View Full Version : How do you like your oatmeal?
saimyoji
01-16-2008, 13:53
Can you drink your oatmeal, or do you need a spoon?
(How much water do you add?)
Lone Wolf
01-16-2008, 13:53
in between
Can you drink your oatmeal, or do you need a spoon?
(How much water do you add?)Not much, just enough to get it to a nice mushy consistency. I definitely have no desire to drink my oatmeal. Yuk! :D
Blah the thicker the better. Just a splash of water, that's it!
The opposite is true, however, for mac & cheese!
I like mine kinda thick. Then clean the pot with coffee to add a bit of pulp to the brew.
Bootstrap
01-16-2008, 14:09
I also like mine thick. And I used rolled oats, none of this instant stuff. It's worth a little extra fuel ...
Jonathan
Then clean the pot with coffee to add a bit of pulp to the brew.I use the Guyot Squishy Bowls. Just turn inside out and lick the last of the oatmealy goodness.
SGT Rock
01-16-2008, 14:19
Go for grits.
Go for grits.Now that's a true southerner! :D
Mrs Baggins
01-16-2008, 14:30
Instant, just enough water to get it beyond gloppy, add some powdered milk, top with a mix of nuts and dried fruit and dig in!
Go for grits.
grits over oatmeal anytime :banana
Footslogger
01-16-2008, 14:33
At home I like it kinda thick with raisins and brown sugar ...but I have a kitchen sink to clean up in aftwards.
On the trail I eat (notice I didn't say LIKE) my oatmeal runny. Don't have to eat it with a spoon and clean up is a breeze. Plus ...I figure on the trail I need the extra water anyway.
'Slogger
ChinMusic
01-16-2008, 14:34
Oatmeal: A bit on the thin side with a scoop of vanilla protein powder, raisins, and sweetener.
I like my oatmeal pretty thin and watery, almost more like soup. Especially on cold mornings, all that hot water warms me up.
Now if I'm eating cream of wheat, then it's a whole different story!:)
SlowLightTrek
01-16-2008, 14:44
I like uncooked oatmeal with milk, sugar, and dried fruit.
Crunchy! I know that wasn't a listed option, but I eat my oatmeal raw:eek: with raisins, dates and nuts.
The Swiss call it meusli. Come to think of it, so do I.:-?
I love the home home-made dry stuff granola, the pre packaged stuff of choice, little marshes, dried cherries, blueberries, pineapples, etc...it varies. cinnimon, cane sugar.
mix it all up and break down in meal bags. heat water and make it thick. sticks to the ribs all morning!
Thoughtful Owl
01-16-2008, 15:20
I get that instant 1 minute stuff, throw it into zip lock bags along with rasins a little powdered milk and brown sugar and cinnamon. On the trail I add hot water, enough to make it soupy so I can drink it down. No mess, no clean up. Fix my coffee or HC with the remain hot water and I am good to go.
garyhebert
01-16-2008, 15:28
Instant all the way baby. In college instant became Hot Tap water. I was done eatin before the water would even boil!
In winter I heat water. On the AT (spring 07) at nite I'd heat water if I ate oatmeal. For breakfast cold water poured into the oatmeal packet, eat with a spoon. Repeat with next packet. Calories are calories. Got me on the trail much quicker on the rare occassion I ate breakfast before I started walking.
Is a spoon really so heavy that you would consider making your oatmeal runny just to save the weight of a plastic spoon?
I use the instant stuff on the trail, I like the Maple and Brown sugar flavor best. I use 1/2 cup of water by just judging the consistency. And I eat it right out of the bag it comes in, easy clean-up. Usually 2 packets will do me unless I have some of that pre-cooked bacon with it. Yummy.
BTW, grits were not very popular where I grew up, (Middle TN) don't like them at all, dk what you put on 'em. Yuck.
Shiraz-mataz
01-16-2008, 16:03
Oatmeal is only good in a COOKIE! Gimme good ol' grits any day...
saimyoji
01-16-2008, 16:10
Ever throw Tabasco on the oatmeal?
