Thursday, June 11, 2009

Oatmeal Packets




It's summer. In an attempt to lure my 5 year old away from PBS, I needed a craft. And we needed breakfast. These Homemade Oatmeal Packets accomplished both!

It's really simple and delicious (and inexpensive!). What else would you expect from me?!?

CUSTOM MADE OATMEAL PACKETS

Ingredients:
3 cups oats
brown or white sugar
baggies or some container (you'll need about 8 per batch)
small blender/chopper/Magic Bullet
mix-ins for the oatmeal (dried fruit, powdered creamer, chocolate chips, etc)

Instructions:
Blend up 1 cup of oats and set aside in a bowl. Next, portion out 1/4 cup servings of the remaining whole oats (not the ones you just blended) into airtight containers like baggies or other small containers. To each packet, add 2 tablespoons of the powder oats (it's a thickening agent). Some recipes call for a dash of salt, but I didn't find it necessary. If you like, add a teaspoon or so of brown/white sugar or powder sweetener of choice. The final step is to add the mix-ins...




  • dried fruit (raisin, blueberry, cranberry, cherry, apricot)


  • spices (cinnamon, nutmeg)


  • powdered creamer (for a fruit & cream variety)


  • chocolate chips


  • chopped nuts (walnuts, pecans, almonds)


  • colored sprinkles
Close up the bag and your custom made, healthier-than-store-bought, instant oatmeal packets are complete! You can even take the craft aspect of this activity a step further by making fun labels for the packages. Or, set up a "topping bar" and have some friends over to make oatmeal packets and let them choose their own mix-ins. The possibilities are endless.

To serve, just add approximately 1/2 c. boiling water to a bowl with one packet of oatmeal. Mix well and let it sit to thicken. You can play around with the water amount if you like thicker or thinner oatmeal.

My daughter loved making these, and because we used a combo of red/green sprinkles (leftover mix from our Magic Reindeer Food from last Solstice) her oatmeal turned blue! Be cautious, with the mix-ins added, you may not even need sugar or sweetener. Our had sugar added, but next time I'll leave it out if we put in sprinkles because she said it was too sweet. Huh!??! It's true!

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