This series checks out whether something that sounds like a good deal — or takes a bit of extra work — is a good deal. We’ll look at cost and benefit — with everything filtered through my individual experience. Please chime in with your take.

As I mentioned two weeks ago, we are gearing up for a camping trip. One of my favorite camping breakfasts is instant oatmeal. Simply add hot water and voila — a nutritious, delicious food, ready to eat.

In preparation for this trip, I wondered if there were a way to make my own instant oatmeal, using wholesome ingredients and possibly saving a bundle over traditional instant oatmeal.

Many of the online recipes sound blah to my taste — some with no sugar, some with no spices. That ain’t gonna cut it in the Cheap household, where we like our cinnamon. (Hey, it tastes good AND it might help lower blood sugar and cholesterol!)

Finally, I found a recipe on the South Bend Tribune (Indiana) Web site that sounded tasty and easy. It took about 5 minutes to whip it up in my food processor:

6 cups rolled oats, divided use

1/2-1 cup light brown sugar (or to taste)

1-2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon allspice

Generous pinch table salt

1 cup powdered milk (optional)

Process 2 cups oats to a powder, then set aside in a bowl large enough to hold all 6 cups. Combine 4 cups of oats with remaining ingredients except powdered milk and process in two batches with two or three 1-second pulses, just so oats are slightly broken. Add to bowl with powdered oats. Add powdered milk. Stir or shake it up.

To serve, place about 1/2 to 1 cup of oatmeal in a bowl and stir in enough boiling water to get the consistency you desire (it may need a minute to thicken). Add any fruit, nuts, maple syrup or other flavorings you want.

How do you like those ingredients? I had them all in my kitchen already. And they compare very favorably to the ingredients in Quaker Instant Oatmeal, whose maple and brown sugar flavor includes this list:

WHOLE GRAIN ROLLED OATS (WITH OAT BRAN), SUGAR, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS, SALT, CALCIUM CARBONATE, GUAR GUM, OAT FLOUR, CARAMEL COLOR, NIACINAMIDE*, VITAMIN A PALMITATE, REDUCED IRON, PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE*, RIBOFLAVIN*, THIAMIN MONONITRATE*, FOLIC ACID*.

*ONE OF THE B VITAMINS

I suppose my version is less enriched, but I’m willing to go with that.

The cost breakdown

Here’s where it gets good. First, I’ll mention that we often cook regular oatmeal (just plain rolled oats) for breakfast. If more than one of us is eating them, I cook them on the stove, and it takes about 15 minutes. If only Mlle. Cheap is having them, I will cook them in the microwave, because she likes the texture and it takes just a few minutes.

When we eat instant oatmeal (most recently, because I got some Quaker oatmeal on sale with a coupon for $1.50 a box), we found that the packet produced a serving only about half the size of our regular oatmeal serving, so to avoid being hungry 15 minutes after we finished eating breakfast, we ate two packets each.

The regular price of store-brand instant oatmeal at Kroger is $1.99 a box, or $0.20 per packet ($0.40 for two). The regular price of Quaker Instant Oatmeal is $3.99 per box, or $0.40 for each packet (a whopping $0.80 per two-packet breakfast).

The breakdown for the recipe above is:

That comes to a cost that is 82% cheaper than the store-brand instant oatmeal, and 91% cheaper than Quaker.

To put it another way, if one person ate the homemade version every day for breakfast for a year, it would cost $26. If they ate the store brand instant (two packets a day), it would cost $145; the Quaker brand (again, two packets) would cost $291.

The priceless factors:

• Can use organic ingredients.
• Can benefit from bulk purchasing (less waste; better prices).
• No non-recyclable, single-package envelopes.
• Fewer additives.
• Able to tweak the spices, etc., to your own taste. For instance, I added some dehydrated organic raspberries and blackberries that I bought last year on a great sale and dried in the dehydrator I purchased on Craigslist. They plump up just fine with boiling water.

The drawbacks:

None, so far. I even like the taste and texture better than that of purchased instant oatmeal, which doesn’t have enough “tooth” to my taste.

The verdict:

Worth it for camping and for ongoing home use. Now Mlle. Cheap can make her own oatmeal — and she loves it. She keeps exclaiming that the oatmeal is soooo good.

Grade:

A

For another take …

The Simple Dollar last year wrote about making your own instant oatmeal, with a cost analysis. He has a few variations:

• He puts his packets in individual plastic baggies. To me, this is more work than it’s worth, and his 1/4-cup portions are skimpier than we like, but would cut calories. I put my mixture in a plastic bulk-Parmesan canister that we can dip a measuring cup into.
• Bulk buying makes a huge difference! His per-packet cost is $0.30, because he went out and purchased all the ingredients at the regular grocery store, without optimizing for price. At that rate, and with a small portion size, making your own might not be more cost effective than buying pre-mixed instant oatmeal packets, although it still might have advantages in terms of control over ingredients and environmental impact.
• TSD adds Coffee-Mate instead of powdered milk. I prefer plain ol’ milk to Coffee-Mate’s mixture of corn syrup and oils. But TSD mentions that he doesn’t use powdered milk because it could mold. If this is relevant in your climate, do be forewarned. You could always heat up milk and mix the instant powder with your milk if you want the flavor, protein and calcium of milk.

