On Overtime and Oatmeal

Overtime and I have a love-hate relationship. I'm sure many of you out there understand completely, wanting the money, but very much not wanting to continue to bust your ass for it any more than you would on a normal shift. I haven't posted like I have been wanting to because I've worked so much over the last week and a half. Buuuut... I did a little documenting of my food adventures. As it would turn out, I did have oatmeal I needed to use up. Didn't discover this until the last leg of my overtime kick, but that's alright, I think it's enough for an amusing blog. 

OK! Enough of the boring stuff! On to the oatmeal!

Here it is, doing its oatmeal thing... just sitting there. Being oatmeal. Anyway, you can see I have a lot of it to use, since the use by date is soon. Not too close that I'm panicking, but I figure I should get on this before I do. So... what do you do with oatmeal? How about make a bowl of it?

Sammy wanted to help!

Add oatmeal and water to a bowl. Read the directions on the packaging for optimum oat to water ratio. Then heat it up.

Here's a bowl, all heated up. I added butter and sugar. Yum, right? No? How about bananas?

This is a quick and easy breakfast. It's really sweet, too, even without sugar. I imagine little kids would love it for being so sweet. Come to think of it, this is probably a good snack to teach young kids how to make. It's safe, since bananas can be cut up with a spoon. I've also found that this is an easy thing to get dogs to eat if their appetite isn't what it should be. 

Not into bananas? How about this?

Make your own apple cinnamon! We've all seen those instant oatmeal packets with their flavors, but this is better! I promise. Just make the oatmeal, add cinnamon, and cut up an apple and stir the pieces in. I have found that this, also, is a good thing to get a dog to eat. Since the apple I used was too big for this, I gave the extra slices to the dogs. They were happy! 

And, of course, working overtime was hell on my nervous system, so I broke out in hives. (Lame!) Then I figured, hey, I could use the oatmeal for that, too! Who says all my garbage has to be eaten? I don't anymore! Time for an oatmeal bath!

Now I'm prone to hives, always have been, so I know my oatmeal baths. This is the best method I have found so far, and also is the easiest to clean up! How win-full is that?

From here on out, this will be called an oatmeal bag.

This is the foot of an old pair of pantyhose stuffed with oatmeal and tied off.  Yes, it really is that easy to do your skin a favor. Now run the bath water.

Yes, Deanna, we still use the cups! Awesome wedding favors!

I set up this little display on the edge of the tub just to help with visuals. I usually just drop in the tea and oatmeal. That tea bag is chamomile, which is relaxing or something. I've seen no actual studies using the scientific method to prove or disprove the claims of chamomile being relaxing or having any health benefits, but I like the way it smells and it doesn't irritate my skin so I use it in oatmeal baths. The cup is brewed tea, for drinking. Because I like tea.

Ok, so the water is warm, but not too hot,  you dropped in the oatmeal and tea, time to get in! Wait! Did you close the bathroom door? Now, granted, I realize most people weren't raised by two cats and three hippies like I was, so they probably just automatically close doors behind them. If you're anything like me and don't, just think about it here. You're a hippie, or something like it. You have pets.

Not pictured: Osiris, who was licking my arm.

Now, I don't know about you, but I have a hard time relaxing with quadrupeds drinking my bath water. So kick them out and close the door!

This was so nice. It stops itching just thinking about this moment.

Ok, back to the oatmeal bath. Take the now wet oatmeal bag and rub it on your skin. I'm not sure how clean it'll get you, but it does help with irritated skin and even skin that isn't irritated is smoother afterwards. After you're done rubbing it on your skin, just relax. It's a bath, lean back and breathe deep! When you're done, just unplug the drain and dry yourself off! Remember to apply lotion all over within 3 minutes of leaving the bath or your skin will lose moisture.

Alright, now I'm just gonna brag. I have such a helpful puppy!

Mere seconds before she attempted to swallow the oatmeal bag whole.

She cleaned up my mess!

Alright Internet, your turn! Any yummy oatmeal ideas we need to know about? Other health and beauty things oatmeal is good for? I have to know. Leave a comment! And if you need help using up a food item, send me an email! I'll figure something out and do a post on it.