Blueberry Oatmeal

I have been feeding the girls oatmeal for breakfast for probably a year now, and I've slowly been perfecting my recipe. When I first heard from my friend Tiffany that she made her kids oatmeal for breakfast, I couldn't imagine taking the time every morning to make oatmeal from scratch. I mean, it has to take longer than pouring cereal out of a box. But making oatmeal has become part of my morning ritual, something that I look forward to and wouldn't want to do without. You see, sometime between 7 and 7:30 a.m., I stumble out of bed into the girls' room. I get Naomi out of her crib and put her pajamas back on her (because her latest idea of what would be fun in bed is to take her pajamas off), and I give each girl three small graham cracker cookies. Then I tell them that I will be back when breakfast is ready, and I leave them in their room to play while I go downstairs to make our oatmeal. And for the next 15 minutes or so, while I make oatmeal, I have some time to wake up, drink a cup of hot tea, and enjoy the stillness and quiet before the craziness of the day begins.

Blueberry Oatmeal
serves 2 adults, or 1 adult and 2 small children

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of old-fashioned oats
• 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 2 cups of water
  
• 1 cup of frozen wild blueberries (I like the small size of the wild blueberries.)
• 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
  
• cinnamon, brown sugar, and raisins to taste

Instructions:

The evening before you want to have oatmeal for breakfast, put 1 cup of old-fashioned oats in a small pot. Heat 1 cup of water in the microwave until it is warm, and then add 1 Tbsp. of lemon juice to the water. Pour the water and lemon juice mixture into the pot with the oats and stir until combined. Put a lid on the pot and let it sit overnight.
You may never have heard of soaking oats overnight and wonder why I would tell you to do this. There are some health benefits, but the main reason I soak oats is that the resulting oatmeal is thicker, creamier, and so much better tasting.

In the morning, transfer the water and oat mixture to a bowl. Put 1 cup of water into the now empty pot and let it come to a simmer. Return the soaked oat mixture to the pot and stir to combine it with the simmering water. When everything comes back to a simmer, turn the heat down to medium low and let cook for 5 to 6 minutes, stirring once a minute so that the oats do not stick to the bottom of the pot. When the oat mixture has thickened and the oats are cooked, take the pot off the heat.

Put 1 cup of frozen wild blueberries in a bowl and microwave them until the berries are defrosted and warm. It is normal for some of the juices to ooze out of the berries. Pour the berries and their juices into the pot with the oatmeal. Add 1/2 cup of apple sauce and a sprinkling of cinnamon. Stir everything together until it is well mixed and then serve. I like to put a teaspoon of brown sugar on mine. The girls like me to sprinkle a few raisins on top of theirs.

The recipe makes about 3 cups of oatmeal. I give the girls 3/4 cup each, which is just 100 calories, and I eat 1 and 1/2 cups, which is about 200 calories. I figure it's about the same number of calories as a bowl of cereal with milk, and it keeps me full longer.