Have dessert for breakfast every day.

Think of a dessert you really want, then figure out how to craft its counterpart using oatmeal.  My other life philosophy.

The perfect companion to some Samoas oatmeal?  Sudoku, of course!

This is the obligatory post about my other passion:  oatmeal.  If I wasn't a graduate church-music student, I'd open an all-oatmeal cafe, no brown sugar and raisins allowed.  With a plain bowl of cooked oats, quick, old-fashioned, or steel-cut, you can do just about anything.  Including kicking your craving in the backside first thing in the morning.

Preparing the materials:
- Put a half-cup dry oats and 1 cup of water in a large enough bowl, and blast it in the microwave until oats are fluffy.  If it's too thick, you can add more liquid.  I like it thick.

What am I supposed to do with this fluffy bowl of oats?!


- COCOA MIX.  That and peanut butter is the miracle food that introduced me to oatmeal (thank you, Devin Alexander).  I submitted this combo to my college's cookbook, and they changed it to chocolate syrup so it could be made in the caf.  NOT THE SAME.
- Peanut butter + yogurt in place of water.
- Coconut before cooking, then cocoa and almond extract.
- Butterscotch chips and cashew butter.  When you find the latter in a store, buy the whole shelf and hoard it in your trunk.  Or make your own.
- Chopped dates before the microwave; that's it.
- A couple tablespoons of cake mix, and some for crumbliness on top.
- Blueberries and cinnamon.  Purple oatmeal!
- Brownie batter: 1 cup of pumpkin, then oats and minimal water, and stir in cocoa.
- Oatmeal a la mode?
- Top with edible cookie dough:  flour, brown sugar, applesauce, almond milk, vanilla, salt, and mini chocolate chips.  The brown sugar makes it taste authentic.
- Cocoa, caramel, and coconut.
- Swirled-in cream cheese, fruit, and crushed graham crackers.
- Crushed pretzels.
- Coffee, definitely,
- Cocoa, cherries, almonds, coconut, and a lot of cinnamon.
- Pineapple or mango with white chocolate chips and coconut.

You get the idea.  The rule is:  it must not be boring and hence something you dread eating.  Consume with vigor and relish.  Whenever I get up, I think, "Oh good - it's morning.  I get to have amazing oatmeal!"

I'm so glad God created oats.  They are the perfect blank canvas.  :)