RECIPE: Oatmeal is weeknight dinner-ready when topped with savory mushrooms

Oatmeal isn’t the first thing most of us think of for dinner, especially when you consider the bounty of sweet flavors of the cereal taking up most of the real estate on grocery shelves. It can be, however, a perfectly delicious — and healthy — alternative to risotto, polenta or rice when evening rolls around.

For both quick and flavor-packed savory oatmeal, I like to use quick steel cut oats, which offer the same taste and texture of steel cut oats, but the grains themselves have been cut into much smaller pieces. This means they cook in a mere 10 minutes or so, instead of the 30 to 45 required for the traditional preparation.

To top the oats, pick up a pound of packaged, pre-sliced mixed wild mushrooms, along with garlic, fresh parsley and one egg per person. You’ll cook the vegetables while the oatmeal simmers, and then, once everything else is ready to go, fry the eggs just long enough to set the whites and leave a glorious runny yolk to mix in to your bowl.