Porridge Oats - Water or Milk?

Soldato
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Any suggestions how to spice it up a bit? I'm on a cost cutting exercise, the amount of money I spend on coffee and food at work is up to 160 quid a month so I've bought a Bodum french press for coffee at work and decided on porridge for dinner and should half the cost maybe more.
 
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Bit of an odd choice for dinner, great for breakfast though.

Any kind of fruit, jams, honey, chocolate spread, you can have it savoury or sweet.

It's pretty versatile stuff in terms of what you can have it with.
 
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Any suggestions how to spice it up a bit? I'm on a cost cutting exercise, the amount of money I spend on coffee and food at work is up to 160 quid a month so I've bought a Bodum french press for coffee at work and decided on porridge for dinner and should half the cost maybe more.

I make mine with half and half milk and water.

Don't microwave it, do it on the hob.

I put a few shakes of cinnamon, and a spoon coconut oil in mine, then add sunflower seeds and a spoon of jam conserve when cooked.

Keeps me going for ages.
 
Soldato
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Depends on the oats...
The milled kind, like Mornflake, are usually best direct in the bowl, dump in hot water fresh from the kettle, stir a bit, leave to soak for a couple of minutes, top off with more water and then leave until cooled to eating temperature, with occasional stirs.
The rolled kind like Quaker, Scots, etc, are best with milk - Melt some butter in the pan, dump in oats and quickly stir in, then add milk and keep stirring until as desired (gloopy, runny or more solid). Both I prefer with some sugar, as not found the right amount of salt yet.
Other additions and embelishments usually too sweet, but plenty of options to suit different tastes...

Any suggestions how to spice it up a bit?
'Porridge' is simply a dish made with any number of wheats or grain type stuff. Polenta, rice, corn, mielepap, barley, loads of options. Just about every nation in the world has several variants on it, with numerous ways to spice their own up, depending on whether you like salty, sweet, savoury or whatever.
Have a Google, as there are thousands of recipes - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porridge

I'm on a cost cutting exercise... and decided on porridge for dinner
At Christmas time, too?
OK, for an authentic, traditional recipe that matches this festive season, use half, a third or even a quarter of the oat quantity in recipes, and water it down.
That makes it gruel, and is dinner fit for Scrooge!! :p
 
Soldato
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LMAO I'll be stuffing my face on crimbo day!

I cycle home on a night and I struggle with energy after work probably due to eating rubbish I suspect, so I figures if I can experiment with porridge at work (have to use microwave there) then I might be able to have a relatively healthy meal at work that A not only keeps me going and B helps me loose weight because I'll be laying off the Greggs pasties and sarnies from Coop as well as the cheese pastries on a morning.

No more Egg Nogg lattes or Mochas now onto Taylors of Harrogate coffee in the french press and semi skimmed milk.
 
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3rd option - I mix with water to soak, microwave then mix a whey/casein blend protein powder with enough water to form a thick paste, then mix in with the cooked oats and heat for a little longer to make proats, then add whatever to jazz it up.
 
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Off topic but some money to be saved on the coffee then - £3.50 for Taylor's iirc. Get yourself into Aldi and pick up some of their filter coffee (either blends or single origin) and you'll only pay a third of that.

Taylors is much nicer than Aldi, but on a budget the single origin Aldi coffee is pretty decent and I used that for work too.

For porridge I use half milk, half water and then put some frozen summer fruits on the top. I cook it in the microwave. Not that it’s cheap, but chopped dates are really nice if you add them in before microwaving. Bananas added before cooking are nice too.
 

SPG

SPG

Soldato
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Enjoy all the xtra crap in oat mmmmm veg oil.....

Frozen fruit is very cheap
Peanut butter is a must
Salt

50/50 milk & water.
 
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Traditionally you make it with water, good and hot.... then you have a cup of cold milk that you dip the spoon of porridge into to cool it down, and for the extra taste... try it.
 
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