Your rolled oats can absorb long-lasting almond milk

Today’s question: At the grocery store, I see all sorts of oatmeal: Instant, oneminute, old fashioned, and then there are steel cut oats. I’m all for variety but don’t understand the differences. Can you help me make sense of the options? Oatmeal? You need me to explain oatmeal to you? Really? Oatmeal?

Well, hokey-dokey. I don’t think there is really a heck of a lot to explain, but here goes.

The main difference with various types of oatmeal is how it is processed.

“Rolled” means the oats are steamed first to soften them up and then pressed. In general, rolled oats cook faster than steel-cut oats, and absorb more liquid. They’re the kind usually found in granola bars and cookies and the like.

Steel-cut oats, sometimes called Irish or Scottish oats, are oats chopped into little pieces, about the size of rice. This means they take longer to cook and are chewier than rolled oats. People use them as filler in meat loaf or stuffing, although that’s cheating, if you ask me.

Let’s face it. We’re talking about oatmeal here. Oatmeal is oatmeal.

In my 50-plus years of driving I have never seen more paint spilled on the streets and highways than in the Phoenix area. What gives?

Beats me.

Why does almond milk have a longer shelf life than regular milk?

It’s because the fats in almonds or soybeans don’t turn rancid as quickly as the fats in dairy milk.

Why don’t they stop playing the national anthem before football games so there won’t be any controversy?

I think that would just make things worse.