A couple of years ago I bought a Men’s Health magazine mainly to make myself feel as if I’m doing something about my health without actually doing anything about my health.  This was before I had high blood pressure and cholesterol.   Ryan Reynolds was the cover model that month.  He attributed part of his good health to oatmeal.

For my birthday, our good friend, Donette, bought me a rice cooker.  I wanted one only because I remember my mom cooking an excellent smothered potatoes in the rice cooker.  Then I came across Roger Ebert’s blog post about “the pot.”  He uses it as a fast slow cooker as weird as that sounds.  One of his favorite dishes is to promote is oatmeal.

So on our last trip to Whole Foods, I bought the 365 Steel Cut Oats.  Steel Cut Oats are supposed to take about 30-45 minutes to cook.  I wouldn’t know.  I put them in the rice cooker with the proper amount of water and some cinnamon and salt for seasoning overnight.  When my alarm goes off at 5:30, I plug-in the rice cooker and set it to cook.  Then I go catch an extra half hour of sleep.  When I wake up at six, the oatmeal and cinnamon smell fills up the house.  I add a teaspoon and half of honey and some blueberries and strawberries, and now I have a nutritional breakfast.  Especially since my breakfast used to consist of Hubig pies and Coke.  Now, Hubig pies are just special…very special…treats.  Tomorrow, I think I will dice up some apples and add that to the mix.  Ebert also uses coconut water, bananas, and other fruits to the mix.  In other words, I could eat oatmeal every morning but still have a different breakfast each time.

Doubt I’ll ever look like the green lantern, though.

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