Oatmeal reduction program

Or “opameal” or “oyops” or whatever you want to call it… I think I wrote a while back about “inheriting” a huge canister of oatmeal. I “inherited” it from a woman who spent the last year or so of her life complaining vociferously about oatmeal to anyone who would listen. My mother, of course. And yet, *she* bought the dern thing. Why? Because oatmeal is GOOOOOOD for you, don’tcha know… I dunno. I figure anyone who has lived to the age of 90 with only the niggling little health issues that are part and parcel of advanced old age can eat whatever they damn well please. Why deny yourself? Old habits die hard… (Love you mooom, just processing…)

Anyway, the monster oatmeal canister is past its expiration date but I haven’t found any vermin in it and it’s OATMEAL(!) so I am slowly working my way through it. Yaknow, to be thrifty and eat healthy and all that. I am finding that I like it better withOUT brown sugar, which is what I grew up eating it with. Yes, she served it to us as children*. Healthy, roight? Brown sugar in oatmeal makes it too sweet for me now, although I probably wouldn’t EAT it without brown sugar as a kid. Nowadays? Some jam maybe? It gives it a wee bit of flavor without overpowering it with sugar.

Hmmmm… The Dutch Chocolate Bars recipe uses *2 cups* (count ’em) of oatmeal. That’ll reduce my oatmeal supply. Dutch Chocolate Bars are a Christmas cookie The Commander added to her repertoire back in about 1969 or so. They came out of a Michigan Consolidated Gas Company pamphlet and they are chocolate / oatmeal bar cookies with peppermint frosting. They are easy to make and they are TO DIE FOR! Today, I bought peppermint extract, green food coloring (which is *required* for the frosting [wink]), and unsweetened baking chocolate. I did NOT buy oatmeal (duh!). I considered powdered sugar (for the frosting) but decided against it, which was a good thing, because I sort of thought I had also “inherited” some of that… Yes, I had. Same thing for vanilla extract.

I think that *one* batch of Christmas cookies is definitely in my future. We’ll see what else I get up to. And no, that loverly snowman is NOT in my house. If you want to feel the holiday season, you should go to The Beautiful Gay’s house (in Gaylord…) Here we don’t do that much. Well, we do have some holiday lights up, mostly *inside* the house. But I have some of those up all year. The GG sometimes says that it looks like a whore-house. I haven’t ever been inside a whore-house so I do not know what’s in one of those but I enjoy being able to navigate around The Landfill at night without having to turn on a whole bunch of big overhead lights everywhere or use my iPhone flashlight.

Good night from Kayak Woman of Michissippi.

* She also bought us every single kind of crappy old boxed cereal that we asked for.

4 Responses to “Oatmeal reduction program”

  1. Sam Says:

    We have four strings of lights artistically decorating our living room—winter cheer. No tree. Will have to get more lights for the tree when it goes up, as those strings constitute our whole stash….

  2. Aimee Nassoiy Says:

    The old Joy of Cooking (and the internet as well) has a recipe for Chocolate Oat Bars. . . Oatmeal based cookie dough with chocolate and nuts on top. It calls for 3 cups of oatmeal. I use evaporated milk instead of sweetened condensed, and if you substitute some designer chocolate for the chocolate chips melted for the top layer it is exquisite. Best thing about these bars is that they hang out well in the freezer too. I’m hoping to pull some off tonight. Happy Baking!

  3. Margaret Says:

    I love oatmeal with brown sugar but hate making it, so I don’t. LOVE the sound of those cookies!!

  4. UU Says:

    Love the snowman. He’s still inside where you pic-ed him. Merry Christmas.