One serving:
- 200-250 ml or 6-9 oz milk (depending on final thickness preference)
- 30 g or 1 oz oats or quick oats (or any other grain flakes)
- 1 pinch of salt
- 1 tablespoon of sugar
- Additions:
- fresh fruit, dried fruit, seeds, nuts, cinnamon, vanilla, gingerbread spice …
The process is so easy it should not be a problem to incorporate it into your busy morning routine. Hopefully. The word busy covers a whole terrifying scale of… busy, right?
Simply put the basics together and cook it. Do not underestimate the heat, as the bowl is annoyingly hard to clean if you burn this. You can start on middle or high heat but lower it as soon as the milk starts steaming. The time until you are ready to eat depends on the number of servings you have in the bowl. For one serving, cooking takes usually 3-4 minutes. For more people, it will take a bit longer. Just watch the thickness. One more thing you can do to lower your morning stress level is chilling. The oats, obviously. If you can remember, mix the basics together in the evening and let it rest in your fridge. Soaking the dry ingredients lowers the cooking time.
If you choose to add spices, seeds, or dried fruit, add them to the mixture before cooking. Depending on the amount of dried fruit, you may want to increase the amount of liquid a bit. And possibly not include sugar as the fruit will flavor the mix.
Once on the plate, you can toss in fresh fruit and nuts of your choice, sprinkle with cocoa or chocolate, add some butter to melt and brighten your day even more… any other ideas? Let us know in the comments!
You can experiment with different grains and use this recipe. Substituting just a part of the 30 g amount of grains works great as well. My favorite mixture is 20 g of oats and 10 g of buckwheat flakes.
There is also one more option. Mornings are tough and make people nervous. You can resort to violence and use a blender. Create a smooth, flakes-free mixture from the basic ingredients and some seeds if you wish to add them. Flax seeds give the mixed oatmeal a really nice flavor, for example. Then proceed as usual. This loud and disturbing act will secure you a wonderfully smooth breakfast portion. It is a nice change from the typical oatmeal lumpy structure.
Tip for cleaning:
In a case you were too sleepy and burnt the oatmeal, do not try to scratch the brown (ouch, or even black) layer that is firmly attached to the bowl’s bottom. Clean the bowl in a cold water. Use your hand or something that won’t allow the oatmeal remains to attach to it forever and create an even more disgusting abomination than the burnt bowl. Pour in enough water to cover the needed area and let it rest for a few hours until the layer gets soaked and willingly says goodbye to the bowl. Now you can scratch it without force and damage to your nerves and the bowl itself. You can also pour in boiling water to speed up this parting process.
Glenn's Nest 