New ideas for oatmeal

My kiddos get oatmeal for breakfast about 4 times a week...I dump a half-cup of old-fashioned oats in a bowl, add water and a sprinkling of cinnamon. After about 2.5 min in the microwave, I stir in unsweetened applesauce and a bit of brown sugar. If it is too hot or sticky, I will add a splash of milk.

I would really like some new ideas because they are starting to refuse it :unknw: Sometimes I stir in raisins and they really like that because they get to "hunt" for them, but I would like some new, fun ideas for stir-ins.

Suggestions? Thanks

 

I hate oatmeal...lol...But I have a friend who has some every.single.morning for breakfast. She stirs in a teaspoon of peanut butter. HTH!

 

I hate the stuff as well, but love, love, LOVE, oatmeal pancakes. Let me know if you are interested, I will send the recipe. I make large batches, freeze, and take out when needed. If you are looking for ways to modify regular oatmeal, I would say try adding different fresh fruit, dried fruit, and/or yogurt. Or you could just give them an oatmeal cookie . There are some good oatmeal-based muffins if you are into baking.

 

Me too! :bad: :laughing:

DH likes milk, butter, and brown sugar in his oatmeal. You could add in any kind of dried fruit (apples, bananas, craisins, etc.) when you put the water in the bowl and let the microwave soften them up. You could also do fresh fruit either heated (like apples or pears) or cold (bananas, strawberries, blueberries), or just add jam.

Or if you wanted to get super decadent, you could add butterscotch chips or maple syrup!!

 

You could try to stir in some yogurt in it maybe? I don't know, I'd be tired of having the same stuff for breakfast all the time too, lol.

 

Fruits - bananas, strawberries, blueberries, peaches, cranberries, raspberries, dried fruits like apricots and apples, dates

maple syrup
jelly/jam
peanut butter
honey
nutella
chocolate chips/peanut butter chips

My favorite oatmeal:

#1 - cinnamon, nutmeg bananas, brown sugar, and orange zest

#2 - (this cooks in the crockpot overnight) but basically 2 cups of steel cut oatmeal, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, water, a cup of dried fruit, in the morning add 2/3 cup of half and half and 1/3 cup of butter.

 

Mine like vanilla low fat yogurt mixed in with some cheerios for crunch. I also hate oatmeal :bad: but I won't tell my girls that :laughing:

 

Not the healthiest of choices, but you could sprinkle some sprinkles on top.

 

We do yogurt as well.

 

I soak ours the night before in frozen strawberries and milk or yogurt. Let it sit in the fridge overnight. I do individual servings so I don't even have to scoop out bowls in the am. Serve cold in the summer, heat in the winter.

It is really good if you have sweetened strawberries left over from a party. :ibiggrin: Sometimes I accidentally on purpose sweeten too many just for the leftovers. Any fruit (except kiwi and pineapple so far) work but strawberries have been the favorite.


I also love to mix it with leftover apple crisp. Essentially a few baked apple bits with brown sugar and butter crisped up added to a few cups of raw oats and milk. Delish. We eat that as a snack quite often in the fall. I'll make two apple crisps. One for us to eat and the other I'll freeze in little 1/2 C batches to use through out the winter in oatmeal.

There is also a blog called kath eats real food (KERF?)where she does a lot with oatmeal. Most of it doesn't appeal to me but I remember her having a zillion combinations.

 

Thanks everybody! I am sure my kids would thank you even more

 

We drink our oatmeal! I make oatmeal atole and add pumpkin pie spice to it. This is a nice warm addition to a morning fruit and yogurt salad.

 

well... not that you'll do this, but I'm sure if my kids had any one of the suggestions above they wouldn't eat what I serve them again either! (I make 1/2 cooked oatmeal and then mix in this other cooked cereal which has millet, quinoa, barley, amaranth, lentils and who knows what else in it! I don't add any sweetness to it and they gobble it up! I'm totally delaying all the yummy sweet things for these kids!)

the soaking it the night before in the strawberries sounds great!!