This is one of those made up meals that is the result of leftovers.  I had heard about people making pumpkin oatmeal… Susan V did a great post after Thanksgiving about what to do with your leftover pumpkin and she mentioned pumpkin oatmeal too.  So one morning shortly after Thanksgiving, I decided to try it out. I added a can of pumpkin to about 4(?) cups of cooked oatmeal and stirred in some brown sugar, vanilla, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger.  (start with 1/4 tsp each of ginger powder and ground cloves; 1/2 tsp of nutmeg; and 1 tsp each of cinnamon, vanilla extract and salt – and as much brown sugar as you like.  Add more of everything to taste, keeping ratio about the same).

The oatmeal was super tasty and we had plenty left over.  So the next morning I took the leftovers out of the fridge and formed the oatmeal into small patties.  I pre-heated a non-stick skillet and placed the oatmeal cakes in it.  I cooked them until they were heated through and browned a bit on both sides.  I served them with sliced bananas and drizzled with some pure maple syrup.  The oatmeal cakes were more delicious than the original oatmeal! Perhaps due in part to the fact that the leftover oatmeal had sat in the fridge over night which always improves the taste of the spices. Delicious!

I served the bananas fresh, but am thinking next time, I might put them in the skillet to heat/brown them a bit before plating them.

Note (thanks, trishg): This is really a two day meal – regular hot pumpkin oatmeal the first day and then these yummy cakes made from leftovers, the next day.  I’m pretty sure the reason the pumpkin oatmeal formed nicely into patties was because it was cold, right out of the fridge.  If you try to make patties when you first make the oatmeal, you’d probably need to use as little moisture as possible – or chill the oatmeal for a while before trying patties.