Tuesday, August 24, 2010

DIY: Oatmeal

Sorry I haven't posted in a few days, back to school kicked my butt a bit, but, I'm back now and ready to share my latest endevor! In order to punch my "good mom" card daily I feel like I need to provide my munchkins with a hearty and filling breakfast, so no cereal and milk here.  Well, unless you name is Mommy, then you eat your Lucky Charms and Corn Pops before the kids get up wearing your "I'm a total hypocrite" PJ's.

My oldest loves oatmeal, she can put away 2 packs a morning.  On one hand it makes me happy because you often hear about oatmeal being such a great breakfast choice.  On the other wallet holding hand I cringe a bit every time she asks for another pack, oatmeal isn't cheap! A box of 10 is usually about $2 - $2.50 ($0.20 - $0.25 a pack), I once tried to do plain quick oats and she gagged until I had to throw it away.  But alas, I recently ran across a homemade Oatmeal recipe, a quick Google search lead to a couple more and left me wondering why I never thought of it before. Here's what I used:
-A large canister of rolled oats
-A large canister of quick oats
- Non dairy coffee creamer
-Brown sugar
-Cinnamon
-Banana Chips
-Salt

Here is the basic recipe:

Put 1/2 cup oats in a blender and blend on high until powdery. Set aside in a small bowl, and repeat procedure with an additional 1/2 cup oats. If you're using a food processor, you can do the 1 cup of oats in one batch.
Put the following ingredients into each zip baggie: 1/4 cup un-powdered oats, 2 Tbsp. powdered oats, and 1/8 tsp. salt.
To serve: Empty packet into a bowl. Add 3/4 cup boiling water. Stir and let stand for 2 minutes. For thicker oatmeal, use less water - for thinner oatmeal, use more water.

Our system:

We made Brown Sugar and Cinnamon (my kiddos fave) by adding 1 TSP. of Brown Sugar and 1/4 TSP. of Cinnamon.


For Bananas and Cream: Blend 1 cup of banana chips on high until powerdy, add 1 TSP. of creamer (we went fancy and used French Vanilla) and 1 - 2 TSP. of the banana powder.  You could use any type of dried fruit here or add frozen or better yet, fresh fruit!

My assistant scooping it in a baggie:

The cost breakdown:
Rolled Oats - $1.17
Quick Oats - $2.37
Creamer - $1 (we still have a bunch left for next time)
Brown Sugar - $1.50 (but we already had some)
Cinnamon - $1 (again, we had this)
Baggies - $1
=$8.14,  my cost was $5.64 since I had some stuff
I made 70!!! packets of oatmeal which came in at $0.08 per pack.  A huge savings! I know, while it is a huge savings oatmeal wasn't a high dollar purchase to begin with.  But...wait!  My killer analytical skills have arrived at this:
We average 15 packets of oatmeal a week
15 packets* 52 weeks = 780 packets
780 * $0.25 (non sale price) per packet = $195 per year
780 * $0.20 (sale price)  per packet = $156 per year
780 * $0.08 (homemade price)= $62.40 per year
A savings of  $95 - $132 a year or about 2 weeks worth of groceries at my house!!!! And my oldest munchkin liked getting in on the helping and even learned a little math!

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