Stale Steel

I’m a mess today. Woke up hours ago because of some sharp pains to my thigh. Not that you really need to know, but the pain is anterior-lateral is occurs when sitting down or getting up. Abduction or adduction is possible, but not without me almost crying. Most likely this is all muscle related, and the sensible thing would be to just rest.

Sensible thing.

Instead, I’ve been hobbling around the kitchen and living room, packing my pool bag and getting something in my stomach so I can take a pain reliever. I went swimming last night, and there is a good possibility that session aggravated this problem even more. But I paid this membership off and I intend on using it as much as possible.

Since I was up, I decided I should have something more than several cups of coffee (I’m in my crazy coffee drinking phase again). It was still dark, and the heat wasn’t going to kick in for at least another hour. So oatmeal was the only answer. But not the instant stuff I have laying around in the pantry, but steel cut oats.

It’s not add-some-water-and-zap-in-the-microwave quick, but cooking steel cut oats is not hard, nor does it take all that long. Bring three cups of water to a boil with a pinch of salt. Add in a cup of oats and cook on low for 20 minutes or so. Cooking directions may vary depending on your brand, but that is really all there is to it. I added brown sugar to the mix, hence the brown tinge to the oatmeal. Smelled wonderful.

But then came that first bite. The oats had some give, which I like, and it was lightly sweetened. But it was stale. There’s no amount of toppings to cover that stale taste – it just coats the inside of your mouth.

Just how long have I had this stuff sitting around? I took a look at the expiration date on the bag, and hello! Use by date was a date last year.

Whoops.

I really need to clean out that pantry.