I made the kids oatmeal this morning for breakfast. I made real oatmeal instead of the instant packets. I knew it would take some fixing up to make them like it. I stirred in our delicious raspberry jam until I could see lots of it in the bowl even after I stirred it up and hoped for the best. I did not taste test it because, well, there is no amount of anything in the world that is good enough for me to want to eat it.
My mom made oatmeal for us when I was in first grade. She made me finish my bowl. That only lasted a few days because every single day I had oatmeal for breakfast I was quite late to school. What can I say, it tasted HORRIBLE. It’s just not my thing. Everyone has their food they can’t eat. Oatmeal is mine. The very texture of it in my mouth actually initiates the natural gag reflex inside my throat. I HATE oatmeal. My grandma lived to be nearly 100 years old and always told me it was because she ate oatmeal every single day for breakfast (of course when I lived with her in college my cousin Rick introduced her to Cocoa Pebbles and she got a bit addicted so I think she had about a 6 month oatmeal break). I concluded that if it took literal torture daily, I just wasn’t interested in living that long.
In any case, I made oatmeal for my kids. And despite loving Quaker Flavored Instant Oatmeal Packets, they wouldn’t eat it. I broke out the raisins and mounded in a plentiful amount so they would have a few in every single bite. They still hated it. There was nothing I could do to make it better. We don’t have brown sugar yet so I put that on the shopping list. In the end they ate Special K with Cookie Crisp mixed in. And I ate the oatmeal. All of it. It was hard, but I did manage to choke it all down. Too bad I hate raisins too.
If you have ANY advice on how to make regular oatmeal taste good to my kids, I’m all ears. It’ll be loads cheaper to feed them that than continue on this $10/box cereal kick we’ve been on since we arrived. What do you do at your house?
4 comments:
Brown sugar works for my kids, but you might have to add chocolate chips to make your kids happy:)
we put apples in ours (you peel and cut them up in bite size pieces) and drop them in with the oats so they cook at the same time. They cook nicely and add a sweet flavor. We add vanilla, brown sugar, cinnamon, and apples and then top it off with whipped cream (I put sliced almonds in mine too...but the kids don't like that). It's actually super yummy! Try steel cut oatmeal instead of regular. The oats are heartier and don't get so mushy.
good luck!
I don't have advice for here and now, but stick with it. I instituted "Thursday Oatmeal days" when we were in Virginia, and now, after 3+ years, the kids eat it! They're not thrilled, but they eat it. :) Brown sugar and cinnamon helps the medicine, er, I mean the oatmeal go down at our house, and lots of it. :)
I'm with Cori. One easy way to make oatmeal is the following:
Put a 1:(almost 2) ratio of oatmeal to milk in a large-ish ceramic (read: microwave proof) bowl. Cook for 6-7 minutes on 50% power. If you want, add the raisins and/or apples at this time. Add all the fun stuff Cori said. Enjoy.
When I was growing up, my mom made oatmeal al dente--yes, she'd boil the water (not milk!) and then add the oatmeal. No wonder I hated it!!! It wasn't creamy or anything. Perhaps this is what you would prefer? my mom can't stand the creamy stuff. I can't stand hers...(oh, and that method doesn't leave a difficult pot to wash...)
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