Good For Your Gut Porridge

With our western diets, our digestive tract often gets overworked and underpaid.

Here is one of our family's favorite breakfast recipes.  It is easy to prepare (yay!), fast in the morning (double yay!), and really tasty.  The warm water helps the good bacteria in the yogurt work through the oats.  And soaking the grains before you cook them greatly improves their nutritional benefit.  In fact, before fast food was popular, the oats boxes had soaking instructions on them.

When I make this, I experiment with different fruits added in, but always come back to dried cranberries.  Mmmm...

• 1 cup oats (not quick oats, but rolled or steel cut)
• 1 cup warm water, in the evening
• 2 T yogurt or kefir 
• 1/4 cup dried fruit (optional) 
• 1 cup water, in the morning
• Flax seeds, optional
• Dash cinnamon or nutmeg

Preparation:

Mix the oats with warm water, yogurt, and optional dried fruit in your cooking pot; cover and leave in a warm place (not the fridge) for at least 7 hours and as long as 24 hours [overnight is perfect]. In the morning, bring the additional cup of water to a boil.  Add to the soaked oats, cover and simmer several minutes. Remove from heat, stir in optional flax seeds and spice and let stand for a few minutes. Serve with a little sweetener and milk.

You can double this easily, and leftovers stay nice for a few days.  I always end up making too much, but my little girls are so happy to help eat it up later in the week!