Winter is still in full force in Yorkshire, which is totally not what I signed up for when I moved here from Canada. That means oatmeal, made from steel cut oats, continues to be my daily choice for breakfast – it’s not quite time for the refreshing chill of frozen berry smoothies yet.

I switched to steel cut oats years ago. Less processing makes for a lower glycemic index, which means my breakfast truly lasts until lunchtime. They take longer to cook than instant rolled oats, but make 4 servings at a time – just add a splash of water to a portion of the fridge-cold cooked oatmeal, and nuke in the microwave on high for about 2 minutes. They’re called pinhead oats in the UK, which my phone hilariously auto-corrects to ‘pinheaded oafs’.

The first recipe is the one I use the most often:

• 4 cups water
• 1 cup steel cut oats
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Bring water to a boil in a medium saucepan. As you add the oats, reduce the temperature to low and stir constantly at first, making sure the oats don’t boil over. Add salt after about 5 minutes of cooking. Simmer on low for about 25 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the oatmeal is thick and creamy.

Add your choice of toppings – I usually sprinkle on cinnamon, maple syrup, toasted pecans, banana slices and milk.

But as delicious as this is, I’ve got two other recipes up my sleeve:

If it’s autumn and you’re jumping on the Pumpkin Spice bandwagon, give The Kitchn’s Baked Pumpkin Steel Cut Oatmeal a go. They’ve updated the recipe for slow cookers as well. Flavoured with pumpkin puree, brown sugar, vanilla, and scented with cinnamon, ginger, cloves and nutmeg, it’s everything nice about the advent of falling leaves (and temperatures).

This next recipe steers directly into chocolate land, but manages to stay healthy. With a name like Brown Butter Chocolate Oatmeal you’ll feel like you should save this for a special occasion, but don’t. It perked up my Monday morning in no small way. You’ll need to sign up for NYT Cooking to get the recipe, but it’s worth it. Basically you brown butter in a saucepan, toast your steel cut oats in it for a few minutes, and then stir cocoa powder into the boiling water before adding in the buttery oats and a smidge of salt. I topped mine with a sprinkle of toasted hazelnuts, demerara sugar and a little milk.