Bootstrap
01-16-2008, 16:19
Go for grits.
I eat a *lot* of grits on the trail, often for dinners. I'm gluten-intolerant, so grits are a quick and easy starting point for a lot of things the rest of you might cook with pasta.
Jonathan
Tipi Walter
01-16-2008, 16:28
If I had to take just one food item on a backpacking trip, it would have to be a big bag of oatmeal. Over the years I tried about everything with the humble Oat:rolleyes:foodwise:rolleyes:and must say it's a wonder food.
I think I've said all this before but with the right ingredients oatmeal is all you really need. Wild edibles such as mustard greens, chickweed, lambs-quarters, all mix well will oats. Raisins and black walnuts with oats is my usual breakfast. Dried milk and other powders readily mix, as does cream cheese, butter and regular cheese. And of course salt.
It can be eaten w/o cooking by a short soaking in water.
I like my oatmeal all ways. Anything from a watery gruel to a thick porridge.
I will eat the instant oatmeal packets but prefer to buy it and pack it bulk.
It all cooks quick enough. Just pour boiling water onto it and cover and wait.
I grew up cooking it on the stove and serving it with brown sugar and still eat it that way sometimes. I also like it with apple and cinamon and nutmeg. In the woods I have it with honey, and perhaps some raisins and almonds or whatever else I may have brung.
NICKTHEGREEK
01-16-2008, 16:53
I do the Quaker instant, toss 2 bags in a tupperware bowl, quesstimate the hot water and eat my mistakes. An apple cinnamon and a regular flavor work nice together. The stuff starts out kinda thin then ends up thick as a brick about the time I'm done gobblin' it down.
I used to shudder at the thought of grits, but I'm developing a taste for them with a shot of hot sauce. Are they supposed to be thick or thin?
Pedaling Fool
01-16-2008, 16:54
Eat it dry and down it with water/coffee/hot coco.
I do the Quaker instant, toss 2 bags in a tupperware bowl, quesstimate the hot water and eat my mistakes. An apple cinnamon and a regular flavor work nice together.I like the raisin, date and walnut with extra raisins, walnuts, a swirl of honey and some powdered milk. Yum! :)
Thoughtful Owl
01-16-2008, 16:59
Is a spoon really so heavy that you would consider making your oatmeal runny just to save the weight of a plastic spoon?
I carry a spork, but it's not because it is so heavy that I make my oatmeal runny enough to drink. It just takes less time to get moving because there isn't anything to cleanup. I could do like garyhebert and just add cold water, but I heat water for coffee, gotta have my coffee, so I just add the hot water to my oatmeal.
Go for grits.
co-signed. I like mine mixed with mint jelly. I may be the only person on earth who does that.
I like mine mixed with mint jelly. I may be the only person on earth who does that.Hopefully. :D Give a yankee grits and see what he does to them. :eek: Just kiddin.....enjoy!
Thoughtful Owl
01-16-2008, 17:05
Go for grits.
If I am having grits I like to add a little coffee to them or maybe some honey, at home a little butter...heck just add whatever I have to give them some flavor of some sort.
Furlough
01-16-2008, 17:07
Oatmeal, Cream of Wheat and Grits. Like them all on the trail. Prefer mine somewhere bewteen runny and the consistency of spackle.
Furlough
turtle fast
01-16-2008, 17:20
Oatmeal in flavored packets is quite convienant, though grits are great too with a little butter and a biscut...perfect.
The English have a saying:
"The Scottish eat what we (English) feed our horses....oats."
SGT Rock
01-16-2008, 17:28
Grits with butter and habanero sauce.
Grits with butter and habanero sauce.At home......blackened catfish and goat cheese grits with tomatilla salsa.....getting hnungry just thinking about it. :D
-SEEKER-
01-16-2008, 18:00
Flavored Instant oatmeal. Thick, but not to the point where you might choke on it!
Bootstrap
01-16-2008, 19:11
I carry dried Mexican peppers of various kinds. One to three kinds of dried Mexican peppers is the main seasoning I carry.
