How do you take your oatmeal?

I'm having oatmeal for breakfast. It's chilly in the swamp today, below freezing, (honest, I live in a swamp) so oatmeal sounded good. Please understand, I'm a southern girl, so grits are still an important part of the morning menu, but today it's oatmeal for me.

Growing up, my mom made a classic breakfast every morning-- eggs, bacon, toast and grits if she were feeling particularly chipper. She and my dad were active people, so they burned it off by 10 am most days. But oatmeal was rarely on the table until later in life, when they started to watch cholesterol levels and even then, they were more likely to have cereal than warm oatmeal.

So, on to my life today. I'm not a morning person. I freely admit it. My husband is usually in charge of breakfast for himself and the kiddos. I'm on my own, mostly because I don't want food for a couple hours after waking.

My "recipe" is 1/2 cup quick oats, 3/4 cup of water, microwave for 1.5 minutes.

As to how I take my oatmeal, it should be sweet. I know some people add salt, but salt is for grits. No self-respecting southerner adds sugar, honey or syrup to grits. It must be butter and salt, red-eye gravy, or on occasion, a cream gravy. For oatmeal, it should be brown sugar, syrup or honey. After that, it could be any combination of cinnamon, raisins, butter, maybe even apples.

Today, I had butter, cinnamon-sugar and raisins. Yes, I know the butter kind of defeats the cholesterol-lowering benefit of the oatmeal, but I have to draw the line somewhere.

I'm always looking for other ideas to dress up my humble bowl of oatmeal. How do you take yours?