Granny’s “Bowl of Oats”

Growing up in rural Iowa, the one constant my brother and I experienced in our childhood was oatmeal for breakfast. It was a tradition our mother handed down from our grandmother.

While all the other kids in town were enjoying Cheerios, Sugar-frosted Flakes, and Sugar Smacks, Jay and I were downloading the hot cereal that mother believed in her heart would create stellar results in the classroom. The greatest joy for us was on the mornings she allowed us to use the coveted brown sugar instead of white to sprinkle over our steaming bowls of breakfast oatmeal.

If we had a tummy ache, the oatmeal became our dinner treat too.

Mom wasn’t alone in her love of oatmeal. My grandmother couldn’t begin her day without a huge steaming bowl of this superfood. I’ll never forget our summer vacation to visit a distant cousin down in Texas. We all marched into the diner and were seated by the waitress. She handed us the menus and hustled back to the kitchen to get father’s coffee, mom’s orange juice, and glasses of milk for us kids and our grandparents.

When she returned, she set the appropriate drinks in front of each of us, pulled an order pad and pen out of her apron pocket, and smiled down on my little white-headed grandma.

“I’ll have a bowl of oats.” Grandma murmured.

Her look of shock struck us as hysterical

The look of shock on the poor woman’s face doubled Jay and me over with giggles. You could tell our waitress’s mind was spinning with pictures of horses in the stable. What in the world did this woman want? Raw oats directly from the field? My mother quickly explained that my dear grandmother truly wished for a dish of oatmeal.

The eyes of the waitress were as wide as saucers as she mouthed the word, “Oh!” and wrote quickly on her pad. I can imagine the laughter in the kitchen as she relayed her story of the strange little woman sitting at the table out front.

When Annie shared that she’d written a cookbook about oatmeal, I jumped at the opportunity to share the memory of grandma and her morning bowl of oats. During all the years of my childhood, grandma never changed her morning routine. That box of oatmeal was always on the shelf in the pantry, and running out was not an option.

Annie shared her newest release with me below. You’ll love the variations on one of our earliest breakfast cereals…Grandma would have too!

Once Upon a Bowl of Oatmeal (paperback cover)

My latest writing project is very different from anything else I’ve written. It’s a cookbook! But those who know how much I love fantasy might not be surprised that this cookbook ended up with a fantasy theme. Many of the recipes have names inspired by fairy tales or fantasy stories, and I love the hints of fantasy in the two covers designed by the awesome Savannah Jezowski. 


Why two different covers? The paperback version of the cookbook is an unusual shape, due to the unusual recipe format (more information about that below), so it couldn’t share a cover with the ebook.

Once Upon a Bowl of Oatmeal (ebook cover)

Some people might be surprised, though, that the whole book is focused on oatmeal. After all, isn’t oatmeal that boring goop that nobody really eats if there’s anything else available? 

NOT ANYMORE! In this book, you’ll find recipes for delectable dishes like creamy mango coconut spice oatmeal, cinnamon almond oatmeal, blueberry cream cheese oatmeal, and (my personal favorite:) caramel banana oatmeal with peanut butter. (Okay, so that one is a little closer to the dessert end of the spectrum than the porridge end!) 

Oatmeal Variations Everyone Will Love


Take a look at the book blurb below for more details:

Take a peek at a few of the fun recipe titles (with pictures courtesy of photographer Denise Johnson). Then scroll down for a free recipe!

And now for a free oatmeal recipe in the unique format I use in Once Upon a Bowl of Oatmeal: