Looks Good Enough to Eat

We purchase/cook/consume enough oats at the Smith Haus to choke a horse. Okay, so that may not the best idiom selection since horses actually eat oats, but I suppose a horse could get choked if it ate too many oats too quickly. I am not horsing around when I say that our family consumes a LOT of oats. At least we are not sowing any wild oats, or feeling one's oats; we are ingesting 'em. Our family devours oats in the form of homemade granola, bread, waffles, cookies, and ho-hum-eat-it-every-morning-of-the-week porridge. Plain rolled oats are tasty right out of the box, too.

It's a good thing that Costco stocks mass quantities of this old fashioned rolled goodness. We also enjoy steel-cut oats, but since preparation takes 30+ minutes, they are more of a weekend treat. With all of the cholesterol-lowering grains that are consumed 'round here, our total cholesterol & LDL numbers should be at the right level.

We prepare our morning oatmeal with any milk other than cow's milk -- Soy, Almond, Coconut, Rice, or a combination of any of these. Over time, we have come up with a "recipe" of roughly 50% milk to 50% water. No salt. A dash of vanilla extract, the pure stuff, not the artificial flavoring kind, creates the perfect gruel. Adding flax seed to the mix is yet another option. The oatmeal may appear bland & colorless, but it is oh, so "colorful" in flavor, with or without any tasty topper add-ons. 

To keep boredom from creeping into our breakfast bowl, we mix it up as to what we put on top of our favorite soluble fiber. The photo above is a new favorite topper. Looks like ordinary nuts & raisins, huh? Not so. These walnuts have a homemade honey glazing. They can stand alone or are most excellent when paired up with Sun-Maid Mixed Jumbo Raisins. This type of raisin may cost a bit more, but it is well worth the added expense. YUM!

That ho-hum dish of plain oatmeal becomes an oatmeal sundae, of sorts. Other favorite "sundae" toppings include fresh or frozen fruit, chopped dates, dried blueberries or any dried fruit, granola, yogurt, brown sugar, pure maple syrup, pecans, honey, agave nectar, chocolate chips, pecans, Nutella, peanut butter, almond butter, sunflower seed butter, Smuckers Simply Fruit, cinnamon, a dollop of whipped cream, and a cherry on top! The list of options goes on and on. There is a delicate balance of not adding too much of a good thing or too many different toppings at once --  it has to be just the right amount to enhance the flavor of the 'meal, yet not overwhelm it. Send me any ideas for toppings that you think we should try. (No gummy bears, please & thank you.)

Mr. Smith and I really look forward to our morning mush; the options are seemingly limitless as to how to dress up our oatmeal.  We have even been known to eat our oatmeal naked -- the oatmeal is naked, not us! Although I might be on to something there...   Food for thought?