Oatmeal...My Journey From "Eww" To "Yum!"

When I was a little girl, I remember oatmeal ("oats", or "porridge", as it was commonly referred to in India) being the most unpleasant food that one could conceive of eating - to be quite frank - an utterly disgusting breakfast that only old people ate. I turned my nose up at it. The odd thing is, I'm quite sure that as a child I only tasted it once....and I don't even have much memory of that experience, it had to be before I was six or seven years old.

The first time I ate oatmeal as an adult was three years ago, almost exactly to this day. My husband and I were getting ready for our first trip to India as a married couple, and I picked up a whole lot of Quaker instant oatmeal to take to my grandfather, who loves this stuff. While we shopped for it, my husband asked me why we never had oatmeal at home. So I gave him that "are you nuts?" look (wives, you know what I mean), and he immediately tells me that this oatmeal is actually really good, and probably nothing like the oatmeal I remembered from my childhood, and therefore had to at least try it. I'll try ANYTHING, at least once (as an adult, anyway), so I did. And, boy, was I mistaken as a kid. This was amazing! The instant stuff, apples and cinnamon or something like that. But still, delicious!

Oatmeal has become this special thing, a food that may be common to some but will always make me think of that stubborn little kid I used to be, my grandfather, and my husband...and how all these characters and memories have woven this beautiful collective experience for me. Of course, now my taste in oatmeal is entirely more "mature" and I'm proud to say that I have since developed a passable comfort-level in cooking the old fashioned, stove top variety (from scratch, mind you!) and look forward to a hearty bowl of oatmeal for breakfast fairly often. The recipe that follows is one of my most cherished ways to eat it. I would love to hear about your favorite ways to prepare and eat oatmeal!

Cranberry Walnut Oatmeal

with cinnamon and brown sugar

You will need:

1 cup old fashioned rolled oats

2 1/4 cups milk

pinch of cinnamon

pinch of salt

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 tablespoon dried cranberries

1 tablespoon chopped walnuts

Serves 2.

Warm the milk in a saucepan on medium heat until bubbles form around the edges. Add the oats and salt, and let cook on medium-low heat for seven to eight minutes, stirring constantly. Around the two minutes remaining mark, stir in cinnamon and brown sugar, and mix well to combine. Add cranberries and walnuts, remove from heat, and let sit covered for 1 minute. Serve immediately. Enjoy!