A few months ago my doctor told me that I needed to make dietary changes and suggested my eating, not only breakfast, but oatmeal for breakfast as often as possible. Since there is no point to oatmeal if one cannot put brown sugar and milk in it it took me a while to adjust the basic recipe to my liking, which basically is now oatmeal cooked as discussed below with an apple grated into it and some powdered flaxseed stirred in before eating. Kind of boring, but healthy.
Today it is raining, and has been heavily since last night and, though my lawn is neon green from all the extra hydration, everything else -- including me -- is a bit gray and gloomy. I had my oatmeal ready to cook, and I had my apple, but decided that I needed a bit of a treat today.
You can make proper oatmeal on the stovetop, of course, but I love the ease of zapping this in the microwave. No stirring and no gloppy end result that looks like wallpaper paste.
1/3 cup rolled oats
2/3 cup water
1 organic red apple
2 tsps maple syrup
Juice from 1/2 lemon
Pinch of salt
Pinch of cinnamon
1 Tbsp of cream or 2 Tbsps of milk, if so desired
Cut the apple into chunks and place them in a skillet over medium-high heat, along with the maple syrup and the lemon juice. Cook until the oatmeal is done, swirling the apples in the pan and basting them often with the syrup to speed up the cooking process.
Combine the oatmeal, water, cinnamon and salt in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave on high for two minutes.
Remove the oatmeal microwave and stir. Top with the cooked apple pieces along with the remaining syrup in the pan, and add milk or cream.
Remove the oatmeal from the microwave and stir. Top with the cooked apple pieces along with the remaining syrup in the pan, and add milk or cream.
This is a three minute and thirty two second to the table dish.