Kick up your oats by considering creative serving ideas like these:

• Brûlée style – sprinkle oatmeal with raw sugar and caramelize with a culinary torch to create a sweet crust.
• Compote –  create a compote or sauté, caramelize, or curry some fruit to serve warm with the oatmeal.
• Savory – create variations that will surprise and satisfy your customers, like oatmeal topped with crispy bacon, creamy goat cheese, balsamic vinegar, chopped basil, or rosemary. Go Italian with ricotta cheese and diced tomatoes.
• Make it seasonal – stir in pureed pumpkin, nutmeg, ginger, and cinnamon to evoke a fall holiday favorite; top with eggnog and nutmeg for a Christmas-time treat; and so on.
• Be inspired by coffee houses – take your flavor cues from popular coffee house offerings. They certainly have seasonal flavors down!
• Offer an Oatmeal Bar – keep the oatmeal warm in a tureen, crockpot, or on a small steam table, and give customers the option of choosing their own toppings just as they might from a Sundae bar (dried fruit, nuts, fresh fruit, chocolate or butterscotch chips, brown sugar, cinnamon, maple syrup, honey, cream, milk, etc.)

Besides being comforting, cheap, filling, and portable, oatmeal is low in fat and high in fiber, which can help reduce the risk of heart disease and diabetes. Couple that with some creative presentation ideas and you’ve got a chic, powerful, profitable bowl full of awesome!