cherry almond steel cut oats

So I'm back on the steel cut oats bandwagon after a couple weeks off. I had begun to draw a blank on new flavors and fell back into my bran flake rut when *BAM* three new ideas just popped into my head! Here is the first one in all of it's creamy, almondy, deep cherry goodness.



Total Recipe cost: $4.23
Servings Per Recipe: 5
Cost per serving: $0.85
Prep time: 5 min. Cook time: 30 min. Total: 35 min.

INGREDIENTS		COST
1 cup	uncooked steel cut oats	$0.70
5 oz. (3/4 cup)	frozen black sweet cherries	$1.50
2 cups	vanilla soy milk	$0.75
1 Tbsp	brown sugar	$0.03
1/4 cup	sliced almonds	$0.56
1/2 tsp	almond extract	$0.54
1/2 tsp	vanilla extract	$0.15
TOTAL		$4.23

STEP 1: In a medium pot, bring 2 cups of vanilla soy milk and 2 cups of water to a boil. Roughly chop the frozen cherries while waiting for the liquid to boil.

STEP 2: When the liquid comes to a boil, stir in the oats, cherries, brown sugar and 1/2 tsp of salt. Reduce the heat to low and simmer until the liquid has absorbed and it has reached your desired thickness.

STEP 3: Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla and almond extracts as well as the sliced almonds. Divide the oats into single serving containers and refrigerate until you are ready to eat!

NOTE: You can use regular milk in place of the soy milk if you'd like (it will also be less expensive) but the heat and fruit acids from the cherries will cause the milk to curdle. I know "curdle" is an ugly word but all it really means is that the proteins in the milk clump together. It has no nutritional impact and there is no change in the flavor (yes, I made it this way at first). Also, once it's in the final gloopy oatmeal state, you can't see the "curdles". Still tastes great!

So my original idea for this recipe involved dried cherries rather than frozen but I found that they were $10.99/lb and that's from the bulk bins! Outrageous. So, I checked the frozen cherries and they were only $2.99 for a 10 oz. bag... thats less than half the price! Plus, I think they added more flavor. It definitely pays to check your options!