Easy Morning Magic

MaryAlice mentioned in her Fall Morning Magic post that she sometimes used packets of oatmeal in the morning.

Ditto here. I have also been guiltily buying them since August so that I would not have to get up  a few minutes earlier (also not a morning person) to make oatmeal and deal with the pot boiling over while I try to ensure that schoolbound kids are ready for school and others are ready for homeschool. They are so easy and the kids can dump contents in a bowl, add a little instant hot water and cold milk on top and I can get the baby ready for the morning.

A few weeks ago I tried to limit instant oatmeal to once a week because, really, they are ridiculously expensive. But when the baby has peed through his diaper and I am stripping sheets so I can start the laundry before my first carpool run so they can be dry by naptime, I caved on day 2 and yelled from the nursery, “Yes, make your own oatmeal!”

An unexpected rainout left me with a few extra minutes this weekend and I was determined to make my own oatmeal packets with what I had on hand. I found this great post at The Yummy Life on making your own instant oatmeal packs. I wanted to use only what I had on hand, so I did some substituting, but all in all they came out really well! The only criticism from one boy was that the texture was too mushy or doughy, so I think I will use quick oats next time (the only rolled oats I had were instant left over from some recipe some time). There are tons of possibilities as far as adding dried fruits and nuts. And it takes only a few minutes once you have the ingredients and bags lined up. Of course, you can reuse the labeled bags, too.

Here’s what I used for my trial, but do go check out this post for tons of ideas!

1/3 C instant oats (will use quick oats next time)

1t ground flax

2t wheat germ

2t powdered milk (had leftover from making hot chocolate mix last year)

1t maple sugar

1/4 t cinnamon

pinch of salt