Homemade Pumpkin Oatmeal

Hi again! It's hard to believe I'm blogging just a day after my last post. I finally had a weekend here in Boston that did not involve traveling, and it was just wonderful! I really enjoyed getting a few things done around the house and just RELAXING. I haven't done that in ages, it seems. I tend to have a hard time relaxing actually, but I succeeded at doing it this weekend. :-D

Being home this weekend allowed me to make a fun breakfast Saturday morning of pumpkin oatmeal! And you know what I had for Sunday dinner too? Pumpkin oatmeal again! I was continuing to feel lazy and didn't want to put too much effort into dinner, so pumpkin oatmeal it was. ;-)

All you do to make this dish is cook regular oats on the stove according to the package directions, add a couple scoops of pure pumpkin as well as any other additions you'd like.....and that is it! For the versions I made this weekend, I used half water and half almond milk for the liquid (so that was 1/2 cup of each for 1 serving, 1 cup liquid in all). I added 1/2 cup of oats and probably 2 heaping tablespoons of pumpkin. I also like bananas in my oatmeal, so I added half of a sliced banana. AND, I obviously added cinnamon!!! Just about every pumpkin dish needs cinnamon, in my opinion. Oh, and I typically add the pumpkin and banana slices toward the last couple minutes of the cooking of the oatmeal, fyi.

Pictures for your viewing pleasure...

I love how the bananas cook slightly and become a little mushy. Pumpkin and banana really are great together, trust me!

And in case for some reason you have regular oats on hand, but you do not have the instructions that come with them, below are the directions and ingredients for 1 serving of stove-top oatmeal!

-1/2 cup regular oats

-1 cup water (or milk, or combination of both)

-pinch of salt

Bring water and salt to a rolling boil. Add oats; reduce to medium heat and cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Cover; remove from heat and serve in 2-3 minutes (that last part is key; this oatmeal is sooo hot right off the stove top so be sure to let it cool a bit! you can see the steam in the pictures above).

This is such an easy, healthy, and yummy breakfast treat. I get so excited about little things like this. Now go make yourself some pumpkin oatmeal and you'll also see what all the excitement is about. ;-)