I believe in breakfast. And coffee. Lots of coffee.

These days my go-to breakfast is hot oatmeal. I'm a rolled oats kind of girl. It's available on every grocery store shelf. It's cheap. It's tasty and it's easy to mix in interesting flavors and textures into it.

I know the current fad is steal-cut oats but rolled oats work for me.
<a title="Oatmeal by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/12271925533/"><img alt="Oatmeal" src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3736/12271925533_7fa6d93cbf_z.jpg" width="640" height="427" /></a>
My basic recipe is a 1/2 cup oats poured into a pot of boiling water--that's 1 cup of water. Then let it cook on low for 3-5 minutes or until the water is absorbed. It's so easy.

This morning I ate my oats with a teaspoon of cinnamon and soy milk. Simple and filling.

I spooned out the oatmeal from my pan and into a beautiful bowl that I purchased at a Christmas market in Vienna. The stamped blue dandelions on the bowl make my heart sing and remind me of the joy of wandering through Christmas markets drinking mulled wine and looking for treasures. The placemat?  I found it in a lovely little shop in Helsinki this summer. The light grey flowers in the print are charming and the graphic nature of the pattern slightly unexpected and as a result the combination of the two is very pleasing.

I can't help but to smile in the morning eating my oatmeal.