Grits with chunks of cheddar cheese (which melt instantly) and dried Chipotle is one favorite for me, or grits with smoked herring. Sometimes I carry pre-cooked bacon to add to my grits, with or without cheese. I've also boiled Jerky and added grits.
Of course just plain grits with olive oil or butter is good.
Oatmeal is less versatile ;->
Jonathan
Hopefully. :D Give a yankee grits and see what he does to them. :eek: Just kiddin.....enjoy!
Hey, I was born in Chattanooga:banana
Javasanctum
01-16-2008, 19:44
What's all this fuss about grits? I thought it was just cream-of-wheat on steroids. Maybe I should try this stuff the way you guys make it sound.
For now oatmeal with fruit (slightly thick) is good.
I carry dried Mexican peppers of various kinds. One to three kinds of dried Mexican peppers is the main seasoning I carry.
Grits with chunks of cheddar cheese (which melt instantly) and dried Chipotle is one favorite for me, or grits with smoked herring. Sometimes I carry pre-cooked bacon to add to my grits, with or without cheese. I've also boiled Jerky and added grits.
Of course just plain grits with olive oil or butter is good.
Oatmeal is less versatile ;->
JonathanI would have argued that oatmeal is very versatile, but now you are describing some pretty wild assed ****. I might have to try me some. I have gotten to like cream of wheat somewhat over the years, but the only thing I really like that is gritty is corn meal muffins, with lots of butter. When I was in Abilene Texas I had some corn meal muffins that were sort of deep fried almost, and they had halepeno peppers in them. They were very good. The rest of the barbeque had me in tears. I gained something like 20 pounds when I was down there. I've never tried grits though. It's got me thinking.
I'm not sure we could do grits properly up here though.
I thought we could do barbeque. Boy was I wrong.
never tried grits. might have to give 'em a shot now after all this talk 'bout 'em?
i like my oatmeal lumpy(lyrics from a song by digital underground in the 90's)with pecans, blueberries and a dash of salt!! good stuff!
I use the instant stuff on the trail, I like the Maple and Brown sugar flavor best. I use 1/2 cup of water by just judging the consistency. And I eat it right out of the bag it comes in, easy clean-up. Usually 2 packets will do me unless I have some of that pre-cooked bacon with it. Yummy.
BTW, grits were not very popular where I grew up, (Middle TN) don't like them at all, dk what you put on 'em. Yuck.
That's exactly how I eat my oatmeal. Instant Maple and Brown Sugar. Found it on sale at the grocery just tonight so I bought two boxes for my section this summer. No muss no fuss.
Grits not popular in middle tn???? since when????
Well clotted. With brown sugar.
When I do come across a mixed box of instant oatmeals in the cupboard I go for the apple and cinammon first, and then the maple and brown sugar. I don't even remember what the other flavours are.
Thoughtful Owl
01-16-2008, 22:21
never tried grits. might have to give 'em a shot now after all this talk 'bout 'em?
i like my oatmeal lumpy(lyrics from a song by digital underground in the 90's)with pecans, blueberries and a dash of salt!! good stuff!
What you never tried them and you are living in the semi-south now. You have to try them. Put a little butter on them or even try the cheeseie grits...awesome my friend.
TO
totempole99
01-16-2008, 22:35
Does anyone else eat it cold? I pour water out of my bottle into the packet about half way up from the oatmeal to the top of the pack, mix a little and eat. Blueberry or Peaches and Cream are really the only kind I like this way, sometimes Apples and Cinnamon. That plus eating my "hot" chocolate the same way for breakfast does me just right. And plus you get to rip the packet to lick all the cream or hot chocolate powder you didn't mix up
Oatmeal with brown sugar and rasins - YUMMMM
I prefer my oatmeal in grit form. Cheese grits are my preferred, with a bit of salt. A bit of egg yolk makes the world even happier, but it doesn't happen much in the backcountry.
