Horse Feed Packets

It's been my mission for about a year now to try and streamline my life - including what I purchase. While obviously not belonging to any sort of extravagant spending club, I did/do think there is room to "cut" with our spending. We're trying to save more, so we can give more. And then there is the healthy aspects - trying to "trade up" our food for the healthier choice (while still trying to maintain the integrity of taste:-)

Over the past year we've tried to cut our budget as we can, and we've made a variety of changes, all of which we're enjoying and haven't noticed any ill affects at all from the cuts.

This brings me to oatmeal. Or horse feed, as I used to call it. There are really only a few things you need to know about me, if you didn't already. I love to laugh. I am petrified of basically anything that is not a cat or a dog. Any type of bird or lizard/frog/snake top the list. And I hate oatmeal. My mom, being the frugal mother of a large brood, and also health conscious - made us eat oatmeal every morning for breakfast growing up. Well, mostly oatmeal, Red River or Cream of Wheat (which I do like) were thrown in there for the occasional treat. Saturdays we got a plain cereal like Cheerios. So basically, we ate a lot of oatmeal. In turn...I would choke down the minimum required amount (1 spoonful, and I made it a small one), and that was it. So basically other than the small portion of horse feed, I did not eat breakfast for 24 years in a row. :-)

Brooks' breakfast today. They love to add a scoop of whatever frozen fruit we have on hand (blueberries, raspberries, blackberries etc), and they stir them in.

 Trying to be a good mom, I bought oatmeal for my kids, and they love it. Good for them. So I bought them the packets (they like the fruit ones), and they love to make it. Enter Pinterest. Make your own. It is WAY cheaper than buying, so why not give it a try? I adapted the recipes I saw floating around, and added milled flax seed for extra health:-) I'm not eating it, so I have no idea how that tastes, but the kids have not issued a single complaint, so it must be fine.

We use 6 ziploc bags, and simply refill them once empty. All kept in the black & white "Oatmeal Bag"

1/2 C Quick Oats
2 T brown sugar
1 T milled flax seeds

Put in ziploc bag. To eat, pour into bowl and add 3/4C hot water. Top with fruit if desired.

Best part? The kids make the packets themselves! It's an easy recipe, and not one that requires super measuring precision to turn out, so the kids do all the re-loading of the baggies

All done! My kids will eat it plain, or they love to add a spoonful of frozen fruit right to the top.

They (mostly Kenna, Brooks tries when he gets a chance) also make it themselves too. They heat up the hot pot, and pour the water into the larger measuring cup, so there is no fear of hot water over spilling the edge. Then they pour into bowl and stir. Done!

Obviously the cost savings is pretty huge, there are no extras added by way of preservatives and the work involved is very minimal! We're sold on oatmeal!