I’m sitting here at work and working on my grocery list. I’m also thinking about back to school. And serving up a good breakfast every morning. Sometimes I cook a nice breakfast, but most of the time it’s cereal. One cereal that the kids and Earl like is instant oatmeal. I prefer the gooey old fashioned variety myself, but that’s just me. I’m happy to see them eat something good and hot even if it does have the added sugar. What I hate is the expense! Eight packets for $3.79! And that’s the store brand! I was thinking that it’s just oatmeal in a chopped up form. Why couldn’t I make my own? Not one to play with my food, I did a web search and found that someone else has done the work for me! This is from www.pregnancy.org:

By Melissa Jaramillo and Julie Snyder
Does your child love the single serving packages of instant oatmeal? He can cook them all by himself — just measure the water and one package of oatmeal; then microwave. There is only one drawback. The price. Here’s the solution! Make your own individual serving packages with your child. Let him choose his favorite varieties.

Ingredients
• 3 cups Quick-Cooking Oats
• Salt
• Small sized zipper bags
• Various flavorings
Prepare the oats
Put ½ cup oats in a blender or food processor and blend on high until powdery. Set aside. Repeat procedure with an additional ½ cup oats. Leave remaining oatmeal as is.

Fill the bags
Put the following ingredients into each zipper bag:
• ¼ cup oatmeal
• 2 tablespoons powdered oats
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• Flavorings to suit
Store in an airtight container. Make your own variety!

Sweetened oatmeal
To each bag, add up to 1 tablespoon sugar or brown sugar

Brown sugar and cinnamon oatmeal
To each bag, add up to 1 tablespoon brown sugar and ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
Apple-cinnamon oatmealTo each bag, add 1 teaspoon sugar, ¼ teaspoon cinnamon and 2 tablespoons chopped dried apples

Spicy oatmeal
To each bag, add 1 teaspoon brown sugar, ¼ teaspoon cinnamon and ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
Oatmeal with raisins and brown sugarTo each bag, add up to 1 tablespoon packed brown sugar and 1 tablespoon raisins

Healthly oatmeal
To each bag, add 2 tablespoon of wheat germ (Bettsi’s note: Why not add this to every variation?)

Peaches and cream oatmeal
To each bag, add 1 tablespoon of non-fat dry milk powder and 2 tablespoons dried peaches

Fruit and cream oatmeal
To each bag, add 1 tablespoon of non-fat dry milk powder and 2 tablespoons dried fruit

Mixed fruit oatmeal
To each bag, add 2 tablespoons of various dried fruits

S’More oatmeal
To each bag, add 6 miniature marshmallows and 1 tablespoon chocolate chips

To serve:
Empty bag into a bowl. Add 3/4 cup boiling water. Stir and let stand for 2 minutes.
OR
Combine contents of bag and 3/4 cup water or milk. Microwave on oatmeal setting. Enjoy!

Personally, I think I would use regular fold top sandwich bags or maybe just assemble each bowl from a jar of the powdered oats.
Hope this useful to someone.

Oh, and I’ll be making six sandwiches every day! I make a great chicken salad, but I’m putting out a call for more sandwich ideas! Nothing expensive or frou-frou, please! I’m no Martha Stewart, by any means!