July/August - Weight Loss Challenge

[jobob]

I'm re-introducing complex, high fiber ("good") carbs back into my diet, and one of the best is oatmeal made from old-fashioned steel cut oats.

They can be cooked overnight in a slow-cooker, but I don't like the texture that way - it always comes out too mushy for me.

They can be cooked on the stove in thirty minutes, but that's way too long a time most mornings.

So I'm trying to prepare them using a microwave. I'm told it can be done ... but so far for me it's been a bit of a disaster. The time saved microwaving is lost by the time it takes to clean up the mess in the microwave.

Here's what I've tried so far:

1st attempt (from here) :
Microwave - Mix 1/2 cup of steel cut oats with 2 cups of water in an 8 cup bowl (the size of the bowl is important as it must be large enough to allow the oats to bubble up without spilling over). Seal the bowl with plastic wrap and run at full power for 5 minutes. Stir and finish cooking for another 5 minutes (since microwaves vary in size and power, cooking times may need to be adjusted for different models).

Result: catastrophic oatmeal biol-over. The oatmeal that actually remained in the bowl tasted really good though.

2nd attempt: Cut the quantity in half! I mixed 1/4 cup steel cut oats with 1 c water, and again sealed up the 8-cup pyrex serving bowl with saran wrap. I figured that should do the ticket.

Result: another catastrophic oatmeal biol-over.

I've been using an 8 cup pyrex serving bowl with glass handles at either end and I don't get the saran wrap to seal very tightly over the handles. So I'm going to get an 8+ cup pyrex mixing bowl - perfectly round, w/o handles - and see if that will do the trick. Otherwise I'm stumped.

Any other tips?

Ed to add:
If microwaving is a lost cause, I might try one of the other time-saving approaches on that website. Cooking up mass quantities and re-heating a bit at a time might work out the best.