For many parents, especially for those who hurry to work in the morning (and still need to take their children to school, to be stuck in traffic and to be at work before the boss), breakfast is a huge problem. Not all children can eat it quickly, and some of them – to eat it at all. Everyone knows that the fastest and healthiest breakfast is oatmeal! It is very healthy (and is not empty of vitamins like semolina), easily digestible, and open to many culinary experiments. Oatmeal has taken an important place in the rations of my children since their birth. I will tell you more: they have not seen any other breakfast in their 4-year-old life. And they don’t mind this at all.

Every day we start with a cup of warm porridge and the question is: “What’s in the porridge today?”

Today, I’m offering you three options which I alternate every two days. No milk, salt, butter, sugar, and even no honey. You will say what kind of porridge is that? Hehe, but actually, having tried them once, you will never want to eat any other. We really love oatmeal, now I hope you and your children will love it too!

Ready? Set? Let’s go cooking!

We will need: (3 servings)

#1 Apple oatmeal

20 tbsp. of oats

1 peeled apple

1 very ripe banana

3 tbsp. of raisins

1 tsp of cinnamon

Pour water in a saucepan, put it over the heat and add the oats. Peel and cut the apple, and put it in there too. Then cut a banana in rings thin enough they melt easily and give the porridge a sweet taste without the need of any sugar. Add raisins. All ingredients are added into the porridge almost at the same time before the water boils. Take into account the variety of apples and your personal desires. If you want to see more rigid pieces in the porridge, then take a dense variety of apples, or cut the apple into larger pieces so that it does not have time to boil, or add it after the water boils and cook the rest for less time. I boil my porridge, then cook for another 5 minutes, turn the stove off, and let the remaining water soak in, add cinnamon and leave it for 15 minutes a side. Eventually, the banana should be almost “dissolved”, the apple should be soft and the raisins – swollen. Before serving, you can add a little almond milk, walnuts, flaxseed or its oil (for healthy omega-3s) or honey. Done!

#2 Pear oatmeal with dates and cranberries

20 tbsp. of oats

1 ripe peeled pear

1 very ripe banana

5-6 dates

2 tbsp. of dried cranberries (optional)

Cook this porridge in the same way as the previous one, just add a pear, dates, and cranberries instead of apple this time. If the pear is juicy, cut it into larger pieces, as soft parts fall apart in a second, and we want to see at least something “alive” on the plate, haha, right?

# 3 Oatmeal with berries

20 tbsp. of oats

1 very ripe banana

6 tbsp. of any frozen berries (I used strawberries and blueberries)

Do not spend money on fresh berries, you can use frozen ones as it is cheaper and more practical and very delicious in a porridge, since frozen berries do not turn into puree so fast (only the blueberry usually “disappears”, giving the porridge a bright shade) and remain intact to the very end.

Put the saucepan with water over the heat. Add the oats, sliced banana, and then the berries. As the berries will give their juices to the porridge while melting, I recommend not adding a lot of water at the very beginning of cooking, and it is always better to add it later than to eat a too liquid porridge.

P.S. Any of these porridges you can cook for one day ahead as I do, leaving it in the refrigerator under food film, and before serving, just pour almond milk to make it a little bit liquid, mix and warm in the microwave for 2 minutes.

Bon appetit!