Instant Oatmeal Packets, Built at Home
Quick oats plus a spoonful of oats you ground yourself. The powder is what makes it thick.
- calories
- 230
- weight
- 1.8 oz
- cal / oz
- 128
- protein
- 8 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 2 min
- cook
- 2 min
- total time
- 4 min
- water
- 180 ml boiled
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Breakfast
- Canister stove
- Alcohol / Esbit
- Liquid fuel
- Backpacking
- Thru-hike
- Bikepacking
- Car camping
- Winter / snow
- Vegetarian
- Nut free
- Eat in the bag
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Dump and stir
Ingredients
| Quick cooking oats | 1/4 cup | |
|---|---|---|
| Old-fashioned oats, ground to powder | 1 tbsp | blitz 1/2 cup at a time in a blender until floury |
| Dry milk powder | 1 tbsp | soy, rice, or coconut milk powder works the same |
| Fine sea salt | 1/8 tsp | |
| Sugar or brown sugar | 1 tbsp | optional, see variations |
Method
- Boil 180 ml of water and take the pot off the heat.
- Pour in the packet and stir until no dry pockets are left.
- Cover and wait two minutes. It thickens as it sits.
- Bag method: pour the boiling water into a pint freezer bag, stir, seal it, and leave it in a cozy for five to ten minutes.
Store-bought instant packets are mostly sugar and cost more per ounce than they should. The fix is a tablespoon of old-fashioned oats run through a blender until it is flour. That powder dissolves instantly and thickens the water around the quick oats, so you get porridge instead of oats sitting in a puddle. It is the same trick commercial packets use, minus the price.
Dry milk carries the fat and most of the protein. Leave it out and the packet is thin and forgettable; use soy or coconut milk powder if dairy is a problem, and drop the milk-based variations. Sugar is deliberately separate from the base so you can build sweet and plain packets from one bowl. Use certified gluten-free oats if that matters to you, but the recipe as written is not tagged gluten-free.
Packing
Grind the oat flour once, then build every packet from the same bowl. One serving per snack bag or small jar, sealed. Dry milk goes stale fastest, so mix packets within a month of the trip.
Variations
- Apple cinnamon: 1 tbsp sugar, 1/4 tsp cinnamon, 2 tbsp diced dried apples.
- Brown sugar and raisins: 1 tbsp packed brown sugar, 1 tbsp raisins.
- Peaches and cream: another 1 tbsp full-fat dry milk and 2 tbsp diced dried peaches.
- Wheat germ and chopped toasted pecans, 1 tbsp each, for more fat and protein. No longer nut-free.
- Chocolate chips and mini marshmallows, if you want breakfast to be dessert.
https://trailcooking.com/2017/02/27/instant-oatmeal-packets