Hot cereal
 

Here in New England, there is plenty of time left in "hot cereal season". This morning I had Hodgson Mills multi-grain (it has milled flaxseed and soy, comes in a brown box). Yum! Used a dab of Smart Balance light and some mixed frozen berries.

What can others share about toppings and mix-ins for hot cereal?

I sometimes add .25 cup of Kashi Go Lean onto my oatmeal, with blueberries, or strawberries, or a small banana. Adds my fiber and protein, and I like the crunch!

I love dried blueberries in my oatmeal. I buy the wild blueberries from Trader Joe's!

I've been adding peanut butter to my oatmeal (about 1 knife-ful: how on earth do you measure it?)

Measuring peanut butter is just about the most annoying thing possible. Knife-full sounds about right!


I love putting fruit and a 1/2oz of walnuts in my morning oatmeal. The nuts are integral, but the fruit changes out often. Sometimes I don't add fruit and just do cinnamon and walnuts. Sometimes... very rarely... I'll put a touch of brown sugar in, but I don't do that often as it gives me a sweet tooth for the day.

I typically will add this to my oatmeal:

1T flaxmeal
2T dried fruit or nuts if I'm out of fruit (this morning it was cranberries)
1t sweetener (raw sugar or maple syrup)
2T soy milk
1/4t cinnamon (sometimes)

I bet chopped apples would be good too. I have cook book called Super Natural Cooking and the author uses pomegranate molasses on her oatmeal. That sounds yummy, but I've never been able to locate any. I think it's something you would find in a Middle Eastern Grocery store, but I'd have to go to Seattle to find one of those.

chopped apples are indeed good. I put them in before I microwave my oatmeal and they soften up a little. Then I add a little cinnamon and yum!

Chopped almonds or walnuts
Cinnamon
Splenda
Splash of milk

I like nuts too, or a shot of granola. Also, during the last Xmas season I stocked up on pumpkin spice Coffee-mate powder (just for flavor, I don't know if it adds any fiber or other nutrients), that goes good on oatmeal (so does the gingerbread flavor). I wish they had that all year round, or at least all fall and winter: where in the Bible or the Constitution does it say that THOU SHALT NOT SELL WINTRY-FLAVORED TREATS BETWEEN JAN 1 & NOV 1???

I eat hot cereal year round!

I love peanut butter in my oatmeal but I do measure it. I have a digital scale and I weigh it. Before I had the digital scale, I measured it with a tablespoon. I'll eyeball non-fat cream cheese which is only 15 calories a tbsp, but with something like peanut butter that is 80-100 calories per tbsp, I measure carefully. A tbsp isn't very big--I could be off by half and I've just increase me calories by 40-50 for the day.

I love 1/2 tbsp of cocoa powdered stirred into my oatmeal with a sweetner of some sort (I use sugar-free chocolate or vanilla Torani syrup or Splenda). It makes a nice warm, chocolately treat.

Sometimes I also stir in freeze-dried raspberries.

I'm also a big fan of cardamom in my oatmeal. But the flavor isn't for everyone--you have to really like cardamom. I also add a sweetener (usually sugar-free Torani syrup) with the cardamom and sometimes some cinnamon.

Hmmm...I 've never had cardamom.
What's the flavor like?

Cardamom is a spice that often used in Indian foods, but usually with other spices so you don't often taste it by itself. It is sometimes used in breads and desserts by itself (Cooking Light has a great recipe for Cardamom-Lime Sweet Rolls). But I can't think of any other spice that it tastes like. I guess it maybe a little similar to anise but not quite as much of a licorice flavor. It is an acquired taste; I've only recently found that I like it.