Homemade Oatmeal Packets

 We go through a lot of oatmeal around here.  Or I should say the two year old does (and the ten year old would like to).  With the two year old's multitude of food allergies, I can't buy the prepackaged envelopes of oatmeal - they are processed with nuts, and that is one of his big allergens.  Besides that, I would go broke.  The ten year old would use two packets every time.  And even the two year old eats a lot more than one packet.  So, I made my own.

 Bulk oatmeal is much cheaper - you can get a large canister for the same price as one little box of packets.  I just add brown sugar and cinnamon to my packets.  Then when I cook the oatmeal I can customize it to the flavor of the day. More on that in a bit.

 Here's the simple ingredients - one cup of oatmeal and one heaping spoonful of brown sugar.  I used the larger tablespoons from my silverware set, but do what you like as far as sweetness goes.  It doesn't take much because I always add fruit when I cook it.  If you'd rather use honey just wait and add that when you cook it.  Even if you just make packets of oatmeal with cinnamon, it's still much easier to grab a baggie and dump it in the bowl than to have to get everything out separately every time.

 That gets tossed into a sandwich size ziplock bag, and sprinkled liberally with cinnamon.

 I squish the bag and mix the ingredients together, squeeze out the air, and seal the bag.

Then I flatten the bag so they will stack together nicely, and put them all in a container in the cupboard.  The ten year old is trained to put his empty ziplock back in the container so we can fill it again next time.

As I mentioned, the two year old goes through a ton of oatmeal - almost every day he'll have a bowl for breakfast, or sometimes for other meals if he hasn't already had some at breakfast.  I try to change it up for him so he doesn't get sick of it.

When you're ready to cook it, just dump it into a bowl and add the liquid of your choice.  I usually pour in some applesauce and add water until it's wet and some of the oatmeal is floating.  (You might like to add milk, but our two year old is allergic to that so we stick with water).  Then microwave it for one minute.  Your microwave might vary, but that is the time that works for us.  I always add fruit - sometimes raisins or craisins, sometimes banana, or chopped apples.  I used to made it with strawberries until he became allergic to those.  We are pretty limited to what we can put in because of his allergies, but you can add whatever you like - nuts or whatever.

I ended up with 20 packets, and I'll be lucky if that lasts us two weeks.  I might need to find a bigger container so I can make more at once. :)