Cooking from the Pantry: Oatmeal

One of the things that I want my daughters to know how to do in the kitchen is to take a staple ingredient, understand how it works in a recipe, and be able to make several things with it. This helps make the most of our pantry items—makes them work overtime.

Oatmeal is one of those staples that most of us have in our pantry and can be used in many different ways.

There are several different types of oats available: rolled oats, quick oats, steel cut oats and instant oats. You can even buy oat groats and process them yourself using an Oat Flaker.

• Rolled oats (also known as Old-Fashioned oats) are thick and chewy when cooked. It takes 10-20 minutes to cook for oatmeal. Because of its thickness, it makes a good choice for making oatmeal in a crock-pot.

• Quick oats are a thinner flake and cook up quickly, generally in as little time as 3-5 minutes. They are a good choice for using in cookies, meatballs, meatloaves, etc.

• Steel-Cut oats (also called Irish oats) are oat groats that have been chopped. They take longer to cook than quick oats and also hold their shape well. These are also good for making oatmeal in the crock-pot.

• Instant oats are processed to make them cook “instantly.” These are the oats that are sold in pre-packaged individual serving sizes and come in a variety of flavors. The price and added preservatives can be a big draw back.

Here is a quick little experiment that I did and that you can do with your children to help teach them how to re-create a packaged item from the store and make it from scratch.

I was wanting to replicate the instant oats packages at home by making them from scratch. So after doing an internet search and finding several different recipes, I decided to do a little experiment and try out some of these different recipes and see which one was the best.

Here’s what you can do:

Start by getting some water to boiling. While that is heating up, take ¼ cup of quick oats and run them through the blender to pulverize them. Take out 4 cereal bowls and put ¼ cup of quick oats in each bowl. Then add 2 tablespoons of the pulverized oats to the first bowl, 1 tablespoon to the second bowl and none to the last two bowls. Add ½ cup of the boiling water to each of the first 3 bowls. Stir and let sit for 2 minutes. Add ½ cup cold water to the 4th bowl and microwave covered for 1 minute and then let that one sit for 2 minutes as well.

You can add a little brown sugar or maple syrup to each bowl, just make sure to add the same amount to each. Stir and then have a taste testing party. After tasting, you and your children can decide which recipe made the best instant oatmeal.

The favorite recipe can then be made up into several packets with the dry ingredients to have your own homemade instant oatmeal. Dried fruits, spices, and powdered milk can be added for variety. Store these in little plastic bags or make a large batch and store in a glass canning jar with directions.

Use this as a teaching tool on trying out recipes, making things from scratch, the importance of knowing what the ingredients are, and being frugal. Take a peek inside your pantry and see if there are any other items in there that might be able to be made from scratch.

If you are cooking gluten-free, be sure to look for gluten-free oats. While oats do not contain gluten they are often grown and processed alongside of wheat. The most inexpensive resource I have found so far for gluten-free oatmeal is through Amazon.

One of my family’s favorite recipes for oatmeal:

Baked Oatmeal

3 cups quick cooking oats
¾ cup sugar
1 cup milk
⅓ cup melted butter
2 eggs
2 tsp baking powder
¾ tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350° F. Combine all ingredients in mixing bowl and mix well. Spread batter into a greased 9 x 13 pan and bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown.

Variations: Add 1 cup of chopped apples or other fruits or nuts. This is really good with a little milk poured over the top. You can also add additional toppings after baking as well.