Spicing up Oatmeal

Yesterday for breakfast my husband and I decided to have oatmeal, which we haven't done for a while. I had seen a recipe on Pinterest a few weeks ago where you take an apple, cut it into little pieces, and cook it on the stove top in apple juice. I decided to try it out, and I actually loved it and I'm totally doing it again! We each had different types of oatmeal with our apples, and they were both delicious.

I have tons of apple juice concentrate, so I used that to boil the apple slices in. I cut up each apple into eighths and then sliced the eighths into small chunks so they would cook fast and would spread throughout the oatmeal better.

We each had a 1/2 cup of oatmeal with one apple. I added the juice that I used to boil the apples in with the oatmeal to make it sweeter.

My husband added some cinnamon and nutmeg in his and boy was that yummy! He let me taste it. I added some peanut butter in mine and I liked it. I eat apples and peanut butter all of the time, so I thought I would give it a try in oatmeal form.

In the past we have also had bananas and peanut butter in our oatmeal and that's always good too. It's just nice to have some variety to oatmeal because we get bored of bananas and peanut butter. Another delicious way to have oatmeal is with peaches and a splash of cream!

If you're wanting to enjoy a little treat from the top of the pyramid, there are also some good options such as the classic brown sugar with pecans and raisins, strawberries with chocolate, and peaches and cream using whipped cream.

Oatmeal types:

• Apple, cinnamon, and nutmeg
• Apple and peanut butter
• Banana and peanut butter
• Peaches and cream 
• Brown sugar with pecans and raisins
• Strawberries and chocolate

Have any of you found any successful oatmeal recipes that fit in the Harvard food pyramid diet?