Oatmeal with currants

I'm starving. I'm always starving. I'm in a serious weight-loss spiral that I intend to halt and reverse by pushing food into my pie hole continuously.

A friend stopped by as I was replacing water in the aquarium involving a hose to the bathroom. He followed me in there and stepped on the scale. He 5'7 and 169 LBS me 6'0 127 LBS. That's shockingly low. I look like a spider.

And the whole time this oatmeal is sitting there and I pass it several times daily. I forgot how satisfying this is. And easy. No fuss, one bowl. And fast, a few minutes in the microwave. 

If I had heavy cream right now I would use it. To finish. After it's microwaved.

salt

brown sugar

anything that sounds good, nuts, banana, peach, raisins, cranberry raisins, apple, preserves instead of brown sugar, maple syrup, strawberries, blueberries, any berry, cinnamon, allspice, pear. mango, what do you say?

I'm going to buy another box and go crazy with this stuff. Think, Scotsmen. No more messing around. It's full fat, full on full food all the time until the weight comes back up to 150 LBS, ten stone ten pounds, still very skinny.

Banana with peanut, oatmeal and chile

Oatmeal is toasted first in a dry pan until it changes color then with butter added for additional flavor and to help salt adhere. The idea is derived from crumble topping that sometimes includes oatmeal, here it is toasted stovetop instead of baked. The same pan is used for the rest.

I intended to use pecans but could not find the jar, then after tossing raw peanuts into the pan for substitution, then the jar of pecans magically showed itself. And that is Nature's way of saying, try raw peanuts instead. They are cooked in the pan with butter and brown sugar so they do not stay raw for long. A teaspoon of peanut butter is included to help spread the flavor of peanut throughout.

Chile powder is added to the brown sugar and butter and peanuts because I like it.

This combination of peanut with sweetness and hot chile is inspired by Thais who adore this sort of wild combination, and so do I. 

Vermouth and banana liquor added to finish because I like wine with butter, they make an excellent sauce. It contributes depth like you wouldn't believe.

Heavy cream drizzled on top after plating because the whole thing appeared too gloomy and dark. 

Oatmeal, brown sugar, pecans, strawberries, butter and milk

Brown sugar, cinnamon, and a teeny-tiny itty-bitty pinch of  SALT, because oatmeal, any grain for that matter, is nothing, and I mean nothing, without SALT.

The best kind of oatmeal is the full grain that looks like wheat, groats. They take a long time to cook.

To go faster the groats are smashed with a heavy powerful roller, called rolled oats.

To go even faster the smashed rolled oats are cut into bits, called steel-cut oats

To go even faster than that the oatmeal is steamed along with all the other abuse whereupon it forfeits much of its nutritional value but it cooks in a snap, marketed as instant oatmeal.

Added a lot more cream than shown at top, a lie, for photography porpoises.

Oatmeal with peach

Oatmeal, tail mix, banana

Oatmeal that is not groats but is not rolled either. I don't know what they did to it but it is a little bit thicker than rolled oats. 

* trail mix with shredded coconut and dried things but no chocolate because, eh, there is plenty of that stuff around here.

* banana

* cinnamon

* vanilla

* butter

* pinch of salt. Oatmeal is totally blah without salt. That's the first thing to go in.

* milk. I have cream but, come on, this is already loaded up with stuff plus I'm thinking of making ice cream.

8 more photos real close up like. 

Oatmeal with peaches, cherries, pecans, coconut milk

Rolled oats. Dried cherries, canned peaches, cinnamon, sea salt, butter, pecans, coconut milk. 

Oatmeal with fruit

Rolled oats from the bulk bins at Whole Foods. These were marked "thick" rolled, but frankly, I cannot see any difference between these and regular rolled oats. 

You know, they do a lot of things to oats to make them cook faster. Oat groats, the best of all, take a long time to cook so they're smashed with rollers to flatten them, they're steamed to give them a head start in cooking, they're cut into tiny bits. They do all three things, smash, steam, cut,  to make instant oatmeal, by then there is little of the salubrious health benefits left to the abused exhausted grain. Plus they're marketed in tiny bags that contain about 1/4 cup along with some kind of dehydrated goodie, and who can get by on that? Nobody!  Instant oatmeal is a pathetic and a cruel hoax perpetrated upon a weary and unsuspecting  misinformed public. You can do much better. 

A touch of salt because all grains needs salt or it's just *putewey* gross without it, cinnamon, brown sugar. A mixture like this can be combined in advance for convenience. Then as you go,  scoop out 1/2 a cup oatmeal premixed to your own preference then cook stovetop or microwave in double the water for under five minutes. This is 3/4 cup oatmeal with 1 +1/2 cup water. 

The odd yellow thing that looks like a squared off banana is a wedge of fresh pineapple that was frozen. 

I guess I went a little overboard. All this fruit couldn't fit in the bowl so the surplus will get munched separately. 

Oatmeal

This is oatmeal marketed as thick rolled oats. The oats do not seem to be much thicker than regular rolled oats. 1/2 cup rolled oats flavored with 1 tablespoon brown sugar and a pinch of salt, with 1 +1/4 cup water added cooked in 5 minutes on high in microwave. Trail mix is included. This particular trail mix has occasional bits of licorice which is delightfully strange, plus various seeds and nuts. The trail mix is supplemented with my own cranberries and dried apricots. A small banana is added at the end uncooked along with butter and cold milk to finish. All of this might have been a bit of overkill

You know what? You can put pretty much anything in oatmeal and it makes both things better. 

