For Breakfast, Brunch, Lunch, and Dinner

People have a lot of grain prejudices. They only eat whole grains, they only eat grains they're not sure how to pronounce, they don't eat grains at all. They also have strong feelings about the times when each grain is appropriate. Rice is only good at night, oats are only safe to eat in the morning, barley is only eaten in the winter and fall, but quinoa can be eaten whenever you want. Let's all take a cue from quinoa and eat these other grains whenever we darn well please.
I love oatmeal. Oatmeal with berries, nuts, agave, honey, brown sugar, cinnamon, molasses, ginger, peaches, cream, or all by itself. I also like it with tomatoes and hummus. Yep, savory oatmeal is absolutely amazing. I'm eating this one for breakfast, but the timing rant is still relevant because I have made this for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and if you make a really large batch, I'm sure this would be a huge hit at a brunch.

Sorry for the quality. All the pretty portions were snatched up first.

Grains are the best because you can add anything you like to them, and they almost always come out the other end tasting great. It's also super fun to play around with ingredients that can be sweet, savory, salty, sour, or spicy (explains my love for fruits and veggies too) So feel free to experiment with other savory ingredients and even different grains. I promise, you'll have a lot more successful batches than failures!

Mediterranean Oatmeal
Serves 4

2 cups rolled oats (Not instant)
2 Tbs Hummus
1 clove of garlic, minced
6-ish basil leaves, chopped
1 Tbs olive oil
3 cups of water
1 large heirloom tomato (2 cups chopped tomato)
Salt, Pepper, Parmesan to taste

Preheat oven to 350ºF, and grease 4 ramekins with some of the oil. In a skillet, heat the remaining oil and add the garlic and oats. Toast, stirring often, until the garlic is fragrant and the oats are just golden, remove from the heat. Grease add the salt, pepper, hummus, and basil to the oats when they're still warm and stir to combine. Add the water and stir. Portion the oats into the ramekins, top with the tomatoes and bake for 3 minutes. Add parmesan, if you want, and bake for 3 minutes more. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a minute or two before serving, because he ramekins will be hot.