Make Quick and Healthy Oatmeal Bowls for a Healthier Breakfast for Your Little Ones. Providing a healthy breakfast like Oatmeal for your kids will not only give them the nutrients they need for their growing bodies, but will give them the energy they need daily.
Two of our kids have gotten into eating hot oatmeal for breakfast, one more recently than the other. When our first kid became interested in oatmeal, I added it to the menu one time a week, typically on a Thursday. Then it became more common to have oatmeal on a Monday morning to start off the week energized. At one point, I felt like I should tweak that menu and put oatmeal some other day during the week but it just seemed to appear on Monday mornings. And then our youngest became interested in trying it. After several tries of a spoon or two here and there, he now has about a 1/4 cup, and frequently requests it too. So now I find myself adding it to the breakfast menu like 2 days a week.
Salty Oatmeal vs. Sweet Oatmeal
Oatmeal could be very bland and tasteless, in a way. The cooking ingredients on the packaging label includes oatmeal, salt and water. However, that does not sound very appealing to me. It has to be tastier. As a teenager, I loved oatmeal. Although, I have a specific childhood taste of it that I just cannot get these days. Keep in mind that I grew up on a different Continent so the oatmeal and dairy we put in it tasted different than the one we have here. So it took me a while to get back into eating it again because it just didn’t taste the same. It tasted way too bland. In order to enjoy oatmeal again, I have to include dairy, some sweetener, cinnamon and sometimes a bunch of topping (optional) to make it tasty.
In any event, if you are looking for breakfast ideas for your little ones, see if they’ll be opened to having oatmeal. One of our kids is still not a convert. She eats the oatmeal uncooked and loves it that way.
Healthy Oatmeal Bowls
Ingredients:
- 2 cups water
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 cup quick cooking oats or rolled oats
- 2 TBSP Sweetener (Honey, Agave Nectar, Maple Syrup, or even brown sugar)
- 1/2 to 1 tsp cinnamon
Directions:
- In a small pot, bring water to a boil.
- Stir in oats and cinnamon. Keep stirring to keep oatmeal from sticking to the pan.
- Cook about 1 minute for quick oats and about 2-3 minutes for rolled oats.
- Turn off oven. Stir in sweetener.
- Remove the oatmeal completely from the heat and stir in milk.
- Ladle into two bowls.
- Sprinkle with a dash of cinnamon before serving.
The oatmeal is not super thick but it is not super thick either. The kids like it somewhere in the middle. When you add the milk it will look a tad runny after letting it sit a little, it will become “thick” enough. Don’t over-stir the oats since it could get too soggy and we don’t want that.
Note: Our kids don’t like topping on their oatmeal but personally, I’m all about topping on my oatmeal. You can add fruit topping such as slices of banana, blueberries, strawberries if your kids will eat it. You can also mix fruit in the oatmeal after adding the milk rather than just adding it as a topping.
But if your little ones don’t mind the toppings then add some to their bowl. It will be fun to eat. Personally, I love having fresh blueberries topped on my oatmeal. It makes it even the more healthier.
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Do you have kids that eat or might eat oatmeal? Have you added it to your menu as one of the options for their breakfast?
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