how do you eat oatmeal?

there is probably a post like this already, but why dont we put all our amazing oatmeal concoctions in one place?

im at this moment, enjoying this delish mush: 1/3 of a cup of oatmeal, cooked with water and a dash of salt, then when it was almost done i grated half a pink lady apple into it. then added a sprinkle of cinnamon. i then chopped the rest of the apple up to top my oatmeal with a sprinkled brown suger over it. a clasic to be sure but the texture with the cooked and raw apple is AMAZING. share your favourites!

Jess36: Do you add milk after you cook the oatmeal or you cook it with the milk? I have soy milk I usually have with cold cereals. Not sure how to cook with milk?

Ok, I know I'm weird -- but am I the only person out there who doesn't like oatmeal??  Cooked oatmeal, that is.

I'm all about textures and I guess the texture of cooked oatmeal was something I never got over.  I will, however, quite happily eat it "raw" without any liquid (Target has a great organic multigrain instant with NO salt!), or mixing it with milk -- and eating it just like any other cold cereal.  Still keeps me full.

My son eats it warm and I always just cooked it with milk the same way you would with water -- it was one of the few ways I could get the dairy into him ;-)

 safina1, just cooked it right in the soymilk and it got all creamy and delicious. then i added a splash of cold soymilk when it was in my bowl. try it! you wont be dissapointed.

I haven't been cooking oatmeal recently, I really like it just treated as cereal with some flax seeds, sliced almonds, bananas, and dates or something like that thrown in.  With milk on top it's so much more filling than regular cereal.  And.. even though this is not so diet friendly, if you add just acouple teaspoons of sugar to the milk before you pour it on, it's sooo delicioius :) 

moo:  I use about 1 level tablespoon PB to one 1/2-cup dry serving, stirred in after cooking.  It makes it very peanut buttery.  :-)  You could use less, maybe half that amount, and it would still be great, but, well, I figure if I'm putting it in there, I want to know it's in there!  I also use a couple teaspoons of jelly with the PB sometimes, not too much.  It's easy to overdo the jelly.   As far as what it tastes like, did you ever make those no-bake oatmeal/chocolate drop cookies as a kid?  If you added a bit of chocolate, it'd taste pretty much exactly like that, just less sweet, assuming you don't add any extra sweetener.

Nutella would rock in there, especially if you add a few toasted chopped nuts, just be careful since it's so sweet and strong, start small and work up until you find the amount you like.

I also make mine with vanilla or regular soymillk, cook it just like with water or regular milk, same amounts, same times.  You just have to be careful about watching the bubble-up when you use milk (yes, even soymilk) or use a gigantic bowl. 

Yeah, the dark chocolate.  I did that once or twice, too, except I melted a Ghiardelli 72% Intense Dark square into the oatmeal while hot and stirred it in.  Oooh, well.  No explanation necessary.  It's kind of weird at first, until you taste it.  :-)  I've only done it once or twice.  It'd be too easy to want to do it more, so I don't, in an attempt to try to forget how good it is.  ;-)

I'll eat it raw mixed with other stuff (like muesli but not toasted) amnd I can eat piles of it like that. I add dates, apricots, seeds, a packet of instant oatmeal (instead of sugar/spices) and mix it in a big container adn there's my muesli for a week. if its cold, i can cook it for cereal. If i want it for muesli I add some bran. Its too good I dont make it any more as I binge on it a bit >< 

...with a spoon...

I love my plain! Always made with rice milk. Sometimes add some low sugar jam, or some syrup, or dried fruit and some cinnimon. Depends how many cals i want to spend on it! 

red_herring, when you eat your oatmeal "raw" do you add milk? like cold cereal? it sounds good like that and i would be interested in trying it~

Nah, I dont do it much (as I said, binge factor) but I just eat it like people eat dry cereal. And it HAS to have something in it, like fruit/nuts. I dont like plain rolled oats! Just try it with some natural muesli first. Its a bit dry, but you get used to it. Good for weight gain (as you can eat more without feeling as full. Until you drink water, then it expands and blah!!)

Ok so I tried adding a tablespoon of nutella to my oatmeal, it's AMAZING! I cooked it in water because I wanted to save some calories for the nutella that was going in there, but while it was cooking I added about a teaspoon of vanilla extract and a lot of cinnamon. After it was done cooking I added in the nutella and stirred it all together. Then I chopped up a banana in pretty small pieces then stuck it in the microwave for 45 seconds to heat up the banana. Oh my goodness, it was fantastic! It tasted JUST like chocolate chip banana bread! For lunch today I think I'll have the exact same thing but with peanut butter and banana! MMMMM!

but now I'm considering having strawberry fat free cream cheese in my lunch oatmeal! decisions decisions!

I usually get some milk, slice up a banana, rip up an english muffin, mix in some peanut butter, then mix in some eggs and yogurt and I'm all set!  Sometimes I spoon it out on top of an english muffin and eat it that way, ohmygosh its delicious!

There are soooo many great ideas listed.  I can't wait to start tasting!!

I get up REAL early, so the night before get a tupperware and add 1 part uncooked oats, 1 part fruit (i use berries) and 1 part plain yogurt.  Mix the 3 ingredients together and let it sit over night.  The oats will absorb the yogurt and you will get a healthy quick morning meal.  I eat it cold, but I suppose you could micro it.

When I have the time, I whisk up 2 egg whites, then add to the partically cooked (in water) oatmeal and microwave until set.  The egg whites give a nice texture and ip the protein without adding a lot of calories.

My mix ins are either shopped apple and cinnamon or some plain canned pumpkin with cinnamon.  A couple of walnut halves crumbled on top is really nice!

I want try try adding some ground cardamom to the cinnamon to see if that gives it a chai taste.......

So I tried mixing in some philly fat free strawberry cream cheese and a sliced up banana. It was heavenly, lemme tell you that! But the nutella and banana still wins!

I'm a raw oats eater, too, cooked oats give me the creeps. At night I finely cut some apple or other fruit, may mash a banana for sweetness, mix lowfat yogurt in it, then add either rolled oats or steel cut oats and stick it in the fridge over night. Be careful to not add too many oats, they suck up a lot of the liquids. Sometimes I add some nuts or some flaxseed.

It's delicious the next morning. Hubby tends to complain when I'm too lazy to make it after he got it for a few days. But then perhaps it's just us weird Europeans!

lindawlek, there was a recipe in the new issue of womans health magazine for chai hot cereal, i can look for it if you like, it sounded yummy.

i'm just fond of plain old cooked oatmeal with raisins and no milk. i have it almost every morning when the school year rolls around. it's very satisfying!

my oatmeal concooction is my favorite food now!! its soooo good! i make a smoothie mixture with plain yoguart, frozen berries, banana, sometimes an orange...basically that and blend it all up and then keep it in the fridge and i pour it in a bowl with oats and a bit of harvest crunch honey flavored cereal and its pretty much the best thing ever.....dont put too much or its watery though...it looks weird but its SO GOOD

Along the lines of chocolate and banana: I simply add 1 tbsp of low-fat cocoa powder while it cooks - a lot of flavour, only 12 cals and almost 2 g of fibre! Add some mashed banana or Splenda for extra sweetnes. Really tasty!