Seriously Delicious Oatmeal

This morning T and I went to a breakfast get-to-gether / play group.  It was great to get out this morning, and by 9 a.m. it was already in the 40's ..! So balmy and sunny, seems like springtime. =)

Last night I debated what to bring to Mom's group ... and decided against banana bread since my thawed bananas were so creepy looking ... Ryan said it's because the cell wall holding the water bursts when the banana freezes ... so they look mucky and watery. Creepy.  So I decided to bring a big bowl of oatmeal - my wintertime favorite!

I pealed and chopped 1 apple and 2 pears last night ... so it would be easy to get up, cook up the vat of oatmeal, and hit the road. Some mornings 9 a.m. is a bit too early to be anywhere =) so it was nice to have the labour of chopping and pealing complete.  I then made my oatmeal on the stove top in the "usual" way - combine oats (2 1/2 c. for me) and liquid - I used 3 c. water and 1 1/2 c. milk - and simmer with the fruit until it reaches the desired consistency.  You can add in any cinnamon, brown sugar, etc. that you'd like.  I added about 1/2 t. + a pinch of cinnamon and a few quick gratings of nutmeg before dropping my nut into the pot of simmer oats ... lol ... had to give it a bath and set it in the window to dry ... poor little nut.  The best part about cooking with fruit is that you don't have to add any additional sugar!  It gets so sweet and delicious ... and the cinnamon and nutmeg just opened up the flavour of the fruit. Yumm .. I had a few bites when I got home and it was absolutely delicious!

should have left the peals on to help it look
a little more ...
a-peal-ing ;-) hahah

I allowed my oatmeal to stay a bit runny since we had a 20 minute drive to play group ... and it still looked like wallpaper paste when we arrived ... hahah  ...

While visiting with our friends I was talking about T's gas lately ... and how he's been resisting naps during the afternoon (and now morning ...) and a friend of ours recommended we try probiotics.  I put a call in to the pediatrician to see what they think and to hopefully learn more. Looking back, even being dairy-free for 3-4 months didn't seem to impact T's gas much ... and it's only gotten worse with the introduction of foods like peas, bananas, and avocado.  I'll be sure to update if we give probiotics a go, and if we notice a difference.

All-in-all we had a great morning with moms ... played a bit of "pass the baby" until Thomas got sleepy, and then came home.

bed head play time - notice how "carefully" dad
snapped my jammies? ;-)