I grew up on my mom’s oatmeal. She believed in a hot breakfast every morning. Whether or not I was awake enough to eat it before school was another matter altogether. I’ll admit that I usually have a piece of peanut butter toast and coffee at home, but when I’m camping I LOVE to eat oatmeal. Something hot in your stomach feels wonderful in the morning, and all you need is hot water to make it. I cheat when we have our camper by running water through the coffee machine and using that to make the oatmeal before I brew my coffee. It’s easy, and it works!
The individual packages of flavored oatmeal from the store are too small for my teens. Even I add regular oatmeal to the package stuff when I’m at home. When I am packing up my pantry for camping, here is my recipe for oatmeal.
Creamy Homemade Fruit Oatmeal Packets
1-cup quick cooking oatmeal
3 tablespoons powered coffee creamer
2 tablespoons dried fruit or (2 tablespoon fruit preserves)
2-3 teaspoons confectioners sugar – more or less to taste
Optional: Add a little cinnamon, pumpkin spice, salt or brown sugar
Directions for Each Oatmeal Packet:
Place 1/2 cup of the oats in a blender and grind until powdery. Then place in freezer zip-lock bag along with all of the other ingredients.
Instant Oatmeal Travel Packets
- Apple-Cinnamon Oatmeal – To each packet add 1 Tbsp. sugar, 1/4 tsp. cinnamon, and 2 Tbsp. chopped dried apples.
- Sweetened Oatmeal – To each packet add 1 Tbsp. sugar or 1 packet ‘Equal’ artificial sweetener.
- Brown Sugar/Cinnamon Oatmeal – To each packet add 1 Tbsp. brown sugar & 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
- Oatmeal w/Raisins & Brown Sugar – To each packet add 1 Tbsp. packed brown sugar and 1 Tbsp. raisins.
- Health Nut Oatmeal – To each packet add 2 Tbsp. any kind of wheat germ
- Fruit & Cream Oatmeal – To each packet add 1 Tbsp. non-dairy coffee creamer and 2 Tbsp. dried fruit
- Fun Fruit Oatmeal – To each packet, add 6 or 7 pieces of ‘fruit snack’ type dehydrated fruit.
- Confetti Oatmeal – To each packet, add 1 tsp. decorative cake/cookie sprinkles.
- S’More Oatmeal – add 6 miniature marshmallows and 1 Tbsp. Milk Chocolate Chips to each packet.
- Cookies n Cream Oatmeal – add 1 crushed Oreo cookie and 1 Tbsp. non-dairy coffee creamer to each packet.
- Exploding Oatmeal – add 1 tsp. sugar, and 1/2 tsp. ‘Pop Rocks’ candy to each packet. This one is fun for celebration days, such as birthdays.
- Bart-man Oatmeal – add 2 Tbsp. ‘Butterfinger B.B’s’ candies to each packet.