Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal

Well, here in New Orleans, the thermostat dipped below 70 so that means it's fall and I can officially gorge myself on all things pumpkin!!

I'm not a huge oatmeal fan, but I know it's good for me and, well frankly I could eat pumpkin off a crusty old shoe, so I decided to give Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal a shot.

I perused the web and found a gojillion recipes, but none of them were exactly what I wanted and I had to go with the limited items I had on hand in my pantry.

Here's the concoction I came up with.... (printable recipe here)

Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal

1.5 cups Old Fashioned Oats 3 cups skim milk 3/4 cup pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling) 9 dashes pumpkin pie spice 2 dashes cinnamon 1/4 tsp vanilla extract 3 tbs. Splenda brown sugar Add all ingredients except Splenda brown sugar, bring to a gentle boil, then simmer for about 5 minutes. Add Splenda brown sugar at the end.  As far as spices, vanilla and sugar, use these to suit your individual taste.  If you don't like Splenda, you could always use honey, maple syrup...skies the limit. Use your choice of garnishes, though this is perfectly delicious as is.  I used walnuts, cranberries and raisins.  I think you could also sub almond milk for the skim milk and it'd be mighty tasty. And because I was feeling especially proud of myself (and because I had it in the fridge), I squirted on some whipped cream....uh huh, yes I did. I made this yesterday for breakfast and reheated the leftovers this morning (added a splash of skim milk to loosen it up) and it was just as good. This is a definite keeper recipe! Happy Fall y'all!!

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