Easy Kids Breakfast with Homemade Instant Oatmeal Packets

Sometimes I have things on my ongoing 'To Do' list forever... I mean literally years! One of these things has been to start making up some instant oatmeal packets for my kids to have in the morning when I am not here to make them breakfast. I know it is pretty easy, but I just needed the time to try some different recipes with the kids to see what they liked. With some trial and error this morning (and a belly full of oatmeal samples) I came up with 2 recipes the kids loved.

First off, I did not want to use baggies to separate my portions like most people do. We try to avoid wasting plastics, and that would seem counterproductive. I found a great compromise this morning in the canning section of my grocery store:The can be reused, they hold a 1 cup serving and I LOVE that they have twist on lids, so I know they won't pop off in the pantry (or anywhere else!)

My recipes are quite simple. First off I took about a quarter of a cup of my Quick Oats and ground it to a powder in my Magic Bullet. You will add this to give the oatmeal a thicker, creamier texture.

The first recipe was for a chocolate oatmeal that Annika requested.

Instant Chocolate Oatmeal:

1/2 cup quick cook oats
1 tbsp non-dairy chocolate creamer
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp ground-up oats
I simply put them all into the plastic Ball Jar and shook it up to mix. I will make sure that the kids know to reshake it before they add water as I am sure the finer ingredients will settle.

Next up:

Brown Sugar Oatmeal:
1/2 cup quick cook oats
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp ground-up oats

I put the brown sugar in the Magic Bullet with the ground oatmeal to mix it up and prevent the the brown sugar from clumping in the oatmeal. I then mixed all of the ingredients in another plastic Ball jar.

The girls loved both recipes. Now I will make one larger batch and store it in an airtight container. This way I do not have to have 50 small containers hanging around the pantry, but will have a batch ready to refill the 5 Ball jars that I do have so the girls can be self sufficient. (This is where my Cuisinart water dispenser comes in VERY handy)

On a related note, Liz commented on my pumpkin recipe post today with a fantastic recipe idea for... drum roll... Pumpkin Oatmeal! It looks so delicious, I can wait to try it! Thanks for thinking of me, Liz.