Adventures In Expedient Oatmeal

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I like a convenient, quick breakfast as much as the next person. Factor in my sweet tooth, and I find that the Quaker packets of instant oatmeal are fast, easy, and tasty when I’m in a hurry. They are not, however, super healthy. Even if you get the reduced sugar option, they still have artificial ingredients which are billed as “natural flavor” (uh huh). I’ve opted to make my own instant oatmeal, since it’s super fast and easy . And I’ve made up some packets to ship off to my nephew in college to see how he likes them.

The base recipe is just quick oats, salt, pumpkin pie spice, and brown sugar. That’s enough right there. But if you add in a little something extra, like raisins or craisins (sweetened dried cranberries) or dried apples or PB and chocolate, then the basic oatmeal is elevated a bit. I particularly like the craisins in the oatmeal…they are plenty sweet enough but have a really bright pop of flavor.

This is so easy that it makes for a very short blog post. The base recipe for one generous serving is 2/3 cup of quick oats, 1 Tbsp of brown sugar (firmly packed), a heaping 1/8 tsp of pumpkin pie spice, and 2 generous pinches of salt (or 1/16 tsp; I opted to just fill my 1/8 tsp measure halfway). You can really add in whatever additions you like, but keep in mind that additions that will absorb water need to be accounted for. 2 Tbsp of raisins or craisins is fine. But if you added both in, you’d probably need to add a little more water, for example. If you choose to add chopped nuts, you can add as much as you’d like because they won’t absorb the water. And speaking of water, it takes 1 cup of boiling water to finish off your serving.

For my nephew, I wanted to send these as actual packets, like the Quaker Oats company does. It’s not actually necessary, of course, but it made me happy. I got these waxed paper bags off Amazon, and I chose to prep them thusly:

Fold over the protruding top edge. Fold the edge over again and on this new surface, add a strip of double sided tape from edge to edge. Fold over one more time, to get that last crease in place. Then write yourself a label. You could print some, of course, but I opted to write mine in pencil.

Put one serving of instant oatmeal into one bag and seal it up. Hey, presto! A very convenient meal or snack which is healthier (and often cheaper!) than the store-bought alternative. Plus, you can make your own flavor combinations that Quaker doesn’t offer. Oh, and one of these servings is equivalent to two packets of the Quaker stuff.