Making your own instant oatmeal is easy to do and very economical!
There is little more comforting than a bowl of warm oatmeal on a winter morning. Instant oatmeal is very convenient, but I am one of those “make it yourself” people and don’t like to buy pre-made mixes. Thankfully, making your own instant oatmeal mix is super easy to do!
How to Make Homemade Instant Oatmeal
To begin, preheat your oven to 325 degrees.
Spread 6 cups of old-fashioned rolled oats on a baking sheet.
Bake them for 10 minutes and then give the oats a stir. Spread them back out and bake for 10 more minutes.
When they are done baking, let them cool to room temperature.
Place 2 cups of the oats in a large bowl.
Place the remaining 4 cups of oats in a food processor that is fitted with the blade. Add in 1 1/4 cup brown sugar, a tablespoon of cinnamon, a half teaspoon of nutmeg, and 1 teaspoon of sea salt.
Buzz this in your food processor until it looks like a coarse crumb mixture.
Add it to the bowl with the reserved oats and stir them all together.
Store the mix in an airtight container.
And there you have it!
To make the oatmeal, measure 1/2 cup of mix into a bowl.
Add in 1 to 1 1/4 cup of boiling water – depending on how you like your oatmeal.
Cover the bowl and let it sit for 5 minutes.
And enjoy!
I tossed in some dried cranberries, but not everyone in my house like cranberries in their oatmeal. As an option, you can add dried fruits to the mix when you stir it all together in the bowl…raisins, cranberries, dried apple bits, or even some toasted, chopped nuts!
Homemade Instant Oatmeal
Ingredients
- 6 c steel cut old-fashioned rolled oats
- 1 ¼ c brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 Tb cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- Optional:
- 1 c dried fruits, such as raisins, cranberries, etc
- 1 c toasted, chopped nuts
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Spread the oats out on a baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes and then stir the oats. Spread them back out and bake for 10 more minutes. Cool.
- Measure 2 cups of the oats into a large bowl. Place the remaining oats in a food processor, fitted with a blade. Add in the brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Buzz in the processor until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs.
- Stir together with the whole oats in the bowl. If you would like to add dried fruit or nuts, do so now. Store the mix in an airtight container.
To prepare servings:
- Combine ½ c mix with 1 – 1 ¼ c boiling water in a bowl. Cover the bowl and let it sit for 5 minutes. Enjoy!
Nutrition
If nutritional values are provided for this recipe, they are an estimate and will vary depending on the brands of ingredients you use. The values do not include optional ingredients or when ingredients are added to taste or for serving. If nutritional values are very important to you, I suggest using your favorite nutritional calculating tool with the brands you use.
I love the idea of making my own oat mix… I'm going to try it tomorrow. I have seen several other recipes/methods online. Yours is the only one I've found that calls for baking the oats. What do you think this adds? Have you tried doing it without baking the oats? Just curious.
Baking the oats is like parboiling vegetables for other dishes. It sort of partially precooks the oats so that the \”cook time\” is reduced to simply the time it sits in the bowl.
Can I use a blender instead of a food processor?
I\’m not sure if a blender would cut the oats well enough. It would probably depend on the blender, and would probably have to be done in smaller batches.
Love this idea! Could you use steel cut? Thanks
This is the only way I have ever made it. You could maybe give it a try with a smaller batch, and see how it turns out. Let me know if you do, and what the results were like :)
I've always thought I'd like to make my own instant oatmeal!