A Second Chance with Oatmeal

This year I am trying to break a few of my routines with the hopes of bringing new energy into my life. It's amazing how the smallest thing can make difference. The reason I don't post any breakfast foods is mainly because I eat the same thing almost every morning. I have some type of fruit, a bowl of Mom's Best Cereal with almond or soy milk and sometimes coffee if the night before was sleepless. I've already changed my Thursday night routine so I decided to shake up breakfast. So instead of buying my normal cereal I decided this week Keithon and I would have oatmeal. I normally hate oatmeal mainly because of the texture and the color. It is the ugliest food on this planet and you have to add a shit ton of sugar to make it taste like anything but hey I give people second chances why can't I do the same for food.

  I knew just plain oatmeal wasn't going to cut it so I grabbed a few bags of dried fruit and nuts to use as mix ins.

 My house is prepackaged central and no I don't mean we eat a lot of process foods what I mean is after I go to the grocery store on Sunday Keithon and I spend Sunday afternoon splitting the foods into serving sizes. Mainly because I count calories and we we don't have a lot of time in the AM to weight and measure things before leaving for work and school. So the oatmeal would be no different. I also have to write on the bags any directions because  we toss the main bag it came in and trust me after a week you forget what the directions were.

 The bag said that were suppose to get 12 half cup servings out of the bag, they lied. I got 10 servings and that was after I weighed each one so that they were all even. (1.8 ounces was my serving size. I'm ocd like that) I wanted each bag to be different so I put a tablespoon of each mix in in each bag with a teaspoon of sugar and a dash of salt. TaDa instant oatmeal minus all the chemicals and dairy they sneak in.

I let Keithon be the tester for the 1st batch so I would know how to adjust the water and sugar. The sugar part is fine not too sweet but the liquid was tricky. A cup is just too much so I cut it down to 3/4 cup and it was fine. Saturday morning when I made mine I chopped up a bit of Granny Smith Apple and added the sample of Hemp Hearts I had to the top. I like the crunch tartness they add.

 I am still not the biggest fan of oatmeal so I have to eat it really fast before it gets cold because the texture gags me but it is a nice change of pace and I have noticed that I do stay full a bit longer and sometimes I don't need my 10:30 snack. So I may add oatmeal a few days each week.