While at the grocery store this morning, perusing potentially more healthy instant oatmeal packets than the brand I usually buy, it occurred to me that perhaps I could make my own. I know it doesn't take that long to cook rolled oats, but my family really doesn't want to wait five minutes, especially if it is snack time and not breakfast time. So I bought some Quick Oats and freeze dried apples and came home to look online.
I felt pretty clever to have thought of making my own instant oatmeal, but I discovered that I am far from the first! There were many sources online for homemade recipes. I perused a few and then took my own stab at it.
I nearly pulverized the dehydrated apples. Despite the fact that John wants to eat only the apples-and-cinnamon flavor, he picks out an apple bit if he ever finds one in his bowl. After pulverizing these, I couldn't even see them mixed in with the oats.
My final recipe, most "eyeballed":
Ingredients:
7 cups instant oats (not further ground as some recipes suggest)
2 oz freeze dried apples (which, apparently, is 6 servings fruit)
~ 3/4 cup white cane sugar (I look forward to exploring with healthier sugars)
~ 3/4 cup dry milk
~ 1/2 tsp salt
few dashes of cinnamon
Instructions:
Mix one part dry oatmeal mix with a little bit more than one part water. Microwave for one minute. Stir.
I thought the oatmeal was really quite yummy! It was not "healthy tasting," but sweet, gooey, and chewy. And I don't even eat oatmeal because I don't like it! I didn't just taste my sample, but I ate the whole bowl.
For preschooler-sized portions (1/4 cup dry), this should make about 28 servings. I haven't done a complex nutritional comparison, but I can easily compare protein:
- Quaker Oatmeal instant oatmeal contains 3 g protein (35 g packet),
- Kashi contains about 4 g protein (43 g packet),
- Nature's Path contains 5 g (50 g packet), and
- my homemade version contains almost 6 g protein (40 g packet).
And I'd hazard to guess that my version contains less sugar! (I didn't compare the cost, but I suspect that my buying a large container of oats is cheaper than buying a box full of individually packaged servings.)
It looks beautiful in your jars.
ReplyDeleteMy kids love homemade oatmeal. Might be my pregnancy talking here but I wonder if dried mangos would taste good, chopped up in it.... Mm! Are you going to post about your sugars experience?
ReplyDeleteChristine: If I do the sugars experiment in the oatmeal, I'll try to remember to post about it! It would have been smart of me to make a batch of say, half my oats, but I dumped everything into the bowl, so now my kids have to eat 28 servings of this before I experiment with the next batch. ;P
ReplyDeleteKatherine ... could you please portion out the oatmeal into single serving packets and seal them air-tight ... oh .. and type out instructions onto each package?
ReplyDeleteThanks Husband Chris
Husband Chris: No, I won't portion these out into baggies with instructions, you goose! But I will teach you how to unscrew the jar, shake some into a bowl, and hold the bowl under the faucet until there's a bit more water than oats before pushing the big "1" on the microwave. ;P
ReplyDeleteLove, Wife Katherine