Sue, Good for you. Brown sugar, maple syrup? SP is the brand that I used for a number of years. The last two years, I have been using Bob's Red Mill.

It's about time, don't you know it's good for you? (grin)

I like the McCann's, but now I'm spoiled and don't want to eat that 1 minute Quick Oats stuff with the old guy on the box. Yeah, you know who I mean.

I like mine with maple syrup and raisins or in a pinch, brown sugar.

Annie

LOL that's why I want to like it :)

I've been trying to find something relatively healthy to eat for breakfast that doesn't leave me hungry in an hour or two. Cereal/milk has always not agreed with me and I recently discovered why - a mild allergy to milk protein. I eat eggs (only like scrambled) on the weekends. Love bagels but the calories really add up and they just aren't filling.

mustangs - Bob's Red Mill is the best steel cut oatmeal I've ever had, and I've tried a bunch. Like you, I used the SP brand for quite a while before discovering Bob's.

DH laughs because I stockpile it here & at the lakehouse. Except for Sunday mornings, it's my go-to breakfast. I keep the sweetener down to one measured TBS of maple syrup and add fruit, a splash of skim milk and a sprinkling of toasted walnuts - Heaven in a bowl!

I eat my oatmeal with soy milk, which I don't much care for plain but find palatable with oatmeal. I like mine with maple syrup, raisins and cinnamon.

Hi, Goldgirl, our Big Lots carries that brand, and you're right, it is delicious!

I make SP oatmeal in the micro. I use 1/3 cup oatmeal, a scant 2/3 cup water mixed together in a microwave-safe bowl. If I'm making it for my husband, I add sugar and ground flaxseed, just flaxseed for me. Micro for 9 minutes - power level 2 (my micro is about 7 years old). I've never had it come out bad and I don't have to stand and stir on the stovetop.

Helene

My mother started me on this when I was too small to even remember it, but I eat all hot cereal with salt, butter and a little pepper, as if it were a grain I'm eating with dinner. No fruit, no sugar, no maple syrup. I'm so accustomed to it, I don't even think about it unless an overnight guest remarks about it in surprise.

Laceyvail, that's the way I eat grits, except without the butter. I cook mine in milk instead of water, or half milk and half water, and it doesn't need butter. When I heard that some people eat it with cream and sugar I thought, "huh? Eewww."

But, I'm with you, Goldgirl, I only recently began to be able to choke down boiled oatmeal. I've always liked it toasted ala granola, but never have been able to swallow it boiled. But, DH makes it actually palatable, and with a modification I recommended, cooking it in milk instead of water, as I do grits, it's even better. He adds dried fruit, nuts, maybe some frozen fruit to the oatmeal while it's cooking, and no other sweetener is needed. I actually sort of like it the way he fixes it. I can't say I love it, though.

Sally

Really, you can get the SP oatmeal at Big Lots? I'm going to have to check there the next time I go to Big Rapids, I did see that they have a much expanded "grocery" section when I was there last.

Sally, I had to laugh at the remark about milk and sugar on grits. We were on a trip to DisneyWorld when my oldest daughter was about 8 or 9. We stopped for breakfast in Georgia and there was a small bowl of grits on the side of her breakfast plate. Being from Michigan she thought it was Cream of Wheat and promptly put milk and sugar on it. She tasted it, made an ugly face and told me how awful it was. (Well, of course it was, she was expecting Cream of Wheat, LOL) The waitress promptly replied in a very superior tone "That's because here in the south everyone KNOWS you put butter on grits". The tone prompted me to reply "perhaps, be we're from Michigan where people have enough good sense to NEVER eat grits".

It wasn't true, of course, some of us do eat grits. That's not why I don't like grits, they just remind me of cornmeal mush, which I ate way too much of in my childhood. Polenta does too, it's just uppity cornmeal mush, LOL.

I never used to eat oatmeal either, the texture was too "gummy". I eventually learned to get past that and I like the long cooked oats. So does Amanda but Ashley will only eat CocoWheats if forced to eat hot cereal, and she puts a LOT of sugar on it. I'm not sure it even counts as cereal, there's so much sugar....

I have a bag of Bob's Red Mill 10 grain cereal in the pantry that I use for baking bread. I ought to try some as cereal, I suppose.

Annie

I still eat the dude in the hats oatmeal, but only the old fashioned kind. I guess I'm just too poor to spend the money on fancy oatmeal. Smiles. I do make it with more oats than it calls for and don't cook it as long as they say so it's really rather 'substantial'. I like it with preplumped raisins, then sugar and ice cold milk poured around it... but.. not mixed in. LOL. picky. I might be cheap but I'm still picky. Smiles.

I love grits. With plenty of butter. I don't like grits or oatmeal made with milk though. My mother made it all with milk and it's just not for me. Like tomato soup with milk.. ick. heh... I remember the first time I made Christy oatmeal and put sugar in it and milk on it. She was horrified. What did you do to my oatmeal. Like grits she eats it with only butter. Smiles. To each their own.

Lately I've become an oatmeal addict. It doesn't matter what type: instant, rolled or steel cut. I stir in 1 T. Flaxseed meal, Splenda, cinnamon, dash of salt, walnuts and either dried cherries, snipped dried apricots or chopped up Granny Smith baked apples. Often, I make a big batch of cooked oatmeal to last 4 days, keep it in the fridge and reheat it in the microwave. Faster & better than instant.