The Simple Dollar post garnered a zillion comments about how much better steel-cut oats are, or oatmeal cooked in the Crock-Pot overnight. I tried steel-cut oats, but they had a texture I didn’t personally enjoy — and the point of instant is that it is instant, and a one-bowl dish, so hopefully we can agree on one principal here — different oats for different folks — and take this Dealbuster for what it is.

What do you put in your oatmeal?

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Comments ( 16 )

I had no idea that “instant” oats used “rolled” oats. Learn something new every day!
We put shredded, dried coconut in our oatmeal, usually with a handful of walnuts. Thanks for sharing, experimenting.

Erin added these pithy words on Jun 25 09 at 10:51 am

To make it even LESS expensive why not mix it in one large air-tight container and take out the mixture as you eat it and save plastic bags?
Thanks for the idea though! I will be doing this, but without plastic bags!

Kay added these pithy words on Jun 25 09 at 6:25 pm

@Kay – Thanks for your comment! I think you were confusing my version with the Simple Dollar’s, though. He puts his in baggies. Here’s what I wrote about mine — see the first bullet in the last part above:

He puts his packets in individual plastic baggies. To me, this is more work than it’s worth, and his 1/4-cup portions are skimpier than we like, but would cut calories. I put my mixture in a plastic bulk-Parmesan canister that we can dip a measuring cup into.

Cheap Like Me added these pithy words on Jun 25 09 at 7:30 pm

THanks for adding this recipe! I will definetely try this. Could one put this in jelly jars to store?

Rob added these pithy words on Jun 25 09 at 7:49 pm

Rob, I think you can put it wherever you want! I just had my parmesan container sitting drying on the windowsill, waiting for something to go in it …

Cheap Like Me added these pithy words on Jun 25 09 at 8:20 pm

I eat a lot of oatmeal, both the steel cut and rolled, but my husband is not a big fan. This recipe sounds tasty and easy and I will try it and see if he likes it. I know I will. Thanks for the recipe and cost breakdown.

Patricia added these pithy words on Jun 26 09 at 9:57 am

This stuff is amazing.LOL I couldn’t wait to make it, went to the store and bought some oatmeal in the bulk bins- I had everything else. I did use brown sugar twin instead of brown sugar- that is due to the fact I am diabetic, but it still turned out wonderfully! (P.S. I put mine in a storage jar that I had sitting around that came with pepperoni “short stops” that I won in a raffle years ago!)

rob added these pithy words on Jun 27 09 at 12:04 am

Ahaha, I’m SO sorry about that! I meant to yell at him about those darn baggies. You’re doing it right!

Kay added these pithy words on Jun 27 09 at 1:40 pm

This sounds so good! I will definitely try this for my next trip to the cottage, and for camping too. Actually, now that I think of it, this sounds like a great option for summer oatmeal, as it requires less cooking time than the regular stuff so it wouldn’t heat up the kitchen as much in the morning.

Thanks!!

Colleen added these pithy words on Jun 27 09 at 8:25 pm

I’m new to the site, and I love it! To avoid mold, simply store the mix in an airtight container in the fridge. Problem solved!

Danielle added these pithy words on Jun 28 09 at 12:15 pm

We also eat a lot of oatmeal, and I usually find the instant packets way too sweet. We’re going to Burning Man this August and I’ll be bringing some of this oatmeal with me. I’ll also be on the look out for whatever other easy camp food ideas you have.

xoL

Leigh added these pithy words on Jun 29 09 at 6:23 am

We’ve been making this recipe all summer – for the camping family reunion, for my son’s big “road trip”, for “summer oatmeal” like one of your readers dubbed it, and now finally, as a big batch of cheap but nourishing breakfast food to send to college with my daughter!
I love that my kids are chow-ing on this oatmeal where as they rather snub regular, traditional oats. The quick and easy aspect of making it up in the morning has something to do with that.

Lori added these pithy words on Aug 19 09 at 12:30 pm

I make a big batch of cinnamon oatmeal on the stove (3 cups oatmeal and 7-8 cups of water and put it in the fridge when cool. We add about 1 cup of cooked oatmeal to a 48 oz blender of fruit smoothies each morning. That’s it till lunch. If you have or find fresh mint leaves – a dozen or so is wonderful in it.

jack added these pithy words on Oct 08 09 at 9:02 pm

I just made this for my boyfriend, who loves instant oatmeal but is frustrated by my lack of enthusiasm to go to the grocery store and spend money we don’t have. I doctored mine with some raisins, vanilla and almond extract and it tastes like oatmeal COOKIES! Thanks SO much for sharing! We love it!

Lisa added these pithy words on Apr 19 10 at 3:00 am

I found that using a rice cooker to cook the oatmeal in the morning gives you the perfect oatmeal. I am lucky to have a grocery store that sells things like oats, rice and so on in bulk. It is usually even cheaper that way than the packaged “tube” boxes. I like the “old fashioned” type not the quick oats. It takes about as long as white rice to cook (about 15 minutes). You put one measure (like a cup) in the rice cooker, then an equal measurement of water or milk if you want, then push down the plunger. When it is done, some butter and molasses and maybe honey.

I also make dinner “savory” oats using oatmeal. I love this. I mix oats and small grains of varying kind (quiona, buckwheat groats etc) then add chopped onion, pepper, some chili powder, salt and so on, and then cook. It makes a fantastic savory pilaf for pennies. Real cheap!

Katy L added these pithy words on Jan 16 12 at 8:37 am

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