adventures in oatmeal

Since at least last December, my day has started with oatmeal. 

Sometimes it's at 6 or 7 AM. If it's later than 7 when I get on my feet, I'll go out and greet the sky and start chores before breakfast.

Sometimes my day starts at 2 or 3 AM, when I can't get back to sleep due to some sort of discomfort and finally throw in the towel and embrace the morning.

Even at 2 AM, the oatmeal is a cheering start.

Of course there's been some experimentation over the past 8 months or so. At first I owned only one bowl, my favorite handmade ceramic bowl, that was the right size for creating a bowl of porridge instead of a microwave volcano. Eventually an etsy/eBay search for a second bowl began. I was struggling to justify spending thirty dollars plus shipping for another ceramic bowl when I had the great good luck to discover a clear glass bowl that is just the right size and which I genuinely like. At a local dollar store. For $1.25. I now own eight of them. Yes, friends, I am a wealthy woman, shamelessly reveling in an abundance of bowls.

After some playing around with cooking times and added ingredients, the foundation has been: oatmeal, water, and 1/6 cup of cashew pieces. The usual additions are either milk or butter, and brown sugar. When I've got diced ginger left over after making water kefir, I add that and leave out the milk or butter. When I had a jar of Chyawanprash herbal jam from India, I added a little spoonful of that and nothing else.

When I have fresh fruit, I use less sugar:

Had to pretty much go swimming to reach these blueberries.
It was worth it!

You know that phrase people use..."I was today years old when I learned [insert simple/obvious fact here]" ?

Well I was this many oatmeal packets old when I learned that it's much better to add the sugar after cooking, not before.

Each packet held 2 pounds of rolled oats.

Initially I added the sugar before cooking, so it would be distributed throughout all the oats as the water was absorbed. Rational, right? Or did everybody but me know that porridge actually tastes sweeter when the sugar is on the oats, not in the oats? Which makes sense. Now.

Do you have a favorite morning ritual, food or otherwise?

~~~~~