Oatmeal is one of those basic foods that can be so versatile. I eat it for breakfast every day. I can use it to make everything from cookies to granola to meatloaf. It even makes a great baby food!
When X was little, I never bothered to buy baby rice cereal or any of that. I would make him oatmeal. At first, I mixed it with breast milk for him to make it more palatable. As he grew accustomed to the taste, I started to mix it with unsweetened applesauce. He loved the stuff. For six months to a year, he ate it all the time.
Amusingly enough, he now stares at my oatmeal with disdain. He won’t touch the stuff with a ten foot pole. He is no longer a baby and will not eat BABY FOOD. I find it amusing, in a sad wistful way. Jillian used to eat it, too. Lately, she has shown no appetite for it. They both prefer boxed cereals with more sweetness nowadays.
Every one I know seems to eat it differently, if they eat it at all. These days, I prefer instant oats to old fashioned. It’s less dishes to clean up when there’s only one of us eating the oatmeal. My in laws make the old fashioned oats in the pan and add things like raisins. Personally, I’m not fond of raisins, so I skip that. I have to admit, I like the sweetness…even when I fix plain oats in the pot, I end up adding some kind of fruit or something to make it sweeter. The great thing about oatmeal is that it’s very versatile. It can suit all sorts of tastes.
