Overnight Carrot Cake Oatmeal (take 1)

As aforementioned in my previous post, I have gone a little nutty for flavored extracts.  One of the many ways I liberally incorporate the extracts is in my morning oatmeal.  A teaspoon of "vanilla butter nut" or "maple" flavor can seriously jazz up some rolled oats in a way cinnamon or chopped herbs or apple chunks can't quite obtain.

While back in Seattle over my winter holiday, I got into making rather extravagant porridge for breakfast.  I would shred sweet potato into oats for sweet-potato-casserole oatmeal.  I mixed chocolate chips, marshmallows and graham crackers for smores oatmeal.  Apple-pie oatmeal.  Blueberry pancake oatmeal. Nut-butter and raspberry preserves oatmeal.  Banana-split oatmeal. Carrot cake oatmeal. 

Upon coming back to Missoula, my usual breakfast felt a little deprived of overloaded glamour.  Don't get me wrong.  A few days this past week all I wanted was an overflowing bowl of plain oats topped off with cinnamon, soy milch and a handful of pumpkin seeds. Buuuuuuuuuuuuuut, as soon as those extracts arrived, carrot cake sounded plenty more appealing for breakfast.  

Here is my most recent version of carrot cake oatmeal, doctored to be cooked in the microwave limitations of a dormitory.  In order to get the flavors to really blend and intensify, I like to let my oatmeal sit overnight in the fridge and then blast the mixture in the microwave the next morning for a minute to re-heat. This settling and re-heating process also adds a bit of volume to the oats, which gives the porridge a more cake-batter texture. (On a side note, this particular flavor of "carrot-cake" is sans coconut or pineapple.  I am not an avid coconut fan and have many personal issues with pineapple as a food item. Thus, those two usual carrot-cake suspects have been relegated to future recipe versions.)

Ingredients:

1/3 c. thick rolled oats*

2 medium carrots

1-2 tbsp powdered soy milch (or replace half of the water with soy milch) 

1 tsp cinnamon, heaping

1/2 tsp ginger

1 tsp flavor of choice

2/3 c. water + 1/3 c. water

chocolate chunks + other goodies (ideally dairy-free WHITE chocolate chips to make this cream-cheeze frosting-ish;  however, I only have Theo's hot cocoa bits here in Missoula. Other appropriately tasty add-ins could be shredded coconut, raisins, vegan cream cheeze, walnuts etc.)

*This recipe can easily be made g-free by substituting the oats with gluten free oats or hot-rice cereal

Directions:

Pulverize the two carrots by any means available to you: blender, food processor, cheeze grater ... by all means use your teeth if desperation calls for it.  I used my mini food processor to grind the carrots until they looked somethin' like this:

Combine the carrot bits, oatmeal, soymilch, spices, extract and 2/3 cup of water in a bowl with enough room for the mixture to double in size during the cooking process.  (I am guilty of over stuffing my oatmeal bowls and then  bowling the contents all over my microwave. Ewwww.  Even if the mess smells absolutely divine).

Microwave the whole mixture on HIGH for about 2 1/2 minutes.  For my microwave, this is the perfect length of time to not boil over the mixture and cook the oats to the right consistency for the next step.  Start out microwaving your oats for 2 minutes and then microwave the mixture in 30 second intervals until the oatmeal looks like this:

Frankly, the oatmeal should now be the overall consistency of snot.  Mix the oatmeal to help release some of the steam and then allow the mixture to sit for about 2-5 minutes.  Add the remaining 1/3 cup of water and then stir rather vigorously to fully incorporate the water. Stick the whole concoction in the fridge to settle up overnight.

In the morning, the oatmeal will have absorbed the remaining liquid.  (I usually have to add a about 1-2 tbsp more of water or non-dairy-milch).  Microwave on HIGH for about 1 and 1/2 minutes. Dump in a healthy few spoonfuls of add-ins, stir about to incorporate.  Please note! This is not a very "sweet" oatmeal.  If you want your carrot-cake-oatmeal to taste more like actual cake batter, make sure to add in about a tbsp of maple syrup or brown sugar to give it an extra sweet-boost.

Otherwise, dig in.  Guess what I ate for breakfast today? 

Cheers, kaite ;]