Oatmeal for breakfast can be somewhat... mundane. So when I fix oatmeal for SWMBO's breakfast, I fancy it up a bit with 10 ingredients (including the oatmeal) and it becomes a bit less commonplace.

From left to right, back to front, there is rice milk (she is gluten intolerant), maple syrup, cinnamon, sugar, a chocolate-flavored vitamin powder, honey, water (of course!), raisins, the oatmeal, and some chocolate puffed rice added as a garnishment just before serving.

Since it takes about five minutes for the oatmeal to cook, it takes no more time to do it this "fancy" way than just boiling and serving plain [ugh!] oatmeal, since I start cooking the oatmeal and water and then collect, add, and put away the other ingredients one at a time while the oatmeal is cooking.

Put equal quantities (by volume) of oatmeal and water plus an extra 1/4 cup of water in the pan (1-1/2 cups of oatmeal is about right for two people). Then as it is cooking put in a big dollop of the maple syrup, about a teaspoon of cinnamon, just a sprinkle of sugar, a tablespoon of the chocolate powder, a tablespoon of honey, and a small handful of raisins. Cook until the consistency is "gluey", divide into equal portions*, add maybe an eighth cup of milk to cool it down, then garnish on top with the chocolate rice puffs, and you're ready to go with a simple easy, fat-free, and inexpensive breakfast that tastes pretty good.

tanstaafl.

*You don't have to be as anal as I am when it comes to apportioning the results... but I get a kick out of it. SWMBO has a Weight Watchers gram scale. I weigh each bowl to the nearest whole gram, then adjust the laden bowls to match, of course compensating for the difference in the bowls' weight when they were empty. Lest you think I am totally OCD, I offer the rationalization that I only equalize them +/- 5 grams.

My morning porridge routine is a little more straight forward:

- put bowl on scales
- add 27g of Quaker oats
- add 150g of milk
- microwave for 2 minutes 20 seconds

Add a spoonful of marmalade if I'm feeling adventurous

I don't make oatmeal very often, but when I do I use the "steel cut" oats and do it overnight in a slow cooker (just water and oats, nothing else). This yields creamy goodness, to which I then add assorted dried fruit and brown sugar in the morning.

I add chopped dried apricots and walnuts to mine. Raisins are good too, so is jam

I need to have porridge more often. The breakfast sandwich, µwaved egg, ham/turkey, cheese on wholewheat toast, I had this morning didn't last till lunch.

Porridge not only reduces cholesterol but also reduces worksite accidents

For what it's worth, I've never had a "gluey" oatmeal that I would consider gourmet, but when using rolled oats, "gluey" is rather hard to avoid.

If you want gourmet, give some of these recipes a try.

That's not to say I'd turn up my nose at eating your version.