If you asked me how I felt about instant oatmeal on any normal day, I'd tell you that I think they're a total waste of money and packaging for a bunch of sugar and a 1/8 of a cup of oats.
But today, when shopping for a pseudo-hiking trip, I nearly bought some.
I'm not calling our upcoming anniversary mini-vacation a hiking trip because although we're hiking in a state park during the day, we'll be staying in a posh suite and playing slot machines in a casino at night. It's not exactly worthy of the label "hiking trip" when there's a jacuzzi tub involved, right?
Anyways, even if we're not exactly roughing it, we need easy breakfasts that we can make in our hotel room. I've seen the menus at the hotel restaurant and there's not a single vegetarian item on the menu, let alone vegan and gluten free. And the microwave in the room doesn't do us much good because Mike won't eat food cooked in one (I don't mind them occasionally).
So the instant oatmeal was looking pretty appealing. I figure there's gotta be hot water for tea there. But I just can't bring myself to buy all that packaging.
So here's the solution:
1 mason jarbulk "quick" oats (pre-steamed and sliced finer than regular rolled oats)
a big shake of cinnamon
a big pinch of salt
a healthy handful of organic brown sugar
There you have it. Waste-free cinnamon brown sugar instant oatmeal. Just pack some glass bowls to eat it out of and add hot water.
*Next trip I want to use maple sugar instead of brown sugar for maple flavor. No way am I packing maple syrup in my bag- That's just asking for a spill!
5 comments:
This is AWESOME, such a great idea! Thank you!
This is what I bring to work for breakfast several days a week. I keep an electric tea kettle in my classroom for hot water! I package mine in a shallow glass jar so I can eat out of it, too!
What . . . you don't want to eat clif bars every day for breakfast???
Great idea! Enjoy your trip!
I was going to suggest making your own "instant" oatmeal as I was reading before scrolling down...I do it with participants in my nutrition classes all the time! Good thinking :-) I like it because you can control the amount of sugar...the instant oatmeal packets, as you pointed out, are LOADED with all sorts of added sugars...blah.
Courtney
I've rocked the same setup for a couple of years and have taken the oatmeal to a whole new level by adding peanut butter (instead of cinammon and maple syrup/honey). And, I've learned to make do using the hot water dispenser from the office coffee maker since the jar has a lid. Works wonders after a workout and gets me through the morning without gnawing off mine or a coworkers appendage.
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