What's for Breakfast: Cinnamon Oatmeal

By Ed Bruske

aka The Slow Cook

For this usual perspective on breakfast you can thank a Kindergarten boy who, given a chance to photograph his lunch, now wants to take pictures of all his meals.

The kitchen manager held her breath, afraid the little guy would drop the camera. I had to assure her he was already well versed in the process. As you can see, he does an excellent job. I would even say he's very enthusiastic about it.

Maybe we have a new school food journalist in the making?

This was the first time I'd seen cinnamon flavored oatmeal in the lunch room and from what I tasted it was quite good. There's nothing mysterious about it: the lunch ladies simply cook instant oatmeal in a stainless hotel pan in the steamer, then stir in cinnamon and a little sugar.

I guess this qualifies as "scratch" cooking. The kids then have their choice of a fresh apple, juice, plain milk and string cheese. I was glad to see this little boy eating the string cheese.

What's for Breakfast: Oatmeal with Peaches

Ed Bruske

aka The Slow Cook

Here's a pretty simple breakfast that combines grain and fruit. Instead of serving the peaches in a plastic cup on the side, the canned fruit is mixed right in with the oatmeal.

These are regular Quaker quick oats, pretty simple to make, but I've seen horrible results in the past. At the school my daughter attended last year, the kitchen seemed incapable of getting the oatmeal right. It landed on the tray like a baseball, all dry and clumped together into a ball.

My daughter is so picky, she'd never even try oatmeal like this. But I did, and I thought it was pretty good--lots better thant the sugary branded cereals the kids were getting last year. There's enough sugar in that container of Stonyfield yogurt, and in the fruit juice.

What's for Breakfast: Oatmeal

By Ed Bruske
aka The Slow Cook

Mark Bittman on the op-ed page of the New York Times recently took McDonald's to the wood shed for offering customers "healthy" oatmeal that actually contains 21 ingredients, including lots of sugar.

I'm happy to report that schools here in the District of Columbia are still serving an unadulterated oatmeal made very simply with Quaker quick oats and water.

As you can see in the photo, it was served this morning with a cup of canned fruit and string cheese. A four-ounce container of juice also was available, along with plain low-fat or skim milk.

The kids don't exactly tear into the oatmeal. But it's certainly better than the stuff McDonald's is serving.

But schools can get oatmeal wrong, too. Here's a photo of a similar breakfast served at my daughter's D.C. elementary school last year. Yes, that big blob of stuff that looks like a tennis ball left out in the rain is actually a scoop of oatmeal. They were serving some pretty nasty turkey sausages the as well, along with chocolate and strawberry milk, which have since been removed from the menu.

Best advice where oatmeal is concerned: keep it simple.

What's for Breakfast: Cinnamon Oatmeal

By Ed Bruske
aka The Slow Cook

Here is the hot breakfast option Chartwells served at my daughter's elementary school on Wednesday. This is Quaker's "Quick Oats," cooked in the kitchen's steamer and seasoned with cinnamon. I tried it. It was good. Unfortunately, my daughter won't eat oatmeal. Her loss.

The cantaloupe is billed as "local," meaning it comes from a farm within the Mid-Atlantic region and earns the schools a five-cent bonus from the city under the "Healthy Schools Act." Along with Chartwells' online menus, the schools have posted a list of farms [PDF] where they are sourcing produce. However, the list does not include cantaloupe. Perhaps we can get someone from D.C. Public Schools to tell us where the cantaloupe comes from. It arrives raw, and one of the kitchen crew removes the rind and seeds and cuts it into large dice to be served. I tried it: It's ripe and flavorful.

Something that's a little less clear is why the schools insist on dosing the kids with orange juice every day in addition to milk. Otherwise, they've done an excellent job of removing much of the unnecessary sugar from the breakfast menu by eliminating chocolate and strawberry milk. A 4-ounce container of orange juice as shown here contains 11 grams of sugar in the form or fructose, or nearly three teaspoons. The yogurt also contains as much sugar, ounce-for-ounce, as Mountain Dew.

It could be worse. A similar sized portion of grape juice contains almost twice as much sugar, or five teaspoons. Do kids really need two beverages with breakfast? Schools are required to offer milk with meals. But they are not required to offer juice. Furthermore, this tray already has melon on it. Do kids really need two fruits with breakfast? And if you count the cherries in the yogurt, there are actually three fruits in this meal. Does that seem like overkill to you?

In fact, there's nothing stopping D.C. schools from offering juice on an occasional basis and using the savings to improve the quality of the food being served.

What's for breakfast: Oatmeal?

By Ed Bruske

aka The Slow Cook

I was wondering why so many kids were exiting the food line with just a turkey sausage link on their trays. Then I saw what was being offered with the sausage. That furry ball you see in the picture that looks like a rolled-up woollen sock is supposed to be oatmeal. I don't know how anyone would eat it, or why any adult would think this would appeal to a child.

The 10-year-old girl to whom this tray belonged never touched the "oatmeal." It went straight into the trash after she ate the sausage.

Two other parents were sitting at the table this morning, just being near while their kids ate. One of the mothers originally is from Nigeria. She said she did not understand the food being served in our school here.

"In Africa, everything we eat is fresh," she said. "We don't have food like this. No frozen food. You buy your food fresh, and you eat it that day."

What's for Breakfast: Oatmeal Method

D.C. schools don't serve pork products. The sausage links are made with turkey meat.

The oatmeal looks healthy enough. That's made by heating a stainless tub of water in the kitchen's commercial steamer, then stirring in Quaker Instant Oatmeal.

Here's one boy who found a way to put some flare into that plain-looking oatmeal: Scoop it up with your sausage.