I've been busy picking, washing, pitting and drying cherries all weekend. Naturally, we've been eating our fill of plump, ripe fresh cherries too. I froze a couple of bags of cherries with their stems on and I'll be making a batch of cherry jam tomorrow but my very favorite is dried cherries. Have you tried dired cherries yet? We like them better than raisins and they can be used in place of raisins in most recipes. We eat them as is, plus I toss them into muffins, quick breads, salads and our morning oatmeal.  Try this healthy and delicious oatmeal for your family's breakfast.



Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups water
1 cup Old Fashioned Oats, or Quick Cooking Oats
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup dried cherries
1/2 teaspoon Watkins Vanilla Extract
2 tablespoons cherry jam
1/4 cup 1 percent low-fat milk

Cooking directions:

Bring water, oats, salt and cherries to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until oats reach desired consistency.  Remove from heat, stir in the vanilla extract and cherry jam. Serve warm with milk.

P.S. Dried cherries can be purchased at most supermarkets if you don't dry your own.

Note: The dry cherries add a bit of natural sweetness, diabetics can use sugar free jam or omit it altogether.