One thing that's happened since the pandemic is I've been eating a lot more oatmeal, and I've formed some opinions about oatmeal best practices. First of all, oatmeal really ought to be cooked on the stovetop from non-quick cooking oats. It's easy and the texture is way better.
Oatmeal is a grain like any other and it needs to be seasoned as you would season rice. It needs fat and salt, even if you're going to have it sweetened.
My go-to sweet oatmeal is with butter, maple syrup, and fresh berries (and salt -- 1/4 tsp kosher salt for 75g of dry oats). For savory oatmeal, try it with salt plus pepper, good olive oil, parmesan cheese, and the zest of half a lemon.
This is really easy -- if you have a block of parmigiano reggiano in the fridge, just grab your microplane and grate it and zest the lemon right over the oatmeal.
As for the olive oil -- I think most people use this wrong in their kitchens. You should buy one with a nice, prominent flavor for applications where you can actually taste the oil, such as adding it to rice or oats. You should not be using it as your default cooking oil.
Personally I love this oil. It's expensive, but again -- you shouldn't generally be cooking with it. Use it for applications where you can really taste it, and sauté in a more neutral oil. fioreoliveoils.com/products/corat…
In response to some responses, I'm not saying *never* cook in olive oil. You should use a lower-price EVOO to make, e.g., tomato sauce. And I use the good stuff to saute a shallot when I'm making rice. But a lot of people will even saute meats in EVOO, which I disagree with.
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