quick and easy breakfast porridge

Porridge is not one of those things I ever considered really for breakfast, I have to say. When I was little, mum used to make it for us before school on cold mornings, or my Grandma would make it when we went to visit her, but the only way I liked it then was with copious amounts of sugar and milk. I stopped having it when I realised there were more fun breakfasts out there, like coco pops...

Flash forward to uni and my friend Amy used to eat a lot of those little instant porridge pots. They never looked that appealing to me, but who knows, I busy was enjoying my sausage bap with extra ketchup. In the supermarket a few months back, I had a flash of intrigue and threw one into my trolley, and it promptly sat in my kitchen cupboard until the weather turned cold enough for me to warrant trying it. 

And it wasn't a pleasant experience, is all I can say. It was pretty much like eating glue, I don't know if thats because I had to add water, or what, but it was like tasteless glue in a little paper cup. More determined this time around, I set out on a mission to buy some oats, and give it a go again. A couple of mornings later and I have it down fine art! I do it in the microwave, because, really, I can't be trusted with fire and gas at 7.30AM.

I'll include my little recipe here, but it's really not a recipe, more a ratio.

INGREDIENTS
For one large serving:
- 1/2 cup oats
- 1 cup semi-skimmed milk
- Toppings of your choice!

1. Place a 1/2 cup of porridge oats in a microwavable bowl. For ease in the morning, I use a 1/2 cup measure, because who can be bothered weighing things that early in the morning? Google tells me it's about 90g.
2. Add the milk to the bowl and microwave for 2 minutes. I microwave it in 30 second blasts, and mix in-between, to make sure all the oats are being covered by the milk.
3. Leave to stand for about 30-60 seconds, whilst finding/preparing your toppings. 

My go-to favourite-topping is a good helping of jam, currently rotating between peach, plum or pear jam, with a handful of raisins or nuts, depending on what I can find in the morning, thought I've experimented with some slightly less healthier versions that involved chocolate chips, but my favourite is with lots of jam. It sort of feels like I'm having rice pudding for breakfast, and I can imagine I'm somewhat decadent.
Have you got any topping recommendations? I'd like to upgrade my porridge-game..