oatmeal.

my one dish meal love has apparently trickled over into breakfast foods with oatmeal love. growing up i was convinced that i hated oatmeal, figuring there was no way it would ever compare to toaster strudel and alphabits. by the time high school and college came, i was down to the perennial poptart as a means of sustenance, portable and delicious. although rose (the roomie of course!) and i still differ on which is the best flavor: i still don't know how we got any studying done with the great debate between the deliciousness of frosted strawberry or brown sugar cinnamon poptarts. anyway....as post college/adulthood set in, i started to care a little more about my appearance (everyone breathes a sigh on relief) and realized i didn't know everything (everyone breathes an even bigger sigh on relief) and gave oatmeal a real try. first with the instant variety of course, flavors like cinnamon bun were hot on my list. i clearly still didn't care much about sugar, but i could eat a delicious bowl of warm goodness that was reminiscent of the crack sweetness the cinnabon gods panhandled at the mall. a few years of that lead to the idea of rolled oats to which the above photo op proves you can't return from.

since you'll be using rolled oats without any flavor, you'll need your typical warm/comforting spices.

dashes each cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla will be added to 1 cup of milk.

 

as this warms on lowish heat for about 5 minutes, mix 1/2 cup of rolled oats with 1 tablespoon of flax seed (get in your omega/anti-oxidant fix!) and add to milk. stirring pretty constantly for about another 5 minutes.

 

while the milk warms, warm up a skillet with some non-cook spray and add sliced bananas. you should only need to warm these for about 5 minutes, they will become soft and toasty, giving a great texture and creaminess to your oatmeal then if you just added sliced bananas raw.

 

speaking of creaminess......

 

yep, good old peanut butter. at least a tablespoon of this good stuff should be dolloped right on top of your creamy nanner oats.

at this point if you're still doubting me then you really deserve that dunkin' donuts derriere.