As the weather cools, I tend to gravitate to hot and hearty breakfast foods.  Just because I want a stick-to-your-ribs meal, doesn’t mean it should have to taste like paste.  Even though the convenience is great, I can’t bring myself to rip open an instant oatmeal packet and call it breakfast.  While I love a piping hot bowl of oatmeal, I don’t always have time for a stove-top batch.  With a little research, I discovered this quick and easy recipe that saves about 10¢ a serving, allows me to control the ingredients in my cereal and doesn’t taste like “instant”.

Fast Oatmeal

• Microwave one cup of water for about 2-1/2 minutes in a microwave-safe bowl

• Add 1/2 cup quick-cooking (one-minute) oats plus sweetner, dried fruit and nuts of your choice.

• Stir just to combine ingredients (Stirring too much at this point will make the oatmeal pasty.)

• Let set a few minutes

• Stir

• Enjoy!

If like me, you live in a household with only a couple-few people and you like to bake, one of two things can happen.  Either everyone in your family is as big as a house or you throw away a lot of stale baked goods.  The reason why?  Cake recipes generally give you optional sizes – 9″x13″ rectangular pan, (2) 8″ or 9″ round pans, a bundt pan or 24 cupcakes – all of which are way too much cake for a couple of people.  Interestingly, no matter how many times you read the recipe and regardless of how thoroughly you read it, you will never find any instructions that require that you eat the entire cake.  Therefore, a little portion control may be in order.  Rather than making one big cake, bake two round cakes.  Serve one as a single layer cake.  Wrap the other tightly in plastic wrap, place it into a freezer storage bag and put it into the freezer.  The cake will keep for months.  Cake thaws quickly, so it is a bonus to have one on hand for unexpected company.  The cake will be completely thawed in less than an hour.  But you don’t have to wait that long to frost it.  It’s actually a little easier to frost a cake that is still quite cold.  If you find that a single layer cake is still a little more than you need, bake cupcakes.  You can wrap these individual servings in plastic wrap and place them all into a couple of gallon freezer bags.  Remove from the freezer the exact number you need and save the others for a rainy day.