Porridge/Oatmeal

Prompted by a discussion I was just having in another thread I was interested to make a new thread. Basically, you Americans, I never realised it, but you have the WEIRDEST stuff on your "oatmeal". Cheesy oatmeal!? What is that about?! You talk about adding cinnamon and apples and all sorts of odd things. The only thing I have ever added to porridge is chocolate, and I once bought a pack of flavoured ready brek which had a strawberry and a vanilla one. To me, porridge is done the Scottish way. You get your oats, add just water, milk if you're not calorie conscious, and then cook it on the hob for 6 minutes, then you have it with sugar sprinkled on top, splenda if you're me!

What I want to know is what on earth you guys put in your porridge? I have heard some weird ones before, go on! What's your weirdest?!

Once I put pumpkin and apples...at the same time...*looks around sheepishly*

Yeah, I've had real porridge, I think it's a lot better than American but then again you can load whatever crap you want into ours and not get dirty looks.

Pumpkin is good.  Butterscotch chips, too-- they get all melted, and delicious.  Now I don't have any, though (living at school, don't really keep a bag handy), so it's just the normal splenda and cinnamon.  Sugar-free syrups (mint, chocolate, raspberry) have also found their ways into my oatmeal.  ;)

I put whipped cream on it occasionally :)  And often cinnamon, though that's not really weird, maybe a little honey if it is not sweetened.

I've never heard of cheese though..... that's a little weird :P

I love putting pumpkin with pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon and sf maple syrup, diced apple, almonds, go lean crunch, whatever may taste good.

i usually have salt... Thinking some shredded cheese would be good though...

rastnim, youre right i was shocked when i heard what americans do to a good old bowl of porridge! I thought i was being interesting by occassionally making it with chocolate soya milk as a treat or sprinkling it with rasberries, or dried fruit. I know if you go to Eat they make porridge and top it with cherry compote or bananas and maple, but i dont like theirs as its made with milk and i only drink soya.

Pumpkin on porridge? thats just weird, but then i guess actually eating pumpkin is kind of weird anyway, i just thought you made latterns out of them at halloween!

Salt and cheese? This is porridge not pasta, how confused are americans? (love you all really)

I know. I used to think I was pretty wild for mixing stuff like fruit and fibre in with it. I like it best of all made with water and salt - that's the Scottish way, isn't it? Simple and delicious! The only other way I used to eat it is with jam ... mostly when I was about six, but that was a major treat. I mean, whipped cream ... on porridge? I cannot think of a worse combination! I have recently started adding other things to it, though ... I think I've been Americanised by sites like this ;-).

Cinnamon and apples is my favorite on oatmeal! I never considered it weird in the slightest. It's actually very good, you should try it. :-)

I do like peanut butter in oatmeal though which I guess is slightly weird. But I just like to experiment because just oatmeal, water, and brown sugar, every day would get really boring...

Apple and cinnamon i understand. Kids may have honey or jam on theirs but seriously there are some very creative/weird porridge eaters out there

I have never put salt or cheese on my oatmeal!!  YUK!

Dried figs or prunes, cinnamon and nutmeg, ground flax seed and blueberries.

And only steel cut oats cooked in water for 20 minutes! 

Oatmeal is almost universally eaten sweet.  Grits (call it "corn porridge") get the weird toppings - cheese, salsa, tabasco, gravy - you name it.  The only thing that's considered really weird on grits is sugar.

Hello, my name is "J," and I'm weird.   I don't see what in the world is so wrong or weird about whatever anybody puts in or on their food if they're the one who's planning on eating it.    Note, I'm overusing smilies, because I'm joking here, not trying to start anything or put anybody on the defensive over a bowl of oatmeal for goodness sakes.  LOL. 

I have put anything and everything into my oatmeal.  In fact, I consider it a personal challenge and FUN to come up with new, exciting, and delicious ways to dress up my oatmeal, a food I love and which, BTW, I can and do also eat PLAIN.    It's just not as interesting, plus I'm a "texture" fanatic, and I also love crunch in there.

This morning, I had baked oatmeal (Thanks, ratinhat!).  I put cinnamon, brown sugar, and 1/2 oz chopped pecans in there (along with the other ingred. except for Splenda per ratinhat's recipe) and a bunch of frozen peaches that I diced up.  I baked it and when it was done, I stirred in a 6-oz cup of vanilla Yo-Plus yogurt.   It was DELICIOUS.  I was going for (healthy) peach cobbler, and it was close.  Not there yet, but there is always tomorrow morning when I look forward to tweaking the recipe, and the morning after that when I'm planning to make "blueberry cobbler."  Hehe. 

I also love Scottish oats, or steel cut oats, just cooked with water, but I cook mine for 30 minutes.  It is during that last 10 minutes of cooking that the "creaminess" develops, which is so incredibly amazing, it's unbelievable.  I cook this up in 4- or 5-serving batches when I have the time and reheat each individual serving 2 mins in the micro.

I put sugar and butter in my grits (my favorite), or at least I did back when I ate them.  I don't really any more because I now consider them too much a bit of empty calories, too many carbs, and not enough bang for my buck.  I've also put minced ham and shredded cheddar in them, too, and that is also delicious.  I'm sure cinnamon, sugar, and a bit of butter would be great, too.  Or, ahem, anything anybody likes that they WANT to put in there. 

Heck, oatmeal is so good for you, and breakfast is so good for you, and it's now getting so hard to get out of a warm bed in the morning, get creative, look forward to breakfast whenever and however you can!  :-)

butter and real maple syrup (not log cabin or mrs. butterworth), some chopped pecans or almonds if I have them, and a little milk or cream and it's oh so yummy

Or ripe banana and brown sugar, gotta have the cream or milk

i put peanut butter in my oatmeal once and it actually made me feel sick. :(

I'm sure each group of people do eat what seems weird (overdoing it more than actually strange) to others. Americans and Canadians will try everything with peanut butter or ketchup.  My daughter went to South America for a month first thing she had to have coming home was Tim Hortons for a real coffee while changing planes. She did wait till she got home for the peanut butter.

Oh, jcbdmt, I'm so glad to hear that you tried my baked oatmeal recipe, and that it turned out well!  Told you it was delicious.

Hehe, I've made it 4 times already!  It IS delicious!  And it really DOES taste like a cross between granola/trail mix and an oatmeal cookie.  I'm lovin' it.  :-)

Not so weird, but if it's old-fashioned oats, I use one of the following combinations:

-mashed banana, splenda, and a tbsp of natural pb

-mashed banana and a tbsp of low-sugar strawberry preserves

-brown sugar and raisins

-my favorite =  natural applesauce, cinnamon, splenda (200 calories and it's so good!)

I had a giant list of it and tested them on my blog.
I added orange juice once. It was nice. And raisins
I did pumpkin once and it was horrible! It was sweet but the pumpkin make it taste like it needed to be savoury. Ugh
Splenda lemon juice and a little extra-light cream cheese with raspberries makes its sooo good its like dessert.
Bananas and brown sugar
Apples and cinnimon YES
peaches and cinnamon (on top
yogurt of cottage cheese on top
Cottage cheese, splenda nad blueberries stirred in after the oatmeal is cooked, and then heated until cheese is gooey

asparagus.

Yes, i put it there:)) it was delicious. My favourite