Awhile back I saw an idea on a site I sometimes look at called The Kitchn. Overall, not a hugely useful site for me where I live, but fun to look at every once in awhile. They had a post about making instant oatmeal. I've also seen a few links for this over on Pinterest as well. Seeing how my husband and his co-workers travel a LOT, and in any little off-beat guest house in China you can get hot water, I thought the idea of some individual instant oatmeal packets was a great idea! I've sent these to the mountains with Brian once and they just added water to the ziplock bags at ate it! So with inspiration from several sites with generally the same base recipe, I more or less followed that and then had fun making my own variations. I hope these will be fun for you, too. I generally make up a half recipe so I can make more than one flavor. Brian's favorite is by far the Maple and Brown Sugar. I love the Apple Cinnamon. Oh, and someone please needs to tell Quaker to start marketing the Cranberry Orange flavor--its amazing, if I do say so! Hope you get some fun ideas and if you come up with more brilliant ones of your own, please come back to share!!
Instant Oatmeal Base Recipe
6 cups quick-cooking oats (can also use instant)
1/2 cup dry milk powder
2/3 cup brown sugar
Place 2 cups of the oats, brown sugar, and milk powder into a blender or a food processor. Blend until powdered. Stir it together with the remaining 4 cups of quick-cooking oats--mix really well to cover the larger flakes with all the powder. This is the base for a plain oatmeal. You can store this in bulk or put 1/2 cup portions in individual bags or containers. To serve, mix 1/2 cup oatmeal with 2/3 cup boiling water. You can just choose your own add-ins when you mix it up or you can use one of the following variations.
Maple & Brown Sugar
Add 2 tsp maple extract to the base recipe. In order to add a liquid to this dry mix, I poured the maple extract into the brown sugar. Then blended it into the powder. It worked great.
Apple Cinnamon
Add 2 Tbs cinnamon and ~1 cup chopped dried apples to the base recipe.
Cranberry Orange
Add 2 Tbs grated orange rind and 2/3-1 cup dried cranberries to the base recipe. For the grated orange rind, I spread it on a baking sheet and put it in a low oven (150C/300F) for a few minutes to dry it out a bit. I didn't want the rind to be real wet in the mix.
Oatmeal Raisin Cookie
Add 4 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp allspice, and 2/3-1 cup raisins to the base recipe. You could also use nutmeg or cloves with the cinnamon.
Strawberries & Cream (or Peaches)
Add 2 tsp vanilla, additional 1/4 cup milk powder, and dehydrated strawberries or peaches to the base recipe. At my local grocery store I can sometimes find the packs of dehydrated strawberries or peaches that are pictured below. They worked great for this. I broke the strawberries up a bit and added in 2 packages to the base recipe. I added the vanilla to the brown sugar then blended it with the powder.
Notes: When you're using the variations, you might want to mix up a heaping 1/2 cup of mix with 2/3 cup water. These are just my takes on some fun flavors. Have fun with it and change it up! I think the 2/3 cup brown sugar is plenty sweet, but Brian thinks it could be sweeter. So you might have to adjust the sugar a bit to your personal taste. If you want it sweeter, put in about 3/4 cup brown sugar.
Instant Oatmeal Base Recipe
6 cups quick-cooking oats (can also use instant)
1/2 cup dry milk powder
2/3 cup brown sugar
Place 2 cups of the oats, brown sugar, and milk powder into a blender or a food processor. Blend until powdered. Stir it together with the remaining 4 cups of quick-cooking oats--mix really well to cover the larger flakes with all the powder. This is the base for a plain oatmeal. You can store this in bulk or put 1/2 cup portions in individual bags or containers. To serve, mix 1/2 cup oatmeal with 2/3 cup boiling water. You can just choose your own add-ins when you mix it up or you can use one of the following variations.
Maple & Brown Sugar
Add 2 tsp maple extract to the base recipe. In order to add a liquid to this dry mix, I poured the maple extract into the brown sugar. Then blended it into the powder. It worked great.
Apple Cinnamon
Add 2 Tbs cinnamon and ~1 cup chopped dried apples to the base recipe.
Cranberry Orange
Add 2 Tbs grated orange rind and 2/3-1 cup dried cranberries to the base recipe. For the grated orange rind, I spread it on a baking sheet and put it in a low oven (150C/300F) for a few minutes to dry it out a bit. I didn't want the rind to be real wet in the mix.
Oatmeal Raisin Cookie
Add 4 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp allspice, and 2/3-1 cup raisins to the base recipe. You could also use nutmeg or cloves with the cinnamon.
Strawberries & Cream (or Peaches)
Add 2 tsp vanilla, additional 1/4 cup milk powder, and dehydrated strawberries or peaches to the base recipe. At my local grocery store I can sometimes find the packs of dehydrated strawberries or peaches that are pictured below. They worked great for this. I broke the strawberries up a bit and added in 2 packages to the base recipe. I added the vanilla to the brown sugar then blended it with the powder.
Notes: When you're using the variations, you might want to mix up a heaping 1/2 cup of mix with 2/3 cup water. These are just my takes on some fun flavors. Have fun with it and change it up! I think the 2/3 cup brown sugar is plenty sweet, but Brian thinks it could be sweeter. So you might have to adjust the sugar a bit to your personal taste. If you want it sweeter, put in about 3/4 cup brown sugar.
Sara Beth,
ReplyDeleteI LOVE this recipe. I like oatmeal, but the instant packets are so expensive where I live. Plus, even though it's healthier, the non-instant varieties just don't taste near as good. My kids usually don't eat all of their breakfast, but they've eaten everything and asked for more every time we've had this oatmeal!
So glad you like it. My kids like it too!
ReplyDelete