Steel-Cut Oats topped with banana and a sprinkle of cinnamon and brown sugar

Oh, oatmeal. There you sit on the shelf in your wholesome brown packaging, looking all grainy and natural. You wear the “healthy” badge like a prize and make even the most time-pressed citizens feel virtuous when they rip open your packaging and pour steaming water over you. Who can resist the siren call of your easy-to-drop-in-backpack/purse/laptop bag single servings? After all, you’re OATMEAL of cholesterol-lowering, heart-healthy fame.

Right?

L to r; Organic Old-Fashioned Oats, Organic Steel-Cut Oats, Conventional Single-Serving Oatmeal Variety Pack, Organic Single-Serving Variety Pack

The answer is: not quite. All oatmeal is not created equal. Although you may not think of the single-serving oatmeal variety pack as a “shortcut,” it is most definitely. In fact, I hope by the time you’re done reading this article, you’ll consider never purchasing a variety pack again.

Clockwise starting from upper right-hand corner: Old-fashioned Oats; Conventional Flavored Quick Oats (single-serving, maple&brown sugar); Organic Flavored Quick Oats (single-serving, maple&brown sugar); Steel-cut Oats

If you’re not familiar with how oats are processed, here’s a brief recap. When oats are harvested, they are covered in a tough hull. During processing, this hull is removed and the kernel is exposed. When you buy steel-cut oats, you are purchasing the kernel which has been heated to deactivate certain enzymes, thereby making it shelf-stable. The kernel of the oat is what contains the bran and therefore the fiber as well as other nutrients from the seed that create the bulk of oats’ health content. Steel-cut oats are the most commercially available lesser-processed oat. Next comes old-fashioned oats. In these, the kernel was chopped, steamed and rolled. Some of the bran may be lost during this process but much of it remains. Quick or instant oats (sold either plain in canisters or in the single-serving bags) are even more processed. Typically, they’ve had almost all their tough bran layer removed to make them cook more quickly. Finally, flavored quick oats also have had ingredients added to them to make them more “palatable” to consumers.

At about $0.40 to $0.43 per serving, flavored, single-packaged multi-packs are almost twice the cost of plain canister oatmeal (approx. $0.23/ serving for regular oats and only $0.20/serving for steel-cut). What are you paying for? Well, mostly packaging (I’ll save from harping on the environmental aspect of that here), and in some cases, sugar and other additives. As stated above, what you’re losing is some nutritional content from the removal of the bran while you gain unwanted sugars, sodium, and chemicals.

Possible additions to oatmeal include: sweeteners (raw honey, pure maple syrup, brown sugar, agave syrup); Milk/cream; Nuts; Fruits (fresh, frozen, or dried)

The calorie count for a 40 gram serving of oatmeal is similar amongst all types (around 150 calories), although, if you add fruits, nuts, berries or sugars to it, calorie counts will increase. Moving beyond energy content, the nutritional value of oatmeal varieties begins to change. Steel cut and old-fashioned, and some plain quick oats, have no sodium while pre-packaged flavored has anywhere between 90 to 260 milligrams per serving (about 5-11% of your daily value). Sugar content similarly increases from 0g in the unflavored types to anywhere from 9 grams (conventional variety pack) to 11 grams (organic variety pack!). Since most nutritionists recommend keeping your added sugar consumption around 40 grams a day, one serving of oatmeal could easily consume 1/4 of your daily allotment!

One final note on nutrition facts is vitamin content. Oatmeal naturally contains few major vitamins or minerals. Why then does conventional flavored oatmeal list Vitamin A, calcium, iron, phosphorus and magnesium content? For the same reason as many boxed cereals – these vitamins and minerals have been sprayed on during processing. (Some research says that applying vitamins/minerals in this manner causes most of them to simply be excreted in the urine.)

