Hot Cereal Three Ways

I have never liked hot oatmeal. I know, I know, it's soooo good for me. But it's the texture, gooie and smooshy and not appetizing! I don't care how much honey and jelly and dried fruit and yogurt is mixed in, I don't like it. But I'm not giving up. There must be some version of hot cereal that I can enjoy eating.

I bake often with seven grain cereal and old fashion rolled oats. They are in my cupboard right now. This morning I decided to make the recipe on the back of the seven grain cereal package. I only made half the recipe. Basically 3 cups boiling water add a little salt and 2/3 cup dry cereal, reduce heat cover and mix occasionally until all the water is absorbed.

Then I looked at my favorite healthy food bloggers and looked at how they eat their hot cereal. The most common ways were: with a little peanut butter and honey, with some sort of fruit and yogurt and with pumpkin puree and cinnamon.  In an effort to find a way to eat hot cereal that I like I made a sampler breakfast of Hot Cereal Three ways. Jeff and I tried butternut squash cinnamon, Greek yogurt with raspberry puree and one with a dollop of peanut butter and honey.

Here's my review:

I didn't like the yogurt added in, it just made it slimier which didn't help the cause.

I did like the raspberry. This is some of the last of the raspberries that Jeff's grandma froze. I added a little honey to sweeten it up. It made the seven grain cereal hot pink. I can think of some little girls who might enjoy a naturally hot pink breakfast.

I didn't care for the squash and cinnamon. This is a huge thing in the fitness blogs these days. They all love their oats and pumpkin. Well I don't get it. I love squash and pumpkin puree, I'll eat it with a spoon, but I think I'll pass on it in my hot cereal.

The clear winner for me was the peanut butter honey combo. It brought out the naturally nutty flavor in the hot cereal. I still could only eat about a half cup, but it was better than the others.

After our little breakfast sampler experiment I still had a cup or two of cooked cereal. So I'm making some bread; a variation on the Oatmeal Molasses Bread that I love from Earth to Table. This one is Seven Grain Brown Sugar Bread. I'll fill you in one the recipe tomorrow. Here's a little sneak peak to wet your whistle: