This.
Although quality actual oatmeal is just fine by me. I prefer some milk in in though.
First, you don’t want just plain oatmeal. You want a multigrain hot cereal that has soluble and non-soluble fiber. You want Quaker Multigrain Hot Cereal (linked here). Healthier and more flavorful. (And its the kind you can nuke in the microwave for a few minutes.)
Next, some fruit. Raisins are great if they’re not completely dried out into some sort of fruit jerky. You want 'em plump. I recommend Dole raisins. If that doesn’t make it sweet enough, then some honey or real maple syrup or a non-caloric sugar substitute. In place of raisins, you can run some apple slices through a processor to finely chop or mince it and then add in some honey to keep it from browning. Keep in fridge and add to your hot cereal.
Next skim milk and flax seed oil. Why? You’re replacing milk fat with essential fatty acids. Not only do you need EFAs (because your body can’t make them on its own), but the flax oil adds a nutty overtone of taste; and, every meal should have a balance of fiber, protein, carbs, and fats.
And some cinnamon.
I pan fry my oats in olive oil, and add a little Splenda, cinnamon, and salt. I eat it several times a week for breakfast. No water or other liquids needed.
I like to mix in a splash of milk for texture, add in any fruit I have on hand, and then put a spoonful of peanut butter on top. Not mixed in mind you, that just makes the whole thing too thick and kills most of the peanut butter flavor.
I add in a lot of milk (so it seems like a soup), bananas, blueberries, honey, maplesyrup, and sometimes vanilla.
I never cook it.
A half-cup of plain yogurt, enough uncooked oatmeal to make it stiff, sunflower seeds, chopped walnuts, flax seed, diced fruit, a sprinkle of brown sugar = muesli.
Bourbon.
Cinnamon and bananas with a bit of peanut butter. And I make it with milk, not water. I made it with water once and I could barely choke it down.
I’ll have to try the vanilla and brown sugar. Sounds yummy!
Raisins.
For an extra kick, soak them in rum for a week or two beforehand. Not sure if that counts as healthy though :dubious:
Usually it’s cinnamon, walnuts, and dried cranberries. A few times I’ve toasted the oats in coconut oil first, then cooked with a bit of cinnamon, and added sliced bananas at the end and toasted pecans. Always use steel-cut oats!
Nutella and dried sour cherries is good too, but may defeat your purpose.
Don’t have oatmeal often, but when I do, I add lots and lots of brown sugar.
Steel cut is the only way.
Once a week I make a large pot of it, store it in the fridge. Every morning I put about 1/2 cup worth of cold oatmeal in a bowl, top it with approx 4 tablespoons of plain greek yogurt, add a handful of fresh blueberries or any other berry and top with a tablespoon of chopped walnuts.
Or I take some cold oatmeal, chop it up a little (tends to glob up when cold), add milk, sweetener and some cinnamon and eat like a cold cereal.
I’m not a big fan of hot oatmeal I guess.
Greek yogurt, blueberries and walnuts. My usual go to breakfast is a as much dry oat bran as I can reasonably stand mixed in Greek yogurt with walnuts and blueberries, fresh if in season and frozen otherwise. If eating oatmeal for its own sake, I second steel cut.
I keep a large container of ‘evolving’ hot cereal mix in the fridge; its base is equal parts of oatmeal and corn meal, as well as mini-wheats (or couscous if you can find it cheaply) and ground flaxseed. Sometimes I’ll grind up a few cups of brown rice or barley in the coffee grinder and add that for thickening. I also add Cocoa Krispies once in awhile. Dried fruit is a must and coconut is pretty cheap.
I keep it evolving by adding bits of things too big to waste, too small to store on their own; bread crusts, crumbs from cake or muffins, cornbread and the like. Stirring in either cinnamon or no-sugar-added jam when it’s hot is also yummy.
Brown sugar, cinnamon, and a splash of milk. Sometimes I’ll have it for dinner, it’s so good.
I hated oatmeal for a long time since the only kind I ever had was the Quaker instant microwave gruel my mom made me eat growing up.
Trying a nice proper steel-cut oatmeal was a bit of a revelation - there’s so much more flavor depth.
I’m not big on sweet anything, and that includes fruit. So my go to is a little bit of butter, salt and pepper. Delicious.
Yeah, steel cut is the only way to go. It makes it more chewy. Like softened grape nuts. And my local market has it for just sixty cents a pound.
Yeah, the iron-cut and bronze-cut is just… primitive.
I find regular oatmeal unbearably bland, so I stir in a packet of diet hot chocolate mix. It’s only 25 calories, but it still gives the oatmeal a pretty good amount of flavor.