Prepared Oatmeal, clockwise from upper righthand corner: Old-fashioned oats (5 minutes); Conventional, flavored, quick oats (2 minutes); Organic, flavored, quick oats (2 minutes); Steel-cut oats (30 minutes)

Now that we’ve established that the “shortcut” oatmeal is more expensive, has less nutritional content and more additives, and is full of sugar and sodium, why choose it? Perhaps time or convenience? It’s true the nutritionally superior steel-cut oats do take almost 30 minutes to prepare. However, like most grains, they can be soaked and/or fully cooked in advance, stored in the fridge and quickly reheated for serving. Old-fashioned oats, still a cut above instant or single-packaged, take 5 minutes on the stove…a 3-minute difference at best. (Not to mention, old-fashioned oats are the best to have on hand to use for baking!)

The oatmeal varieties with possible toppings for added taste/nutrition.

Finally, the big test is taste. Will it take your family awhile to adjust from the super-sweetened single-serving oatmeal? Possibly. I recommend adding a teaspoon of brown sugar (4 g) or a drizzle of agave or pure maple syrup or honey until the eater is adjusted to oatmeal sweetened only by fruit and nuts. Controlling the ingredients you add to oatmeal can make or break its nutritional value and raise it above what expensive flavored quick oats already sell you. Wouldn’t you prefer that the power be in your own hands though?

Until I went to culinary school, I’m nearly positive I didn’t realize “from scratch” cakes were not only in the repertoire of the general public but also that most people had consumed one in their lifetime. Having been raised on box cake mixes and making mostly only intricate and complicated cakes in my limited exposure to baking and pastry in culinary school, I continued to make the prepackaged stuff well into my 20s. A few years ago,I remember reading in a Michael Pollan book a question asking about when Americans decided they couldn’t mix a few dry ingredients together and instead would opt for a premixed box full of chemicals. This really rang true to me, and I remember thinking, “hmm…yes. What exactly is ‘convenient’ about a box mix?” Thus, for the first Scratch vs. Shortcut installation, I thought I’d test run, in honor of Valentine’s Day, a Red Velvet Cupcake with Cream Cheese Frosting showdown.

For purposes of this comparison, I used a Duncan Hines© brand Red Velvet cake mix and cream cheese frosting. For the scratch cupcake version, I wanted to find a recipe that replaced the most controversial ingredient, in this case, red food coloring. I did so by adapting a recipe that called for beets in place of dye. This did add an extra step to the baking process but maintained the integrity of this series (to compare straight-forward, homemade cooking to that of “convenience” products).

Since every kitchen is organized differently, ingredients were gathered before we began “timing” the cooking process. A comparison of the 5 main ingredients in the cupcake and frosting products included the following:

Scratch cupcakes (Total ingredients: 12) : sugar, flour, butter, beets (nutritional value!) and cream cheese.

Shortcut cupcakes (Total ingredients: 13): sugar, enriched bleached wheat flour, vegetable shortening (contains 5 separate ingredients), dutch-processed cocoa powder, red food dye

Scratch frosting (Total ingredients: 6) : sugar, cream cheese, butter, cream, extracts (vanilla/almond)

Shortcut Frosting (Total ingredients: 16): sugar, vegetable shortening(contains 5 separate ingredients), water, corn syrup, 2 food dyes

As for preparing the batter, the shortcut batter (pictured above in the cupcake tins that look like they’re filled with red paint) took approximately fifteen minutes to mix and fill. The Red Velvet homemade cupcakes took approximately 23 minutes including pureeing the beets (but not the non-active hour of cooking them). Both cupcakes required similar equipment with the addition of a food processor/blender for homemade version. The store-brought frosting clearly requires no prep time, while the scratch required a mere 5 minutes of prep time.

Taste testers slightly preferred the scratch cupcake version, calling them “tangy”, “dense”, “fruity”, and “moist”.  The shortcut version elicited “passable”, “overly sweet”, and “shockingly fake color.”  In the battle of icings, the scratch version was the clear cut winner being deemed “very cream cheesy”and “delicious icing!,” while the shortcut was “very sugary” and “grainy texture.”

Finally, when it comes to cost, the “shortcut” and stretching ingredients of vegetable oil, food dyes and the like contributed to the low cost of box mixes (approximately $4 for 18 cupcakes with frosting). Scratch versions with premium ingredients like butter, cream cheese and beets added up quickly in cost, particularly when it came to frosting.

