A Great Start - Steel Cut Oats

I hope everyone had a great holiday with plenty of good food, fun and family! This morning we had a hearty cereal of steel cut oats. I've made them before the over night method, but this worked just as well.

I have a health food store within walking distance from my house so it is easy for me to pick up any grains, flour, rice, etc... they sell many in bulk as well as herbs and spices. So if I need a cup of special flour or a table spoon of a spice I haven't tried before, I can buy just that and try it. So I picked up a couple cups of steel cut oats...

Melt 2 tablespoons of butter over medium heat, add 1 cup steel cut oats and toast for about 2-3 minutes.

Add 3 cups boiling water, stir and reduce to a simmer, gently simmer for 25-30 minutes, stir occasionally.

Stir in 1 cup milk (I didn't have milk so I used coconut milk) and cook for 10 minutes until the milk is almost absorbed stirring 1 or 2 times.

Remove from heat and let stand for 2 minutes.

It will keep up to 3 days in refrigerator.

My daughter had a friend over so I let them decide what they wanted on their oatmeal. My daughter like cinnamon and brown sugar. Her friend had coconut milk and honey. I had cardamom, dried Michigan cherries, coconut, coconut milk, sunflower seeds. You can enjoy it with any fruit, nuts, berries, or sweetener...that's the fun of making it your way!


Just a few recent photos to share from my two weeks off... my husband called me outside to see if I could get a photo ot the snail moseying along the cactus...


..close up! It's pretty cool!



We joined some friends at their house for Christmas dinner...


I brought this pork roast...
Gary made a beef roast and potatoes. ..


...they are from South Africa so they don't have family in town at Christmas either.


Maranda, playing with some toys that we get in the Christmas crackers...and that is sparkling cider she's drinking.


Some other goodies that were in the crackers...the kids at school will love them!

Another friend Sarah joined us and she brought her dog too. So we had four dog with us at Christmas...we couldn't leave them home...well 2 belong here and we brought Tucker, and Sarah brought Sadie the Lab was welcome too. They all got along fine and were so well behaved. Jeanne did a good job getting them all together for the photo...with treats in hand!

This time of year my lemons are in full swing...good thing, I used it all week for my ginger, tea with lemon and honey.

I used my new Tervis Tumbler (made right here near us in Florida) I got it for Christmas from my aunt and uncle. It's perfect for keeping drinks warm or cold.

.., another sunset walk on the beach, (ha! caught them off guard). it was a really nice evening...this was Monday the day after Christmas. We've been having perfect weather lately.

The sunset wasn't that spectacular, but we saw some dolphins as soon as we got there. They are so hard for me to catch a good photo of , but they are always so cool to see, I never get tired of it!

Hope you all had a wonderful week! Looking forward to the New Year to come, and visiting you all.
Back to school (work) tomorrow, and here I thought I'd get more done than I did. Will post more soon!