One of my favorite food memories from when I was a child is breakfast on frosty, cold mornings. I would sit at the kitchen table snuggled up in my robe and flannel PJs and my mom would bring me a steaming bowl of oatmeal. She would place a heaping spoonful of brown sugar in the middle and pour cream or half-and-half on top. Mixing it all up and eating it with a slice of buttered toast would make me feel all warm and cozy inside.

As an adult, with mad, hectic mornings and no mother around, oatmeal is not so much a treat. It may be good for you, but without all that cream and sugar, oatmeal is kind of a flavorless gruel and not worth the hassle. Beth Gallo wants to change my mind. She is a breast cancer survivor who was looking for an answer to improving her health while dealing with her own mad, hectic mornings when she invented an oatmeal that solves the problem: Mad Hectic Oatmeal. It combines organic oatmeal and protein powder along with other health boosting ingredients such as ground, organic flaxseed meal, organic sesame seeds, freeze-dried fruit and tree nuts. The result is an all-natural, high-fiber mix with 17 grams of protein and 840 milligrams of omega-3. It comes in six flavors: almond pecan, chocolate raspberry, French chocolate, raspberry almond, red raspberry and strawberry pecan.

I tried the red raspberry and wow. Oatmeal is back on the breakfast menu again. It couldn't be faster to fix. You simply mix it with water and put it in the microwave for a minute and it's done. You can also cook it on the stove. I added a little more water than the instructions called for because it's really thick. But it has a nice, sweet, satisfying taste from the cane sugar and raspberries - but not overly sweet and salty like the instant oatmeal that you usually find on store shelves. And after eating a bowl, you really feel like you've had a meal. I wasn't hungry all morning.

The bottom line: It's healthy, fast and tastes good. And it's a great way to add a lot of nutrients to your diet. If you like oatmeal, or even if you think you don't, you should try it. Get it at www.MadHecticOatmeal.com for $7.95.

Lifestyles reporter Sylvia Anderson can be reached at sylviaanderson@npgco.com.