Which factor influences you most in deciding which cupcake to give to your sweetie? Tell us in the comments below!

Red Velvet Cupcakes
Makes about 18 cupcakes
2 large or 3 medium beets
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 TB vinegar
2 sticks (16 tbsp) butter, unsalted, just slightly softened
1 8oz. package cream cheese
2 1/3 cup sugar
4 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups unbleached flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
4 TB cocoa powder (try to find non-dutch processed)
Cream cheese frosting (recipe below)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Cut beets into cube-sized pieces and place in a small roasting pan with 1/2 inch of water. (You can peel them after they roast.) Cover and roast about 60-90 minutes until tender. Cool. Then, peel. Puree to baby food consistency in a blender with lemon juice (add just enough to achieve desired consistency). Then, stir in vinegar.
2.Line cupcake pan with liners. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
3. In a mixer with paddle attachment, cream together butter and cream cheese. Add sugar and continue to beat with paddle attachment. Add in eggs, one at a time, beating after each egg is added. Mix in vanilla.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk together dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa powder. Add flour mixture to wet slowly incorporating. Fold 1 1/2 cups of the beet puree into the cake batter. Divide amongst cupcake liners evenly.
5. Bake at 350 degrees F for about 20-35 minutes or until cupcake tops spring back when touched or toothpick comes out clean.

Ingredients
2 8oz packages of cream cheese, at room temp
2 sticks (16 TB) unsalted butter, at room temp
1 pound (1 small box) confectioner’s sugar (about 4 cups)
2-3 TB heavy cream, add as needed
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract

Directions
1. Add all ingredients into a paddle mixer and beat until smooth and fluffy. Frost cupcakes when cooled.

This vegetable soup?

Did you grow up in a home where the scent of yeast or melting butter hung in the air? Maybe some fresh tomatoes mixed with herbs and garlic gurgled happily on the stove? Opening the refrigerator meant a feast of tempting and multi-colored stews, soups or casseroles to greet the eye?

No? Well, me either. As I’ve mentioned in some of my M@M articles, my mom was a box mom. Having had no one to teach her anything about domestic goddessry and holding a job, she was the perfect demographic to capture with “time-saving” foods. “Cooking is drudgery,” said the advertisers of the day (and quite honestly, ads of to-day, as well), “why put yourself through that? Just add water/milk/egg/a microwave and dinner is served!” Voila!

Or this soup?

As the developed world has slipped and slid down this slope of “faster is better”, we’ve begun to learn quick doesn’t always (in fact, almost never does) equal healthy and having a plethora of fat and sugar laden foods within arm’s reach doesn’t exactly help our waistlines. It seems we must be nearing rock-bottom when a special energy drink is being advertised as “so much faster and easier than coffee!”. Really?! We are too busy to make our own COFFEE  these days? Things have become bleak.

The fact is many individuals and families know by now that they should be cooking for themselves more if they really want optimal health (and in some cases, optimal taste). Still, society has changed and finding the time to crank out a farm-fresh meal isn’t always an option. Sometimes, shortcuts provide more time for homework help, a family bike ride, or even, yes, half an hour of hysterical laughter over Modern Family on television.

This baked good?

Because of this, here at Zomppa, we’re introducing a new series called Scratch vs. Shortcut. Three times a month, I’ll be comparing two versions of the same food in the categories of taste, nutrition, dollars, time, ingredients and viability (i.e., will your picky kids and husband eat it?). Where does it make sense to cut corners? Which things should always be made from scratch due to nutritional concerns? And exactly how “convenient” is convenience? Along the way, we’ll also be exploring some ideas from Michael Pollan, Mark Bittman and others about how returning to the kitchen can be easy AND practical.

Or these baked goods?

From pasta sauce to pizza, brownies to bread, soup to salad dressing, I’ll be rolling out side-by-side versions for my captive audience (i.e., gullible neighbors and friends), analyzing cost and nutrition content (as much as possible…this isn’t America’s Test Kitchen) and bringing you the results. Have an item you’d like to see on the schedule? Shout it out in the comments. Feel free to share your own informal results with us as well.

Until next week, happy cooking/microwaving/box opening!