Oatmeal. Liberated.

I never really could warm up to the childhood tradition of oatmeal drowned in milk and brown sugar.  Even worse was packets of instant oatmeal, which are nothing but slimy.  Nothankyouverykindly, goodsir.

It reminds me of Oliver, except in reverse.  Please, sir, may I not have another?   

We all know we should eat oats, because they're crammed with ridiculous amounts of nutrition we all need.  Oats are a magical grain. 

Horses everywhere are nodding in agreement.

But how do we get past the gruel factor... and the slime...? 

It turns out there's a whole world of oatmeal out there.  A million types, cooking methods, and toppings.  It takes two minutes to make, it's totally customizable, and it's great on-the-go food.  You probably already knew that, and I'm probably the last one to this whole liberated oatmeal party.  You're so much cooler than I am.

But now that I'm here, at the oatmeal party, I can tell you I like my oatmeal thick and textured, nutty and sweetened only by fruit.  It's my oatmeal avatar.

The catalyst for my oat-freeing epiphany was Kath Eats Real Food, where Kath Younger posts amazing pictures of a million variations of oatmeal, along with some awesome recipes. Kath eats it cooked, raw, stirred with banana, topped with fruit, granola, cereal, nut butters, crumbled muffins....

Oatmeal.  It's what's for breakfast.

My favorite oatmeal:

1/2 c oats

2/3 c skim milk (add more if you want it thinner)

Microwave for 1 minute, then stir in:

1-2 T raw oats (for better texture than all cooked.  No slime!)

1/2 banana, chopped

1 scant T peanut butter

1 T flax seeds

1 T raisins

Put in a mug to eat at stoplights on the way to work (in between talking to the toddler in the back seat), or share a bowl with your favorite small person.  Small people like oatmeal, too.  Seriously.