Fancy up your oatmeal

Oatmeal is one of my favourite breakfasts on a cold morning. It’s fast and easy and tasty and since our weather isn’t warming up yet it’s perfect to keep me going until it does.

I make mine in the microwave - 1/3 cup of rolled oats and 2/3 cup of water, mix in a large bowl and microwave for 1 1/2 minutes. The bowl has to be much bigger then you think because in the cooking process the oatmeal grows - a lot - it’s fun to watch but a pain to clean up if it overflows.

You can eat it as is when you take out of the microwave - well with a little brown sugar and milk to sweeten and soften it up; or you can fancy it up.

The top photo is apple pecan oatmeal. Put the cut up apples in the oatmeal before cooking so they soften and a sprinkle of cinnamon and nutmeg, you will have to microwave a bit longer - like 2 mins instead of 1 1/2. Then add your brown sugar, a bit of milk and some chopped pecans.

A super easy way to fancy up your oatmeal is to add jam to your sweeten oatmeal - or here I used home-made cranberry sauce. It’s yummy and tangy.

And one of my favourite thing to add is banana and walnuts. Add a little cinnamon to the oatmeal before cooking and add the bananas and walnut when it’s cooked (brown sugar and milk also of course)

I’ve also tried peaches with cinnamon and nuts - so tasty. Dried cranberry are also good - you can put them in before cooking to plump them up. And blueberries after cooked with nuts are awesome too.

So instead of buying fancy oatmeal at Tim Hortons or McDonalds - make your own - it’s easy and quick to make and cheap.

Do you have any fun toppings you’ve tried?