Mother knows best

I like to give credit where credit is due. For about a year now, my mom has been eating oatmeal for breakfast. Well, I have to go back even further than that. My auntie Martha, the best aunt a girl could want, started eating oatmeal with berries a few years ago. As far as I can recall, not one of us was particularly interested in following this trend.

Then, about a year ago, my mom started eating it. (And I don't even know whether Martha still does. I'll have to check on that...) Mom ate it and talked about it. And told us how delicious it was. And told us how healthy it was. And somehow, we were magically resistant to the oats. It just didn't sound delicious or worth the calories to me.

My mom and sister visited this weekend--a great time. And of course, my mom brought little baggies of oatmeal and ate it for breakfast everyday while my sister and I stuck to our usual routines: a protein shake for me and nothing for her. (Naughty girl! You need to eat breckies!!) And my mom continued to extol the amazing properties of oatmeal and we managaed to continue to not partake.

Until last night. It was chilly and damp out. I had a headache. I was pretty down from my day at work. And the giant silo of Quaker Oats sitting on my lazy susan in my cabinet caught my eye. (Yes, I have a lazy susan! I love it! It's packed with goodies.) And with the words "oatmeal absorbs the fat from your body" echoing in my head, I gave it a whirl.

What a wonderful whirl. It was oatmeal-tastic. I found a great little recipe online (and bless the iPhone for the Edge, as the internet isn't hooked up in the apartment and I'm starting to get a little batty but that's another story...) and I cooked up the oatmeal in about 3 minutes. Then I added raw pine nuts and dried red currants. It was really yummy.

I had it again for breakfast this morning. And I'm still full.

Mom was right. I love you!

(And while I wish that I had been able to create a lovely spread like the picture above, we still don't have much real furniture, so I ate my oatmeal in the only chair in the living room and was quite content.)