Thursday, October 24, 2013

The Box It Came In Would Probably Be Tastier

One of life's best coping mechanisms is to know the difference between an inconvenience and a problem. If you break your neck, if you have nothing to eat, if your house is on fire, then you've got a problem. Everything else is an inconvenience. Life is inconvenient. Life is lumpy. A lump in the oatmeal, a lump in the throat and a lump in the breast are not the same kind of lump. One needs to learn the difference. –Robert Fulghum

I'm a big fan of hot cereal for breakfast. {Come to think of it, I'm a big fan of cold cereal too.} Cream of Wheat? Yes please. With lumps? Even yesser. I pretty much ate that for breakfast the entire 18 months I had braces. Zoom? Love that stuff. And lately I've been on an oatmeal {for breakfast} kick {see also: Coconut Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies and Applesauce Oatmeal Muffins}. I love the texture. It's comforting. It's less than 500 calories, even with sugar in it. It tastes good. It carries me through to lunch. I like that in a breakfast food.
{Image Source}

Day before yesterday, I didn't have enough oatmeal left to make my usual heart healthy serving. No problem. I popped into the pantry and pulled a box of it {can it be called a box if it is a cylinder?} off the shelf only to discover that what I bought {old-fashioned oats} was not what I brought home with me {quick cooking oats}. I hate it when that happens. But, no biggie. I mixed some of the quick cooking oats with what I had left of the old-fashioned oats and got on with it. It tasted a little funny, but it wasn't too bad. I thought that maybe it didn't have enough salt in it. Yesterday, it was all quick cooking oats. I added a tiny bit of extra salt. That wasn't the problem. I'm not sure what happens when you make oats quick cooking, but it changes the taste considerably and for the worse. The cardboard box it came in would probably be tastier.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with an entire box/cylinder of quick cooking oats. I had Cream of Wheat today. Specially made with lumps. It was a little bit stale {it might very well be left over from when I had braces, 6 years ago}. But it was still better than those quick cooking oats. Is it grocery shopping day yet?

9 comments:

Impera Magna said...

Rolled oats are light-years better than quick oats... the only reason I keep quick oats on hand is for: Chocolate No-bake Cookies, a long time family favorite. By "long time" I'm taking over 50 yrs.

Here's my recipe: http://www.food.com/recipe/mrs-mckenzies-chocolate-no-bake-cookies-235740

The cookies are more like candy than a traditional cookie but they don't last long at my house!

Jennifer Lovell said...

I eat oatmeal for breakfast every morning, too! I prefer the quick-cooking oats, and when I accidentally buy the old fashioned oats, I put them in the blender so they will cook easier. Either way though, I don't eat them unless I can mix yogurt in as my "flavoring." If I use plain yogurt, then I add a bit of jam. Sometimes chopped up fruit too. YU-UM.

(By the way, I loved your word "yesser!") :)

There's one more thing I always keep quick-cooking oats on hand for: Oatmeal No-Bake Cookies! It's my best go-to when I only have 10 minutes to prepare a pot-luck contribution. Let me know if you need my best recipes--I have two!

P.S. Thanks for sharing your post on facebook! I lost my trusty Google Reader, and don't make it to my favorite blogs as much as I used to. Love ya!

Annelise said...

One of my favorite things about your posts are the perfect little quotes you always start off with.

Jenny S. said...

Thanks for posting this on your blog. I don't know where you find your quotes but they always see to strike a chord in my heart.

Paulette said...

Cookies! Quick-cooking oats make fine oatmeal cookies. Chocolate chips make them even better.

I used to eat oatmeal every.single.day. Usually the quick variety. Ah, memories...

Sparkle Girl said...

Quick Oats as breakfast are gross. I will send you a recipe to make something else with the quick oats so you won't notice it as much.

regan said...

Yep.....we eat oatmeal (the old-fashioned kind) every morning with brown sugar and Craisins! YUM! And yeah.....the quick kind are great for cookies.....I'm headed over to see what these no-bake recipes are like! Mmmmmmm! lol

Vicki said...

Another vote for no-bake cookies!

mom said...

I to use quick oats in no bake cookies as well as regular oatmeal cookies. love them! but old fashioned oats are best for breakfast.