This morning, I tried cooking in dried fruit (diced peaches, cranberries, apricots, pears, nectarines, and raisins) directly with the steel-cut oatmeal; that worked, with the fruit nice and soft by the time the oatmeal was cooked. (Link to mixed dried fruit in comments.)
Stirred in chia seeds and fresh blueberries at the end — the end result was plenty sweet for me without adding any brown sugar or honey, and the blueberries were a bit tangy, adding a nice fresh contrast.
I didn’t feel like nuts or nut butter or bananas this morning, and this oatmeal was fine, but did feel a little less substantial than my other oatmeal breakfasts. Maybe I’ll eat a banana later today. 
