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.