Making it Monday - Oatmeal to go...

New Year's Day activity...made oatmeal...16 servings.  :)  

I am not, and never have been, an early morning breakfast eater.  But I do get hungry before lunch time.  Since it has been cold, I like to have something warm sometime after I arrive at work.  

I made my own single servings of oatmeal that I can take to work with me.  Actually I'm going to take them all to work and put them in the cupboard there.  If I don't, there will be mornings that I forget to take one with me.

I started with this recipe for KEURIG OATMEAL from Do It On A Dime.  Then I tweaked it.  I used:

1 42-ounce canister Quaker Old Fashioned Oatmeal                 (Removed 1 c oats and pulsed in blender till I had oat flour)

2 cups dried milk

In a BIG bowl, dump all of the oats from the canister, the 1 cup of oat flour, and 2 cups of dried milk.  Stir together to mix well.  (The blended oat flour gives a creamier consistency to the cooked oatmeal.)

I portioned this into lidded cardboard containers that I purchased last winter when I made portable oatmeal then.  In each of the cups I placed 2/3 cup of the oats/dry milk mix.  (At those ratios, it made 16 individual servings.)

I topped the dry oats in each container with a spoon of brown sugar, a spoon of dried coconut flakes, a spoon of dried cranberries, and a sprinkle of cinnamon.  (Those were my add-ins, because that was what I had on hand.  The spoon I used was somewhere between a teaspoon and a Tablespoon.  They can be added to the oats/dry milk and stirred together before portioning, but I wanted to be sure to get an equal amount of add-ins to each container.)

To prepare, I use 6 ounces of HOT water (either microwaved or from Keurig).  Then I cover the cup with lid and let sit a couple of minutes, stir well, put lid back on for another minute or two and it should be ready.  

I used Old-Fashioned Oats instead of instant.  Instant oats would probably 'cook' faster.

Also, the disposable cardboard containers are solely my preference for taking to my job.  I am lucky if I get time to make and eat at my desk, so I don't want to have to add time to rinse or wash a glass container.  But I would definitely go with reusable if I was making it for at home.