Homemade Instant Oatmeal

I make a lot of things homemade now to keep as much chemicals out of my families food as possible. So I was curious when I came across homemade instant oatmeal. I'm the only one who bothers to make and eat oatmeal in my home but I thought I'd give it a try (maybe the guys will finally eat it if it's easy like instant!). Here is what I've learned and decided to do in my home.

Okay, first here's the basic recipe:

1/4 cup old fashioned oats
1/8 cup processed old fashioned oats (oats processed in blender or food processor until fine - this is what they said made it "instant oatmeal")
pinch of salt
Place in a snack size baggie or storage bowl until ready to eat.

To make add 1/2 cup boiling water, stir and enjoy.

Note: if you do like this recipe you can add things like nuts, sugar, brown sugar, dried fruit, powdered milk....to make the kind of "instant oatmeal" you like. Example: if you like peaches and cream - to the baggie/bowl add some chopped dried apples and powdered milk.

To test this recipe I did add some brown sugar and vanilla cause that's how I like my oats.

So I processed some oats.

Then combined the whole with the processed.

Added the boiling water and stirred. It started to thicken.

It become pretty thick...thicker than I like but that can be adjusted by adding more water. That wasn't my goal right now, taste was.

I didn't like the taste at all! It had that "mushy" taste/texture and I don't like that when it comes to oatmeal. Therefore I tried it a different way to see if I could change it to my liking. I figured the "mushy" texture was coming from the processed oats. So I used less. Tried it again using 1/8 whole and 1/8 processed and still using the 1/2 cup boiling water.

It came out soupier. But did thicken as it sat. It didn't thicken as much as the first one did. Because of the less processed oats I'm sure.

It did end up the consistency I like. But the texture was still that "mushy" I don't like!

I will not be using this idea. I don't care for that texture and it's because of the processed oats.

I've decided that it would be easier to make a larger amount when I make some for myself and portion it out in storage bowls. Then it can be heated in the microwave. Still as fast as instant.