Thursday, September 11, 2008

Instant Brown Sugar and Cinnamon Oatmeal

Oatmeal is served for breakfast on a regular basis in our home. I'm normally awake enough to make it the old fashioned way, but I do love instant oatmeal and the convenience it provides for those waking early or late. A packet from Aldi is $.18. Our homemade version tastes better and costs $.06 per pack. Buying the oatmeal from the bulk bin at Meijer really brought the price down. I know it's just pennies. Over the course of time those pennies add up to a lot of convenience and money saved from not buying cereal. I can feed our family of nine breakfast for around $1.25 a day. Better yet, I wrote down the measurements and the kids completely did the work.

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 1 minute in the microwave
Servings: 56
Cost: Approx. $3.50

This is what our large batch looked like:

2 2/3 pounds quick oats (2.00)
1 lb brown sugar ($.60)
salt
cinnamon ($.75)

To make a small batch (serves 8):
3 cups quick oats
brown sugar
salt
cinnamon

Grind 1/2 cup of oats in blender to a powder. To each bag add 3 tsp of powered oats, 1/3 cup quick oats, 1/8 tsp salt and 3 tsp brown sugar. To serve add 1/2-3/4 cup hot water and stir well.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love this idea! I never would've thought to grind the oatmeal... thanks for sharing.

life is good said...

I love this idea of making your own instant oatmeal! I will definitely try this. Thanks for sharing!

Duckygirl said...

MMmmmm, this sounds good. I made some instant apple and banana but didn't put it into individual servings...I think that would be a better way :)

-Laura

Mrs. X said...

My husband LOVES instant oatmeal packets, but they are SO much more expensive so I rarely, if ever, buy them. I am so excited to try this!

Tara said...

I noticed that you used individual baggies. I make instant oatmeal, but have it in a big plastic container and everyone scoops out a portion from there. Saves on the baggies! (And, my almost 8 yo can make breakfast for all the brothers!)

The recipe I use has powdered milk as an ingredient. It's a more expensive ingredient, but a friend gives me hers that she gets for free. If that source runs out, I'm so trying your recipe!

Kristen said...

This is VERY impressive, what a great idea!

Anonymous said...

I looked all over for this recipe. Thank you. This really is the best oatmeal. We used it in bulk at a girls camp and served about 100 people. We also used maple flavoring, dried apples. Some put coffee creamer in it. WONDERFUL.