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What to serve guests in the morning? It bakes while you prepare coffee, slice fruit, and take a moment of quiet before this happens.

Oatmeal hasn’t been my kid’s thing, since he was a baby. Now that I think about it, maybe he always hated oatmeal but couldn’t avoid spoon-feeding. Once he could hold a spoon, it never went in the direction of oatmeal’s mushy consistency, absence of color, and the lack of flavor, despite offers of brown sugar and fruit toppings. I wonder why? Oatmeal cookies – yes, oatmeal – no, until now.

Oatmeal, aside from those preservative-laden instant packets, is often trickier to prepare than we think. My attempt from steel-cut oats always takes longer than planned, which means it’s never possible on weekday mornings. One favorite method is the night-before; cook ten minutes, leave covered on the stove overnight, and a reheat it in the morning, but it still didn’t appeal to my son.

I found this recipe on one of my favorite sites, which bakes in typical toppings without much nutritional assault. The result is a warm breakfast meal, that lands at the intersection of oatmeal and cobbler. Because I’ve had repeated oatmeal rejection, I served this one with a small scoop of ice cream. This isn’t the first time I swapped dessert for breakfast. Even served with ice cream, banana blueberry baked oatmeal is much more nutritious than donuts, cereal, and instant oatmeal. Success. He evenfinished it off for an afterschool snack that day.

Now that he eats oatmeal with his own spoon, I don’t need ice cream. Should I try spoon-feeding cauliflower to him, hmm.

Happy Thanksgiving.