Forget Starbucks!!

Here is a shot of my own perfect oatmeal. Doesn't it look delicious? Sweetened with a few spoonfuls of brown sugar, there is nothing but pure awesome about this. Now if you work in a place that doesn't have easy access to a microwave I will give you some super tips.

I bought Great Value Quick Oats from Walmart.  I also picked up some fresh bananas, a bag of Emerald Glazed Walnuts Original flavor, and an $0.85 bag of Sensible Foods Organic Dried Apples. One serving of oatmeal is 1/2 cup of oatmeal, a dash of salt and 1 cup of water.  You then microwave it for 1.5 - 2 minutes.  Well i decided to try to use the hot water from my office water cooler since the microwave is in another building here.  Yesterday I used all the water the recipe called for and then placed my bowl inside a sealed gallon size zip top freezer bag for about 5 minutes or so.  The bag acts like a steamer and will help the hot water cook the oatmeal removing the need for the microwave!  Plus you can dry out the bag and use it to store all your add ins so that the pesky plague that is the sugar ant, cant get to it! The oatmeal was very soupy.  Today I decided to use about 3/4 of a cup of hot water and it was just perfect!  So I will list the recipe below with all the goodies I put in there.

1/2 cup Quick Oats
3/4 cup hot water
2 spoonfuls dark brown sugar
small handful of Glazed Walnuts
sprinkling of dried Apple Snacks
1/2 a banana

I would venture a guess that the whole thing comes in somewhere around 300 calories.  The oatmeal sits at 150 and between the banana, walnuts, apples and sugar I figure we added about 150 calories to it.  Here is the nutritional information for Starbucks:
Perfect Oatmeal (which is far less than what I am eating)

140 Cal

Brown Sugar Packet

50 Cal

Dried Fruit Packet 

100 Cal

Mixed Nut Packet

100 Cal

So all together the Perfect Oatmeal at Starbucks is about 390 calories for about 3/4 as much as what I am eating.  Also that oatmeal costs me about $3 everytime I go there.  My homemade version is about $1.50.  I am so excited about this that I think I am going to pack all these items for our cross country road trip!  You can get hot water at about any gas station in the country but a microwave, or at least one that doesnt look like someone murdered Rosemary's baby in it, can sometimes be hard to find.  This makes it a great on the road snack.

Until next time, happiness is a AWESOME bowl of your OWN PERFECT oatmeal!!