Hot Cooked Cornmeal with Brown Sugar - one of my favorie alternatives to oatmeal

It has been freezing here in Texas this week! We are not used to such plunging temperatures. We have our water running all night to save our pipes, the kids are wearing two coats to school, I even bought some ice scrapers for our cars! Those of you living in normal climates are chuckling to yourselves right now, but we just aren't acclimated to this type of weather. Heat is what we are good at. With such a chilly wake up, this hot cereal is the perfect thing to warm you up for the day.

This dish is extremely simple, but one that I grew up on, and perfect for a cold morning. This you can toss in your rice cooker or make it on the stove. I prefer the stove option when I'm making a single serving, but if I'm making it for my whole family, it's super easy to throw in my rice cooker (or you could use your Instant Pot). 

Hot Cooked Cornmeal with Brown Sugar (single serving):

1 1/3 cup water

1/3 cup cornmeal

1/3 cup milk

2 tsp brown sugar

dash of salt

In a small sauce pan, whisk together water, cornmeal and salt. Bring to a boil. Whisk while boiling about 1-2 minutes, constantly as it thickens (unless you like big lumps- some people love the lumps!).

Take off heat and let it rest for about 5 minutes. 

Add milk and brown sugar. Seriously, it's nothing fancy, super simple, and one reason I love it.

If I do it in my rice cooker or Instant Pot, I add everything in there except the milk and brown sugar. Push the start button, then I go wake up my kids, get them dressed, lunches in backpacks, etc. and the cornmeal is ready to go. All we have to do is dish it up and throw some milk and brown sugar on top.
It's a great alternative to oatmeal, grits or cream of wheat.