How Do You Eat Your Oatmeal?

Ok, so I’m not a big “fashion” person, but my husband had some frequent flyer miles that were going to expire so they offered him some magazine subscriptions in place of them so that he wouldn’t lose them and wind up with nothing.  My husband isn’t much of a reader at all so he told me just to choose what I wanted.  The selections weren’t necessarily geared toward my tastes, but one of the magazines I chose was Cosmopolitan.  I do find that they have some interesting reading in there.  I received my Cosmopolitan the other day and they had a small little blurb at the bottom of one of the pages that had 4 different ways to “build a better… bowl of oatmeal”.  I looked at what they had on there and I was kind of taken aback that I had never really thought of playing around with my oatmeal in this way, ha ha!  I mean, I’ve fixed my oatmeal in what I consider the “traditional” way… at least traditional to my family while growing up (butter, sugar, and a touch of milk to make it creamy).  I’ve even gone as far as putting brown sugar in it and even cinnamon from time to time.  I’ve tried the dehydrated flavored oatmeals and I just don’t love them so I usually just pass on them.  The only one of that type that I even remotely like the taste of is maple and brown sugar.  This article by Cosmo had 4 suggestions that I will share with you now…

Banana Bread

• Add half a banana, sliced

• 1 Tbsp semisweet chocolate chips

• 1 Tbsp chopped, toasted walnuts

• 1/4 tsp cinnamon

PB&J

• 1 Tbsp natural peanut butter

• 1/2 cup fresh or thawed frozen strawberries

Apple Cobbler

• 1 apple chopped into bite-size pieces (add half when cooking the oatmeal and reserve half for after it’s finished cooking)

• 1/4 tsp cinnamon (add to oatmeal while cooking)

• 1 Tbsp toasted, chopped pecans

• 2 tsp maple syrup

Savory

• 1/4 cup cheddar cheese (they suggest reduced-fat, but I don’t care for that… you choose!)

• 1 Tbsp diced green onions

• Top with one poached or pan-fried egg

These ideas are all compliments of Cosmopolitan Magazine, but it really got me to thinking!  I began to wonder about all the other things you could possibly do to oatmeal to make it even more delicious!  I plan on trying these suggestions in the very near future, but wondered if any of you had any ideas or suggestions such as these for oatmeal?  I think I’m missing out on a whole new realm of oatmeal!  So, back to my original question…. how do you eat your oatmeal??