Savory Chicken Sausage Oatmeal

Okay I'm stuck on this savory oatmeal kick. This one was made extra amazing by adding the egg. This is more breakfast-like than the ham and cheese one, but breakfast for dinner or lunch is never a bad thing!

Ingredients:

1/2 to 1lb Italian chicken sausage

1/3 red onion, chopped

4-6 cloves garlic, minced

2 C chicken broth (substitute bouillon cube and 2 C water if needed)

1 C extra thick oatmeal

Supplies:

Medium pot

Measuring cup

Spatula or spoon

Serves: 2-4

Crumble the sausage in the pot over medium heat. Add chopped onion and minced garlic, heat until slightly tender. Add broth, increase heat and bring to a boil. Once at a rolling boil add oatmeal and lower heat back to medium. Cook 10-15 minutes stirring frequently until you reach your desired thickness. As long as you've used a very flavorful sausage, no additional salt or pepper is needed. 

I topped mine with a fried egg. 

The creaminess of the yolk added the perfect texture. 

You could also soft scramble an egg if you are preparing for tomorrow's breakfast. 

Ham and Cheese Oatmeal

My daughter loves oatmeal. Until she started going to preschool where they eat breakfast together, she had oatmeal for breakfast every morning ever since she started eating solid foods, and her grandpa eats oatmeal for breakfast every morning also. They even have matching oatmeal bowls. I'm not a crazy fanatic like they are but I enjoy a nice bowl of hot oatmeal every so often as well.

So when a co-worker brought a cup of microwavable steel cut oats to work, and let me try it, I was all over it! I tried it plain and to me it tasted like chewy brown rice - in a good way. Which got me thinking...

Why not use oatmeal and make something like fried rice? I've gone through several iterations of the concept, some more like fried rice, others more like the soft, goopy, oatmeal we're used to eating at breakfast.

Really, you don't have to follow a recipe at all. Like oatmeal, use the amount of liquid you think will yield the consistency you want. And just like fried rice, make the base (oatmeal) and then throw in whatever you want that you think will taste good! Of course, if you want it to be healthy, you should aim to add veggies and lean proteins... Here's one version that seemed to be a crowd pleaser.

Ingredients:

1 C roughly chopped ham

1 C veggies of choice, roughly chopped

3/4 C extra thick oatmeal

1 packet Lipton recipe secrets soup mix

1/3 C milk

1 C water

2-3 slices cheese of choice

Supplies:

Medium pot

Measuring cup

Spatula or spoon

Serves: 2-4

Mix soup packet and water in pot, then bring to a boil. Add oatmeal and bring back to medium boil. Add milk. Boil on medium for 15-20 minutes, stirring often. Once oatmeal reaches desired thickness add ham and veggies. Stir to combine then add cheese and remove from heat but continue to stir until cheese is melted and evenly distributed. Serve immediately.