Updated: October 2024
I was leafing through the October 2012 issue of Martha Stewart Living when I came across this recipe for DIY Instant Oatmeal. I was intrigued as I’d assumed that instant oatmeal went through some sort of processing that wasn’t readily accessible to the home cook.
I love oatmeal, especially on cold winter mornings (it was 2 degrees the other morning when I woke up and that didn’t account for the windchill which never made it out of the negative numbers that day). I prefer making old fashioned oats on the stove but that’s not practical at work so I eat different varieties of instant oatmeal. Being able to make my own instant oatmeal was, forgive the pun, instantly appealing.
I finally got around to making a batch the other day. The recipe calls for 1 cup of a combination of add-ins. The article suggested a couple of combinations:
- Coconut flakes + diced mango + pepitas
- Walnuts + dried cranberries + sunflower seeds
As it turns out I made up my own combination:
- Dried cranberries + sliced almonds + flax seeds
Additional recipe modifications
I doubled the amount of brown sugar (½ cup instead of ¼ cup) and added a bit more cinnamon. Even with the additional sugar it’s not as sweet as the supermarket brands.
I also toasted the sliced almonds and put them into the food processor at the end of processing the oatmeal just to break them up and distribute them more evenly in the mixture.
The recipe seems flexible enough that you could change up the add-ins and even the spices to your liking.
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DIY Instant Oatmeal
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 8 1x
Description
Making your own homemade instant oatmeal means you can create custom flavors to give you a great start to the morning. This recipe is modified from marthastewart.com.
Ingredients
4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1¼ teaspoons coarse salt
½ cup brown sugar, lightly packed
¾ teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup of combined mix-ins like dried fruit, nuts, seeds, etc.
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350° F. Spread oats on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake until lightly toasted but not browned, about 15 minutes. Let cool.
Pulse oats in a food processor until coarsely chopped. Place in a bowl with remaining ingredients and mix until combined. Store in an airtight container.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Inactive Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Category: Cereal, Breakfast
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Calories: 274.66
- Sugar: 23 g.
- Sodium: 350.83 mg.
- Fat: 4.68 g.
- Saturated Fat: 0.77 g.
- Carbohydrates: 54.24 g.
- Fiber: 6.27 g.
- Protein: 6.61 g.
- Cholesterol: 0
Keywords: instant oatmeal
The instantly appealing factor is speaking to me. I want to try this! When you want to make a bowl, what are the measurements and cooking time?
I use about 1/4 cup of the oatmeal mixture to 1/2 cup boiling water. It depends on how thick or thin you like your oatmeal.