My Oatmeal Cooker

 After finding I like long cooked oatmeal rather then instant. After the daily boil overs on the stove and the ensuing mess to clean up. I got this Hamilton beach rice cooker.  I just love it and it has not boiled over the stovetop once.  I get the first bowl hot from the cooker and refrigerate the other four servings eat them cold. Yes this is so good you can eat a cold. But if you would like you can also microwave the others for one minute.

My favorite recipe makes 5 servings. 

Sheri’s Favorite Oatmeal Recipe 

1/2 teaspoon of salt

3 cups of rolled oats, they include a measuring cup with the rice cooker. 

Fill to the #4 water line.

This is my basic recipe. You can also add flaxseed, nuts or dried fruit. Stir in well before adding water. I also like to stir it after adding the water too. 

Press hot cereal and 10 minutes. You do this by pressing the Hot Cereal button until it reaches 10.  Do some chores.  After the oatmeal is cooked wait 2 minutes and measure out 1 cup servings. The calorie count will vary depending on what you put in.  Remember that nuts and flax seed will up the fat grams.  Anything you add beyond the above recipe will add extra calories so be prudent on your add ins.  

John likes this for steaming vegetables. He likes how easy the clean up is.  For Spinach he set it for 2 minutes on Steam Cook and it came out perfect. 

Hamilton Beach Digital Programmable Rice and Slow Cooker & Food Steamer, 20 Cups Cooked (10 Cups Uncooked), 14 Pre-Programmed Settings for Sear Sauté, Hot Cereal, Soup, Nonstick Pot, Stainless Steel. Look for it in your Google Search engine.  

I am not receiving a commission on this item. So look for the beat deal you can. 

For Operation Gratitude

 I divided my time today between making more stitch markers and knitting Operation Gratitude scarfs.  I won’t sho the stitch markers, they are all red.  I have been working on this scarf for a few months at my slower speed.  I do have 2 more scarfs for Operation Gratitude in different parts of the house.  

Play Time

 This afternoon I was bored and decided I needed some play time.  So I got out a drawer of beads. Pick out a few strands of beads, then got out my box of findings.  Findings are the bits and pieces that are needed to make jewelry and more importantly stitch markers.  Today I made 2 strands of glass mushrooms and 1 strand of ladybugs into stitch markers. I also took a few miscellaneous beads , then made a few more stitch markers.  I have a few more strands pulled for tomorrow too.  The stitch markers on the left are the ones that just happened to wonder off to my knitting room. I finally made the hand carved bear bead into a stitch marker, it has been in my box for years.  The rest I will bring to knitting guild with me.  

Another One Bites the Dust

Today’s first finished project is a scarf for the Old Pueblo Knitting Guild Navajo Project. It is knit with 2 strands held together. 1 novelty yarn in black with 1 strand of super wash wool in green. This is the last for this series because I am thankfully out of the novelty yarn. The empty shopping tote will be used for another project, it is from one of my favorite clothing designers Bryn Walker.  

You many notice a second picture.  This beanie is another Old Pueblo Knitting Guild charity project. This one is a cotton hat going to the Flowing Wells School District Clothing Bank. Since I consider hats like M &M’s I have already started another cotton hat. My 2 hat bags will never be empty because I am always knitting hats.  It is my mindless knitting for car rides.  

UFO’s

 With my limited knitting time my goal is to finish as many UFO’s as possible. Some of the empty project bags I will keep. Others I will destash with enough yarn for a charity project. So hopefully you will see lots of project pictures in the coming weeks. 

Maxi Fingerless Gloves

 The thought occurred to me to night that you have not seen  me wearing my new Maxi Fingerless Gloves. I have got to tell you that I did not take time to set up my tripod. I also found it hard to take a picture of my own hand.  None the less, here it is in action. Yes I did type up this blog wearing my new gloves.  I tend to like warm and toasty hands at night and on cold days. It helps me sleep better.  

I will try to take a picture of the red ones at a later date. 

Finally

 I finally have found a path to take. I know it’s been a while. 

In knitting, I found that if I knit a few rows and rest a bit. Repeat until it’s time to stop. I do not have pain. Yes, I am not knitting as fast, but I am knitting again.  Also no more big projects. 

I can really Start exercising again.  I will ramp it up slowly so I don’t injure myself.  I wish COVID19 was over so I can walk inside the mall without a mask.  It’s a lot cooler there. 

I have also discovered that I am really, really bad at judging water and ice tea intake when we go out for lunch or dinner and it’s over 100f.  Yes we are still only doing outdoor dining.  I drink way too much and spend to much time getting rid of the excess.   Although I personally feel it’s better to drink too much than not enough.