in the refrigerator.  So good.