At our house, we go through a LOT of food. I mean, a LOT of food.

I’ve got a new system that is working out really well. Right now, all I have to cook is dinner. Emery (7) makes breakfast. Brett (10) makes lunch. And I make dinner.

So far, Emery has mastered pancakes, sweet breads, baked oatmeal, cinnamon rolls, scrambled eggs, and oatmeal.

But Emery has a few restrictions. If he’s going to bake something, he needs to do it the night before. He can only make cinnamon rolls when I’ve made bread and saved some dough for him. He has to start pancakes before everyone is screaming that they’re starving. And he makes scrambled eggs when the chickens have gone into overtime and we’re swimming in eggs. So, what he makes the most is oatmeal.

Hence the 50 pound bag of Rolled oats on my kitchen floor. I buy them from a food co-op I organize.

But I have to admit, 50 pounds is a lot of oatmeal. But what is the alternative? Could you imagine if I had to buy those little Quaker Oats canisters of oatmeal? I’d have to have a single cart full of them. After all, we go through about 50 pounds every three months. Sometimes quicker, sometimes slower. But I buy about 4 bags a year.

Emery has gotten very creative with the oatmeal. He puts all sorts of different things in it. Mostly good stuff. Applesauce, canned peaches, raisins, cinnamon, honey, sugar, coconut, to name a few.

But I have a confession to make. I detest oatmeal. Not just dislike it. Detest it. It is horrid stuff. I can’t even eat the baked oatmeal. Now, oatmeal raisin cookies, those I can handle. But I’d never make them just for myself. I have found one way though, that I will actually eat oats.

It goes like this: Melt an entire stick of butter. Add heaping handfuls of brown sugar. Add a whole bunch of raisins. Toss in a few rolled oats. Stir and eat with a spoon when no one is looking!

See, I do my part to help finish off those 50 pounds.