Using What I Have Journal Entry #1: The Porridge That Needed Help

There may not be any more journal entries like this, but knowing me there could be. So. Who am I if not numerically inclined? And there is no other logical series to put this sort of post into.

So you know that I have been finding ways to use kamut. There aren't many recipes I've been able to find, but I went digging into the somewhat more obscure world of digitized cookbooks, and found a breakfast possibility in a recipe from Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker (2004). It not only used kamut, but also some barley, something else in my to-use-up list, plus oats and cornmeal for a multigrain porridge.

In fairness to the original recipe, I substituted steel cut oats because I don't keep old fashioned on hand (and I'm trying to use steel cut oats) and I only had about 2-3 hours to soak the kamut before cooking. The dried fruit I used was dates and apricots, and I'm slowly learning that I don't like dates cooked into things. (Raw? Amazing. But cooking does something weird to them.) I added more water because of the steel cut oats. So don't fully judge the recipe on the adventure you're about to see.

It smelled amazing the next morning. Some if it burned to the sides of the slow cooker, which I anticipated (that has happened to me with overnight cereals before), so I avoided mixing that in, and fortunately avoided burned-porridge-transfer. It was a bit thinner than I expected, but I figured it would thicken after chilling, so it didn't bother me much.

This was to be day 1 porridge, after all.

Unfortunately, I did not enjoy it. I didn't like the chunky bits because some were chunkier than others and the variable texture was off-putting to me. I also didn't like the cooked date flavor. And it looked terrible.

The porridge was a little disappointing, but I figured I could try again to make it better the next day. So I made a peanut butter maca smoothie to finish off breakfast and moved on.

The smoothie was okay. Not as good as with chocolate, but is anything?

The next day, I added some soy milk when warming it up, because it had, indeed, solidified in the fridge overnight. Cold, with the soy milk, it tasted good, so I figured it would be good warm, too. I also made some warm peanut butter maple syrup to drizzle over it. It looked weird, but it was an improvement.

But the chunkiness still bothered me, and it still didn't taste as good hot as it had cold. I was onto something, but not there yet.

I was almost tempted to just throw it out. But I had another idea. On the third day of porridge, I put it in a blender with soy milk, peanut butter, frozen banana, and maple syrup. It made something like a smoothie bowl, though not so cold. I ate it that way--I did not warm it--and it was pretty great, if maybe a rather large bowl of sameness.

And then I went to the grocery store and despite it being February and despite it being kind of an absurd price to do it, I was compelled to buy fresh raspberries. There were no other real "luxury" foods on my list (unless you count the purple potatoes you saw yesterday).

So I had a somewhat smaller bowl of porridge, with half a package of raspberries. This was finally everything I could have desired.

It was perfect. The raspberries were delicious, and the porridge was just right at last.

I still had a little bit of the porridge left, though not enough for a full bowl. I had enough to make a little pudding cup with more raspberries, plus some other fruity sides.

I made a slice of toast with mixed nut and seed butter, bananas, and raspberries; sliced a Cara Cara orange; and used the rest of my banana to make little, messy banana and chocolate tahini sandwiches. This was a very random breakfast, but delightful. Cara Cara oranges are one of my absolute favorite things about winter. You can get boring old navel oranges and clementines pretty much year-round (at least for the moment), but Cara Cara oranges truly are seasonal, and they're such a nice flavor. They went well with the rest of these things.

I'm glad I pushed through and found a way to enjoy this porridge, though I won't be making it again. It's a positive thing, though! I've used some more stuff up. I have started my morning for five days with a multigrain porridge sweetened with dried fruit. I've boosted the protein with soy milk and peanut butter (in smoothie form on day one, but pretty much consistently, now that I think of it). I am surviving!

I don't know if I'll have a reason to make another "journal entry" like this, but thanks for coming along if you did.