No one wakes up in the morning craving oatmeal; you deal with the pile of mush when you're trying to be healthy. Or at least that's the way it's always been. But this one quick and easy step changes everything.

Toast the oats in butter! It's a trick I picked up from the cookbook Whole Grain Mornings, where author Megan Gordon has oatmeal down to a science. For those of you who don't (yet!) have Megan's book, you don't really need a recipe. All you need to know is that the magic ratio, whether you're using steel cut or old-fashioned, is one tablespoon butter to one cup oats.

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Ethan Calabrese

First, melt a tab of butter in a small saucepan, then stir in the oats. Once the oats smell nutty, take them off the heat and let the pan cool slightly. Next, bring the milk or water (or a mixture of both!) to a simmer, stir in the toasted oats and cook to your liking.

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Ethan Calabrese

My advice: Taste the oatmeal before adding anything like brown sugar. You might surprise yourself and skip the sweetener. It's that amazing.

Try it with these super-delish oatmeal recipes:

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