What's Cooking? B & B Hot Cereal

“It’s our fall and winter Sunday morning staple—warmly spiced and so comforting.”

Serves 2

Oats

• 1/2 c. steel cut oats (soaked overnight in water and 1 T. lemon juice or apple cider vinegar, drain and rinse under cool water, drain and set aside until ready to use)
• 2 1/4 c. liquid (I use 1 1/4 c. homemade nut milk
  and 1 c. water)
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. fresh grated nutmeg
• 1 T. ghee (you can also use butter or coconut oil)
• 2 T. pure maple syrup (or local honey)
• Pinch of salt (I like himalayan or gray salt)

Place a medium size sauce pan on the stove over medium heat, melt the butter and add the drained oats. With a wooden spoon, toss the oats in the butter, add a pinch of salt and toast them until they are brown and smell nutty. Add the liquids, cinnamon and nutmeg, turn the heat to low, cover with a lid and let the oats simmer on low for 20 minutes. Whisk about every 5 minutes.

When oats are done and the consistency is to your liking (cook longer if too watery, add liquid if needed), whisk in the maple syrup. Keep the oats covered until you are ready to serve.

Vanilla Maple Sweet Potatoes

• 1 medium garnet yam (the bright orange flesh variety, roasted in the oven at 400 degrees until knife tender, about 45 minutes. Let cool and store in fridge until ready to use)
• 1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped out (you will use the pod and seeds)
• 1 T. ghee (you can use butter or coconut oil)
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. fresh grated nutmeg
• 1 T. pure maple syrup
• Heaping pinch of coarse salt (I like celtic gray salt)

Peel the sweet potato and cut into medium cubes. Place a large saute pan on the stove over medium heat, melt the butter, then add half the vanilla pod and all of the vanilla seeds (you can add the other half of the vanilla pod into the oats). Add the cubed sweet potato, cinnamon, nutmeg and saute. Toss every few minutes, I like when mine get a little charred on the edges, this takes a little finesse but totally worth it. If they are cooking too quickly turn down your heat.

When the sweet potatoes are cooked to your liking (I usually start the oats and then move to the sweet potatoes, so when the oats are done the sweet potatoes shouldn’t be far behind). Add the maple syrup and toss one last time, turn off the heat and sprinkle on some coarse salt. Set aside until ready to serve.

Serve

Divide the cooked oats into two bowls, I then add 2 tsp. Biscoff Cookie Spread (you could sub any nut butter of your liking) and 1 T. coconut butter to each portion of oats. Add the vanilla maple sweet potatoes with ¼ c. (divided) soaked walnuts, chopped (soak overnight, drain, rinse), and ground chia seeds (about 1 T. each).