EASY AS M-Y-O

Several mornings a week, Old Mother Frugal has oatmeal for breakfast. 

It’s not the oatmeal that one would grab from a brand name box and pull out a pre-made envelope of oatmeal goodness.  It’s the “from scratch” kind of oatmeal cereal. 

Buying in bulk from the wood barrel is more economical than the cardboard round canister boxes or the boxes containing 10 envelopes. Bulk oatmeal goes on sale for .50/lb and the landfill is spared the waste.

On those several mornings, the same activity is repeated as days before, beginning with "where is the 1/2 cup measuring cup". Invariably, it's never the first one to be spotted in the drawer.  Several measuring cups are flipped over in the drawer until there are no more cups to flip.

Next, grab the oatmeal and measure ½ cup for the pot.

Now, hunt for the cinnamon on the spice rack. Round and round the spice rack goes.

Much like the measuring cup, it’s never the first spice to be spotted on the carousel of flavor.  There is pumpkin spice…apple spice…all spice…nutmeg….finally, cinnamon. Some mornings, those other spices are quite desirable.  This particular morning, it was all about the cinnamon.

Walk over to the pantry for walnuts or pecans or slivered almonds.  Decisions, decisions. Next, brown sugar.  Lastly, decide on some type of dry or fresh fruit or no fruit at all to add to the oatmeal

At this point, the pedometer registers 10,000 steps from walking in circles and battle fatigue has set in from too many decisions executed for a bowl of breakfast. 

Time to stop reinventing the wheel.  Time to implement a “make-your-own” oatmeal packet for breakfast and stop this insanity!  Today is that day.  Armed with five small containers and a small pot, it’s time for MYO Cranberry Cinnamon-Pecan oatmeal cereal.

Into the pot…

-       1 cup water*

-       ½ cup oatmeal

-       Sprinkle cinnamon

-       Chopped pecans

-       Dried cranberries

-       Pinch brown sugar

-       Optional 1tsp vanilla*

Fill the pot and the five containers with the dry ingredients.  When ready to cook, add the remaining two liquid* ingredients and enjoy an insanely relaxing bowl of breakfast cereal.

Sound the Bugle! Any container can be used for a MYO project such as this….Ziploc bags, jars or plastic containers.  Use whatever you have in your kitchen. This will save you time and save you money from purchasing pre-made cardboard boxes containing 10 envelopes of oatmeal cereal.  

                                  Cranberry Cinnamon-Pecan Oatmeal