Strange but good: chocolate porridge

It a great irony that one of winter's worst features - the horrible cold - directly leads to one of winter's best things - waking up in a warm doona cocoon while the air outside your bed is disgustingly chilly. This morning's bedtime experience was particularly delightful because it involved a purring cat (the best type of cat) so I was incredibly cross to have to get up and do grown-up things like meet deadlines and earn a living.  Because apparently I have the reasoning skills of a toddler, I decided that if I was going to get up and do things I needed a treat. I wanted chocolate for breakfast and chocolate for breakfast I was going to have!

However, despite my lack of impulse control I am still an adult so I decided to make a healthy(ish) chocolate breakfast treat: Chocolate Mudslide Oatmeal from the weird and strange food blog Chocolate-Covered Katie.

Yes, I know that is a terrible photo! I'm not a food photographer but, even if I was I don't think it's possible to make a pile of cocoa-flavoured oats look in any way appealing. I also think that based on her blog Chocolate-Covered Katie has a severely disordered relationship with food and some of the stuff on that website is crazy! (like this, these and this ... um no. Never). Disclaimers aside, this turned out to be a bizarrely yummy way to start the day that kept me full for hours while making me just that little bit less resentful for being out of bed on a cold winter's day. I put it in my strange but good file and I recommend it for the next time that your inner toddler really really wants to stay in bed.

Recipe for Chocolate-Covered Katie's Chocolate Mudslide Oatmeal

Ingredients
1/4 cup traditional oats
1/4 cup milk
1/4 water
Pinch salt
1 Tbsp dutch-processed cocoa
2 Tbsp raw sugar (this is a lot of sugar for me to add to my cereal but it's only 24 grams, which is less than the sugar in a bowl of All Bran. Processed cereal is really really bad for you.)
1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Method
1. Cook porridge as per package directions (I cooked the oats with the salt, milk and water on a medium heat for about eight minutes). I'd never cooked oats with salt before and I think it does improve the flavour.
2. Take oats off heat. Add cocoa, sugar and vanilla essence and stir well.
3. Put in bowl, top with milk and eat. Enjoy the surprising and weird deliciousness.