Frugal Friday - Steel Cut Oats and the Wonder Oven

Oatmeal is a staple in our diet and I rotate different recipes throughout the month.  Typically we eat overnight oats made with yogurt, dried fruit, chia seeds and a sprinkle of nuts or quick oats made in the microwave.  This week I made steel cut oats in my wonder oven.

I adore my wonder oven.  I use to dread making grains because I often would burn the bottom.  With the wonder oven all my grains, even jasmine rice, cook up perfectly with out burning and with very little effort or fuel.  I bought my wonder oven from Amazon but you can find instructions online to make your own using a rubbermaid container and bean bag pellets.

To make steel cut oats I use one cup oats, one cup milk, one cup of water and some dried fruit.  This week it was currants.

Bring to a boil on your stove top and cover.  Simmer five minutes with the lid on.  Place you pot in the wonder oven, tuck it in and forget about it for a few hours or overnight.

Perfectly cooked steel cut oats.  I will sprinkle in  nuts and drizzle syrup or honey on it before eating.  If I feel the need to add protein, I will stir in some protein powder. 

This recipe makes us 3-4 servings.  The put the leftovers in the fridge and heat up in the microwave for quick meals during the week.

Lovin' life with comfort food and my wonder oven!

Frugal Food and the Skinny Protocol Diet

The mechanic and I are starting a new diet plan.  This time we are working on getting the good bacteria is our gut and saying adios to the bad stuff.  I'm not totally convinced about the whole premise of the book, but the mechanic bought it and wants to try.  I'm just glad that it has a money-back guarantee.  At any rate, it meant buying a lot of food that we don't normally purchase like the pricey fermented kind.  I printed out the food list, ate a brownie and got to researching the alternatives.

Sauerkraut and yogurt are high on the list of what we should be eating for their awesome probiotics.  Here in Alaska they are high- ticket items.  A smallish jar of  sauerkraut will cost us about $6 and a good quality yogurt is about the same.  I know there are cheaper options out there but I want the stuff that is still alive and not laden with sugar.  Come to find out making sauerkraut is not hard, or expensive and yogurt is even easier.

I started making the yogurt today, in my crock pot and it should be ready tomorrow.  It will only cost me the price of a half gallon of milk, or in Alaska speak, $3.00.  I will try to make the sauerkraut tomorrow, but it will take a couple of weeks before it is ready for us.

Another food on the list is oatmeal.  Awhile ago I bought a 50# bag of steel cut oats and have been ignoring it.  Today the mechanic hauled it into the kitchen for me and I made us a pot of it for dinner, yep, that's for dinner, oatmeal.  I decided to be frugal and use my wonder oven to cook it.  If you haven't looked into using a wonder oven, I highly recommend it.  It is the absolute best at cooking grains (think rice that doesn't leave a scorched layer on the bottom of your pot).  It also perfectly boils potatoes and eggs and saves us a ton of propane.

My wonder oven cooking steel cut oats.

The rest of the 5o# bag I processed into smaller bags with the foodsaver and will add it into our food storage pantry.

50 pounds of steel cut oats processed for storage.

In other frugalness, I knitted up a pair of fingerless gloves for my MIL's birthday next month.  It is a super easy loom pattern and I was able to find a scrap ball of yarn.  I think they turned out super adorable and total cost was about $1 and only about an hour to make.

Lovin' life in a frugal way!