Oatmeal

Once, when I was a wee girl of 10 or so, my mother decided that homemade oatmeal would be a good choice for me for breakfast. But since I was the one getting myself up and ready for school, it was left for me to make my own.

And I haven't always been the HofUK, either. One evidently important piece of info that I was lacking was the proper water to oat ratio. Usually I was left with a gooey, glooey, grey-ey lumpy glob. But something I had learned at the time was

You don't Waste Food!

My parent were notoriously bad with money, and if there was food, by God you ate it, didn't matter if it tasted good or not. So I would choke down that oatmeal. I wish I'd known that if I'd only drank some water before or after my tummy wouldn't have ached so much.

By now eating oatmeal can be a form of punishment for me. I'm too cheap to buy the packs of instant, and they have waaaay more sugar than I want my kids to eat in the morning, so I buy the big tub of Quaker Oats. I put it in the microwave with more water than it says to add, and then put a big spoon of brown sugar with some cinnamon. And then sometimes I can stand it. But even if it doesn't taste good I still eat it, because

You Don't Waste Food.

I saw Alton Brown on Good Eats talking about the best way to make oatmeal. He said make it with heavy cream in a Crock pot-and let it sit all night. I just don't see me doing that.
For one thing- making oatmeal with heavy cream seems like it would negate all the cholesterol-snagging properties inherent in the cereal. If I remember correctly, oatmeal sort of traps the ooey stuff and pushes it along the old digestive track.
Also- I wouldn't have the wherewithal to set that bad boy up before retiring to bed. I can't even make my lunch the night before, How can I set up a Crock pot? And if I did go to all that trouble, I'd have to make a big pot of it, and it would probably just be me making it. And then I'd eat it all because (say it with me)

You Don't Waste Food.

Guess I'll just stick with my shredded wheat.