Recent wanton extravagences

[flemmings]

1. Setting the thermostat so high I don't have to wear socks in bed.

2. 18% cereal cream in my tea.

3. Instant oatmeal. In spite of no.1 up there, these frozen mornings I want something hot for breakfast that takes no more than three minutes. Also, not being a fan of plain oatmeal, I buy the flavoured ones which are all nauseatingly oversweetened. Quaker's Mixed Berry seems to have the sugar settled to the bottom so it might be possible to down-sweeten that.

Comments

[mvrdrk.livejournal.com]

You could always make a double batch of flavored and plain and split the eating over 2 days. I don't because I find it gets mushy. I do however make my own flavors in little plastic bags or jars sometimes. It's a bit of work on one day for a week of ease during the week, and I can make flavors I like walnuts and ginger.:) Mmm, cream in tea!

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Mushy? I find leftover oatmeal becomes concrete. ^_^ It's like take-out Chinese food or pizza- marvellous when new and hot, 'how could I have eaten this?' when cold.

When you say 'your own flavours', do you mean the seasonings, or the oatmeal itself? Walnuts in oatmeal sound yum.

[mvrdrk.livejournal.com]

Ah. When you go to reheat oatmeal, you MUST add additional liquid, water or milk, and stir when heating to break up the lumps. I deliberately make leftovers for reheating the next day but not with the instant/quick cooking oats. Leftover pizza is only good if you're willing to use the oven to reheat. Leftover Chinese food is ingredients for stir fry rice. :)

By own flavors, I mean seasonings. Toasted walnuts in oatmeal is definitely yum! As are dried sour cherries, blueberries, apricots, currants, diced candy ginger, coconut, pecans, hazelnuts, macadamia. Most of all, I love that I can control how sweet it gets, because raisins are sweet enough to not need much if any additional sugar. The only thing you can't pre-assemble is liquid ingredients, they get messy. So brown or maple sugar or honey crystals, yes, maple syrup or liquid honey has to wait till you're actually cooking.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

It's the breaking up lumps part I find hard; also disgusting. I suppose properly boiled for 25 minute oatmeal is a different proposition.

Toasted walnuts in anything is yum, but I can't toast them in advance because I eat them all. So sad. That said, a savoury oatmeal might go down better than the sweet- ie with nuts and berries rather than the cloying brown sugar and cinnamon routine. Maybe will try sometime.

[mvrdrk.livejournal.com]

You can toast walnuts on a plate in the microwave. It's the only way I can control how much I eat, by toasting a set amount at a time. Depending on microwave, and how much, microwave at full power in 30 second increments till they are as toasted as you like them. It's pretty easy to burn them, which is why I do it in 30 second increments and stir between each increment.

Oh and as an experiment, oatmeal under spicy red curry isn't as good as rice under red curry, I suspect I made it too soupy.