I have lived through lean times as well as plenty. The key is to make the best of your current situation and be content. Steel cut oatmeal, anyone?
When I was first living on my own, I would sometimes scrounge around in the morning for enough change to equal $ 1.72. If I could find that much, I would do a happy dance because it meant I could afford to go out for breakfast. $ 1.72 would buy me a toasted poppy seed bagel with butter and a cup of coffee. Yes, I was really living!
On the days when I couldn’t find that much change, I would pick some loquats from the tree that hung over my back fence. No one else was eating them, so I did. I didn’t even know what they were called in those days. I only knew they were edible. Eventually my Israeli friends taught me to call them by their Hebrew name, “shesek”, so I sometimes still need a reminder in English.
Steel Cut Oatmeal
And then there was always oatmeal. It’s healthy and inexpensive and I still eat it often. Now, if your only experience with oatmeal is the instant flavored kind, please don’t say you don’t like oatmeal. If you have only eaten rolled oats, try steel cut for a change. I personally prefer their flavor and texture. Yes, it takes 25 minutes to cook them. But all you have to do is boil water, so I don’t consider that to be a problem at all.
Cooking Oatmeal
Here’s what you do: Get up out of bed. Measure a 1 to 4 ratio of oats to water. Boil the water. Put the oats in. Stir. Reduce heat to lowest simmer and go back to bed. Come back in 25 minutes or so to eat. I have a tendency to want to stir everything while it’s cooking, but I don’t even find that to be much necessary with oatmeal. Stir near the end of cooking and add whatever additional ingredients you like. Lately I like walnuts and maple syrup. I might add cinnamon, nutmeg or allspice. Fresh fruit like apples or bananas are nice. What about dried fruit? Any other kinds of nuts? Toasted or raw? Honey? Fruit jam? There are endless possibilities. You will never bother with prepared boxed cereal again.
For more on simple breakfasts from pantry staples, please read Pancakes next.
What do loquats taste like?
I love that, picking off the near by fence, so Tuscany times…:)
really living! -what a cute story! thanks for sharing.
cheers to oatmeal your way!
Sweet, juicy ,and refreshing
The get up and go back to bed part is appealing 😉 and the inexpensive part! We eat oatmeal often. Haven’t had steel cut in ages. You’ve inspired me to rotate that in again! I load mine up with fresh fruit, pumpkins seeds, walnuts or toasted almonds, raisins or cranberries. Hubs jokes that I have oatmeal somewhere in there. Thanks Karyn! xo
Cranberries! Nice! We had it with dates this morning. Delicious. They’re so sweet that it didn’t need anything else. ❤️
Hm.. I’m okay with a little “mush” if there are plenty of other things included that give it variety. My problem is I tend to be in a hurry in the morning so, even if I take the time to make steel-cut oats, I rarely end up enjoying them and just inhale them.
Instead of salting the oats, I might add just a dab of peanut butter (not the sugary, palm oil kind; just peanuts and salt). Other ingredients may also be bananas, blueberries, walnuts, cinnamon, or even a bit of cocoa powder depending on what’s already in it.
Shesek trees were growing freely in my old hometown where I grew up as a kid in Rishon lezion, this trees were yielding abundant of loquats and we used to climb them on the way back from school swinging off the tree and joking singing and stuffing our faces with the juicy mildly sour mildly sweet melon-like golden fruit that is mostly big seeds with just a very thin layer of melon, soft flesh texture we enjoyed biting it whole and shooting the seeds out of our mouth as kids as far as we could it was not just the fruit but it was the culture of growing up in a city in times where kids enjoyed playing together doing things together and climbing on various fruit trees. when we used to climb the red berry trees or blackberry trees we used to sing ode to berries when we climb the shesek trees we sang ode to Shesek. whatever trees we could forage like carob pod trees we had so much fun growing up in such a rich environment it’s not just only that the fruits are appealing to kids but it gives you so much quality time enjoying everything that the tree with the fruits offered you just make sure you clean them well because those trees may have spiders that enjoy the trees as well so share it with all god’s little creatures too, wisely.
I like A dollop of Greek yogurt for added protein boost!
Me too!
I really enjoyed your post. I agree Karyn, mushy, plain oatmeal from a packet is the worst. Not in my house. 😊 Besides, a small container of good oatmeal is very economical. My youngest son Riley loves cooking with me and has a very adventurous palate for a teenager. Cardamom is one of his favorite spices. Therefore, I add cardamom to my homemade oatmeal which he loves. I use milk not water, cardamom, cinnamon, vanilla extract and a touch of molasses towards the last few minutes for a rich caramel flavor. We top it with whatever nuts that I have on hand in the freezer, such as pecans, walnuts or cashews and then drizzle just a touch of honey for a sweet, floral note. Simple but satisfying.
Cardamom is my favorite too. Go Riley!
I also read somewhere that oatmeal besides the fiber,feeds the beneficial bacteria in your gut