I love hot oatmeal for breakfast and I used to buy the Instant Quaker Oatmeal in packets. That is until I started reading labels a few years ago. They are full of added sugar and salt. I read an article about how to create your own instant oatmeal packets and that’s how I started making my own. Over the years I have experimented with some different ingredients and flavors and this version is the very best I’ve found. My favorite way to eat it is with some sliced fresh banana … mmmmmmmm! It’s nutritious and delicious, it costs a fraction of what the individual packets costs, and it takes about 5 minutes to make enough for about a month! I hope you’ll try it and maybe even try some of your own variations and let me know about them 🙂

Instant Oatmeal

Instant Oatmeal

6 cups quick oats, dry – divided

1 cup brown sugar

1 Tablespoon cinnamon

1 (slightly rounded) teaspoon stevia extract (equal to 1 cup sugar)*

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla

1 cup wheat germ

1 cup non-fat dry milk

1 cup walnuts

1 cup raisins

Place 2 cups oats and brown sugar into food processor – pulse lightly to mix; then add cinnamon and stevia and pulse again – then add the vanilla (pour the vanilla in quickly and not all in one spot) and immediately put the top on the processor and process until it is mixed very well and looks almost like a powder consistency, pulsing and/or scraping down the sides as necessary.

Into a large bowl, place the remaining 4 cups oats, wheat germ, and dry milk; add the contents of the food processor.

Place the walnuts into the empty food processor and process (pulsing) until the nuts are fairly finely chopped – you want very small pieces but not ground walnut power. Add the walnuts to the bowl with the rest of the oat mixture.

Mix in the raisins a little at a time; dispersing them throughout.

Store in an airtight container.

To make a bowl of oatmeal:

Place equal amounts of oatmeal mixture and boiling water into a bowl, stir and add any fruit of your choice, if desired.

*I find that Trader Joe’s has the best price on this Stevia Extract, but you could you use any brand. The extract is very concentrated so 1 teaspoon is equal to the sweetness of 1 cup of sugar.

As I’ve mentioned before, Eric and I work on a country music tour. This involves long trips on a tour bus and, for most, eating in truck stops, restaurants, and catering. Since we don’t “believe” in restaurants (I know that probably sounds strange, but more about that in another post), we always bring all of our own food on these trips. For the most part, we get a lot of funny looks when we elect to take a walk around a restaurant parking lot (instead of going in and ordering a meal) and then heating up our own food on the bus once we are rolling again. The one item that we bring that is always a huge hit (we’ve actually taken to hiding the bag at times) is our home made granola. So here is the very sought after recipe…now make your own!

Normand Family Granola

4 ½ cups instant oats
1 cup wheat germ
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 cup nonfat dry milk
¾ cup chopped walnuts
¾ cup chopped almonds
1 ½ Tablespoons cinnamon
2/3 cup honey
1/3 cup canola oil
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
1 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 325°. Spray large roasting pan with non-stick spray. Combine first seven ingredients; mix well. In small saucepan, combine honey and oil; heat gently to dissolve honey, remove from heat and add vanilla. Pour honey-oil into the dry ingredients, stirring well to thoroughly coat and mix – this is a critical step, be sure that the mixture is completely blended. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until toasted to your liking. As it bakes, stir every 5 minutes. Let cool slightly, then add raisins. Cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

Variations:

Add ¾ cup chopped pecans (or include any combination of nuts that you like)

Replace honey with maple syrup

Use half honey and half molasses

Add 1 ½ cups chopped dried apples

Substitute dried cranberries for the raisins

This granola is great all by itself, as a snack, or with milk, or yogurt; Eric likes a bowl of fruit with fat free vanilla yogurt and granola on top. A special treat is to sprinkle some over fat-free, sugar-free french vanilla frozen yogurt while the granola is still warm from the oven 😯