"Instant" non-instant breakfast cereals
For convenience, many people resort to just-add-milk or instant varieties of breakfast cereals, which is kind of a shame because they tend to be loaded with things you don't need like copious amounts of refined sugars. The only real difference with instant varieties of hot cereals is they are processed finer so they cook more quickly at the expense of less desirable texture. The non-instant versions of these things actually cook very quickly in the microwave with no loss in quality vs cooking them on the stove.
Here's my basic recipes for two hot cereals which are ridiculously simple in the microwave. I always use Bob's Red Mill cereals and highly recommend them. The same technique works for just about any hot cereal, provided to adjust the hydration and cooking times. There's plenty of variety to pick from on on Bob's Red Mill web site and many supermarkets stock several of them. If your supermarket doesn't stock them, you can use polenta instead of grits or just regular rolled oats. Avoid using hominy grits if at all possible. For whatever reason, most restaurants tend to serve hominy grits which are flavorless compared to yellow corn grits. The very best restaurants always serve yellow corn grits for a reason. If you've only ever had hominy grits and you didn't like them, you need to try yellow corn grits.
It's very important that you use a bowl that has at least 3 times the volume of the amount of liquid you are using, otherwise you will make a big mess in your microwave. I always put a plate under the bowl just in case it boils over and because it makes removing a hot bowl easier.
Grits:
1/4 c Bob's Red Mill stone ground yellow corn grits
1/2 c water
1/2 c milk (or just more water)
pinch salt (optional)
Place all ingredients in the bowl and microwave for two and a half minutes at full power, then 6 minutes at 40% power. Rest for 8 minutes. If grits taste gritty, then they weren't cooked enough so add more time on the 2nd cooking phase if your microwave doesn't get them done enough.
Favorite addition: All I add to mine are just a bit of black pepper. Grit do work great with all sorts of additions so if you want to add butter or cheese go for it. Yellow grits taste naturally more sweet IMO than hominy grits, so you don't need added sugars.
Oatmeal:
1/2 c Bob's Red Mill Thick Rolled Oats
1 c water
pinch salt (optional)
Place all ingredients in the bowl and microwave for one minute at full power, then two and a half minutes at 50% power. Rest for 5 minutes.
Favorite additions: 1 tsp of molasses or real maple syrup. Both of these things add a ton of flavor for the amount of sugar you get so they are much better than adding just sugar, honey, or other syrups. I also like adding chopped walnuts and dried cherries instead of sweeteners.