Baked oatmeal – a staple in our home on the weekends – nourishes our family, providing a much-loved alternative to soaked oatmeal porridge.  When my father, a man who rarely enjoys a home-cooked meal, comes to visit there is, inevitably, one imperative dish on the menu: baked oatmeal – all the better when it’s dotted with dried cranberries, apricots and nuts.  I could pan-fry a great steak or roast a chicken so savory and herbaceous it could bring tears to your eyes, but it is always baked oatmeal that must greet him on his visits.

And why not?  Baked oatmeal is both deeply nutritive and deeply satisfying.  Steel cut oats are gently soaked overnight in water acidified by a touch of yogurt or fresh whey which helps to increase not only your body’s ability to better digest the grain, but also your body’s ability to better absorb its minerals.  Oats are rich in minerals, including phosphorus, magnesium, manganese, iron and zinc, but due to the effects of naturally occurring antinutrients found in whole grain, such as phytic acid, those minerals due your body little good unless oats are properly prepared as they are in this recipe.  Moreover, oats are a rich source of B vitamins including folate – that critical nutrient which is vital to reproductive health and the proper development of babies growing within their mothers’ wombs (read more about best sources for vitamins and minerals).(...)
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