Chicken liver paté with oats

Do those up there look appealing or what? This is my latest invention that will soon be taken up by all the most daring restaurants and caterers and sweep the nation in my mind.

True story: I dreamt this. That's right. I woke up a little bit confused because the part about presenting them in pop-up cards didn't make sense. I woke up thinking,"But the card has to fold flat and so that wouldn't work down here in the real world." How odd that something wet as tzatziki and three dimensional as liver balls does work in pop-up cards in the dream world. So I narrowed down the idea to just the deep-fried breaded chicken liver pate held together with oats. It occurred to me later this is a little bit like haggis, minus all the other offal, and not being lamb, of course.

I did not know if the liver should be processed before or after cooking it. I still don't know which is best. I do know this makes the most unappealing sludge I've ever seen. Like poo balls. The adhesive quality of the oats works fine. I also added my own sourdough breadcrumbs. The flavor is very mild in spite of the fresh and dry herbs I added in abundance, thyme, sage, and summer savory.

I almost included cornmeal but didn't.

Almost included egg in the mixture but didn't.

Dust in flour, drench in egg/milk, dredge in Panko. Deep fry @ 350℉ / 175℃ for just a few minutes, if even that.

Yogurt tzatziki is the perfect accompaniment.

Edit: Oh! I forgot. Diced half a large white onion and fried it in butter. I was distracted and the onion burned a little bit. It soaked up all the butter so I added more. Then crushed garlic and the trimmed chicken livers. Piled in the herbs to excess. Removed from pot and used the same pot to cook oatmeal. As the oatmeal cooked I saw it needed more liquid. Instead of water I added red wine which I intended to include with the liver. The combination of cooked wine and butter is extraordinary. I wanted that combination included in my mixture. Here, it's added to the oats, not the liver, the two things, oatmeal and liver with onions would be processed together eventually.

When I bought the chicken livers (Bell and Evans from Whole Foods freezer) I forgot that I used the last of the oatmeal I had on hand to prepare a dry mixture in advance. That mixture was shown down there ↓ a few posts ago. It contains a bunch of trail mix and dried fruit. It also contains cinnamon, salt, and brown sugar. I can pick out the nuts and fruit but can not do anything about the cinnamon and brown sugar. Too bad. Used it anyway. This might account for it not having a heavy chicken liver taste.

If I were to adjust the mixture that remains before deep-frying it into little balls, I will consider diced bacon along with all the bacon grease. Possibly more wine, depending on how much I choose to loosen the mixture.

Edit II: There was a lot of mixture remaining. The next day I added diced fried bacon, and ground corn (popcorn) cooked in chicken broth and wine. White wine this time. With more butter. This diluted the liver flavor further and enhanced it with polenta flavor. It pretty much doubled the amount. It formed into balls easily, firmed when chilled, and deep-fried to dark golden brown within minutes. I find it utterly delicious. I'd be pleased to serve this with a thicker tzatziki sauce for nearly any kind of gathering.

Oatmeal with trail mix and soft egg

Oh! Almost forgot. There I was, minding my own business, sitting there on my tuffet eating my curds and whey in a chair eating my oatmeal with trail mix and soft egg, which turned out harder than I intended when suddenly I started to pick up a distinctly unpleasant odor.

I ignored it.

The odor persisted. Smelled like something burning.

I ignored it again.

Persisted. Getting stronger. THEN I JUMPED UP, TURNED ON THE FAN THAT'S AIMED AT THE SMOKE ALARM TO PREEMPT IT SCREAMING AND FRANTICALLY DASHED INTO THE KITCHEN where I found this sitting on top of the burner beginning to smoke. I tossed it in the water that was chilling the remaining eggs, while smoke wafted up around the burner and from the smoldering pot in the sink with the eggs.

So let that be a lesson for you, about ... something.

Oatmeal and egg

This is one of three dishes that I ate fairly religiously every day for the last month, this one for breakfast and some days even twice as for a late-night snack. I attribute these three go-to meals with melting off unsightly and uncomfortable excess body fat. The oatmeal grain was prepared in advance with brown sugar, salt, and a boat-load of cinnamon with raisins and nuts. By boat-load I mean one of those toy boats that holds about a tablespoon. Wouldn't want to exaggerate, now would I? The mixture was varied with coconut, trail mix, dried cranberries, and apple.

As I've said before but it's worth restating, the other two go-two meals that I can graze any time, and I have, for any amount without compunction and to make sure to hit them each and every day at least once whenever I feel the slightest pang of hunger, and still drop body fat are: fruit salad, which is just as great as anything you can find at the deli, and my beloved ceviche prepared with ginger, lime, fennel and garlic, and nearly as great as sushimi, which is impractical because sushimi can not be prepared in advance and stored. All the other meals are documented, even photographed. I tended to cut back on red meat, although I didn't avoid it altogether because that would be ridiculous and no fun a'toll, and I even indulged pasta on a few occasions, hot dogs without buns, bread that I made at home, cupcakes which I call ferChrist'ssakechocolatecupcakes in the shape of kittens, extra icing even without any cupcake underneath them, pudding, jello, and the inexcusable home-made marshmallows which are nearly 99% sugar. Which all goes to prove you don't have to commit yourself to some Godforsaken unbearable unhappy regimen just to shed stored body fat. I'm ashamed to admit my exercise hasn't much increased or improved.

I still have a little more excessive unsightly body fat to melt off, but progress is obvious. My actual weight has changed very little from a high of 170LBS to just under 160 LBS presently. Until recently my narrow ass has generally held steady at 150 LBS. For my height, that's considered frail and too thin.