A Bulgur Breakfast

After a little bit of an absence, it seems right that I come back with a post about food. In this case, we're talking about breakfast food. While we loved oatmeal all winter, for its heartiness and convenience (and cheapness), facing a bowl of it in the summer (especially when we've made the effort to get up and go running) is a little less appealing. And we love Kashi Heart to Heart, but it's expensive and a little highly processed for our taste. Thus Matt had the brainchild of hot cereal served cold: not oatmeal, which would be unappetizingly gluey, but cooked bulgur (which is a little processed, but still has a great nutritional profile), with milk and a banana. And, of course, for some of us: brown sugar.

Here's how we do it: The night before, we boil a cup of water (which takes about five minutes), throw in a half cup of bulgur, put a lid on it and turn off the stove. By morning, the cereal is cooked and cooled and delicious. The flavor is sort of neutral and nutty, the texture is very pleasant, and it's sort of like a softer take on Grape-Nuts. Make up a batch of cold-brewed coffee while you're at it, and you have a breakfast that just cooks itself while you sleep! Even more beneficially, it does so with very little energy (from you or your appliances). And bulgur costs us about a dollar a pound in bulk, even organic, and being that a serving size is only a quarter cup dry, it lasts us a long time!