Still Oatmeal with Scratchy

He refused to budge.

I’d just finished taking pictures for another upcoming food post.  I brought that food back into the kitchen and traded it for the three jars you see in the picture above.

When I returned to the living room, Scratchy had claimed the table.

He’s a big cat.

And when you try to force him to move…he suddenly weighs two hundred times his ordinary (over)weight.

I wasn’t in the mood to wrestle him, so I let him stay.

Here are some jars of the flavored oatmeal I put together the other day, as mentioned in yesterday’s post.

As I also mentioned, I was inspired by this post, but I changed proportions (mainly the sugar component) for my own mixtures.

I don’t like oatmeal.  Why don’t you ever make fancy food for me?  Aren’t I cute enough?

Julia and Bill have both given their nods of approval on the apple-cinnamon batch, and I am pretty confident that Alex will rave about the brown sugar batch, once he transitions from cold cereal to hot.  That’ll happen later in the season, I think.

I’m looking forward to coming up with new flavor blends.  Thinking of pumpkin pie…peanutbutter and banana….maple walnut?  Something with Nutella? 

I’m thinking something with the ocean fresh flavors of tuna and salmon would be quite tasty.  Just sayin’'….

Okay, here are my versions:

Brown Sugar Cinnamon Oatmeal

Ingredients:

4 cups quick oats, divided into 2 two-cup portions

1 cup brown sugar

4 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon salt

What to do:

Combine 2 cups oatmeal with brown sugar, cinnamon and salt in a food processor.  Pulse until oatmeal is very finely chopped. 

Pour mixture into large bowl, add remaining two cups oatmeal and mix well.  Store in airtight jar.

To prepare, combine about 1/3 cup oatmeal with 1/2 cup hot water or milk.  Add a bit more milk/water as needed to thin to preferred consistency.

Or you can do as Bill did and just pour some in a bowl, add some water, and microwave for thirty seconds or until it’s hot enough.

Too little liquid is better than too much.  You can always add more; you can’t remove it quite as easily.

Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal

Ingredients:

4 cups quick oats, divided into 2 two-cup portions

1 cup white sugar

4 teaspoons (or more) cinnamon

1 cup dried apple slices, chopped into small pieces.

What to do:

Combine 2 cups oatmeal with brown sugar, cinnamon and salt in a food processor.  Pulse until oatmeal is very finely chopped. 

Pour mixture into large bowl, add remaining two cups oatmeal and mix well.  Store in airtight jar.

To prepare, combine about 1/3 cup oatmeal with 1/2 cup hot water or milk.  Add a bit more milk/water as needed to thin to preferred consistency.

~~~

There you have it – nothing artificial in there.  Of course, sugar’s not the healthiest ingredient, either, but at least there’s nothing in there my children can’t pronounce.  I’m happy with that.

Enjoy!

For special occasions, I think a mixture of dried shrimp and crabmeat would be pretty tasty.

If only I had thumbs and could open the oatmeal container and the jars and run the food processor and use a spatula or a wooden spoon, I’d mix some up….

Sigh. 

Until then…back to my kibble.

~~~

So there you have it – my versions and Scratchy’s version.

What would you mix up?

Comments

[judith]

Mmmm, toss some dried cranberries or cherries in that!

[Ken]

What a great idea. My favorite thing with oatmeal lately (this month) is dried cherries. Of course, I've been eating dried cherries with everything, and just ordered a case of cherry concentrate from Orchard Bay to make cherry sodas with, so me mixing oatmeal with dried cherries is pretty much a no brainer. I boil water, drop in cherries, a few raisins and sometimes dried cranberries, then in a few minutes add some oatmeal. In the meantime I eat some dried cherries, which helps the waiting. I'll have to try your method here, looks like a time saver. I don't think I could handle Scratchy's versions, but can't blame the little guy for trying!

[roo]

Oh, Scratchy's version, definitely.

[Ritta]

Dried cheries add such a unique and intense flavor. Love 'em in any kind of way! Your cat is really cute, quite the photo poser :).

[Beth]

How about some shrimp for Sratchy!

[Ash]

Scratchy knows that everything is better with cats... ;D

[anon]

awwww ....! i missed the cat pictures! scratchy is gorgeous ... definitely oatmeal with onlooking cat is my favorite flavor ;)

[martina]

These are great... My mum used to make this with freeze dried peaches or pears... Seriously the best flavor.... She would add non dairy creamer instead of sugar..... For some reason it made me feel like a grown up, having creamer in my oats while she had it in her coffee!!
Thanks for the post brought back wonderful memories!!