As long as you don't add sugar to grits, they make a great high carb breakfast.
Oatmeal? Umm, I've had bananna oatmeal that was swallowable. Otherwise, it's just energy paste.
on the trail or outside - instant - but i'm thinking about 'real' - tastes so much better.
at home - 'real' - with brown sugar, apples, and cinnamon.
consistency - hard to describe - not dripping, not concrete.
Ever throw Tabasco on the oatmeal?
Nope, but every once in awhile I will put cut up peices of jerky in it.
soulrebel
01-17-2008, 09:11
Never ate any on the trail (mostly bars but sometimes eggs/bacon), but at home I eat it everyday.
Oatmeal in an iron skillet w/ maple syrup and wheat germ added to it (pinch o seasalt).
Let the oatmeal heat up to a boil with the cold water from the start simmer on low for about 5 mins.
Sometimes bananas or strawberries-- Costs about $.15 a day for bkfast around here.
Grits with butter and habanero sauce.
OH man Sgt. I will take the H-sauce with oatmeal before I do a grit meal again. I just cant palate them.
And I really eat everything else.. I mean like the guy on the travel channel does.
I just have 3 things I cant do. (and I dont know why)
Grits, pork roll and most other greasy pork products.
HOWEVER
and I kid you not
My favorite at home breakfast is french toast and ketchup. Really
homebrew
01-17-2008, 13:25
:)You could just buy oat flour ( Bob's Red Mill) and mix this in with powdered milk or a carnation instant breakfast drink and add water, shake it up and drink-you get the beni's of oats and easy to mix.
:)You could just buy oat flour ( Bob's Red Mill) and mix this in with powdered milk or a carnation instant breakfast drink and add water, shake it up and drink-you get the beni's of oats and easy to mix.
He He thats for the ones with no teeth:p
hopefulhiker
01-17-2008, 15:51
The wonders of Oatmeal...
My wife made custom made oatmeal for me on the trail.. It included home dehydrated fresh fruits, crasins and chopped fresh nuts, fax seed, Nido milk, sometimes bran, and other good stuff. The mixtures changed from mail drop to mail drop.. I ate it thick with a spoon.. A lot of times it was my best meal of the day...
bigcranky
01-17-2008, 17:48
Hiker7s, how can you live in the Philly area and not like pork roll? I thought it was required. That's one thing that I stock up on when I go back home for a visit.
I remember getting pork roll sandwiches on the boardwalk for cheap when I was a kid.
Pork roll, Scrapple, Lebanon Bologna, cheese steaks, greasy pizza -- all the great stuff I grew up eating.
Oh, and these days I make a mean baked cheese grits <g>. Good stuff, too.
sloopjonboswell
01-17-2008, 19:56
quaker instant, cold water, just like my coffee singles. eat right outta the pack and go. cheese grits until you cant find them anymore or cant have them shipped. then maybe oatmeal. brown sugar or maple whatever.
in my experience, one should never listen to anybody from virginia when it comes to grits.
Jaybird62
01-17-2008, 20:17
Pork roll, Scrapple, Lebanon Bologna, cheese steaks, greasy pizza -- all the great stuff I grew up eating.
Gotta' put some grape jelly on that scrapple mmmmmm...mmmmmmmm..... good
oatmeal, kinda thick with honey to sweeten, add dried cranberries and walnuts
I grew up in arkansas and louisiana and i never did like grits except as a last resort. oatmeal, thick with milk powder, honey and maybe some fruit. i've put the bacon on it also. since we brought up cream of wheat, anybody try the cream of rice, that's easy and good too.
Hiker7s, how can you live in the Philly area and not like pork roll? I thought it was required. That's one thing that I stock up on when I go back home for a visit.
I remember getting pork roll sandwiches on the boardwalk for cheap when I was a kid.
Pork roll, Scrapple, Lebanon Bologna, cheese steaks, greasy pizza -- all the great stuff I grew up eating.
Oh, and these days I make a mean baked cheese grits <g>. Good stuff, too.
You know, well #1, I dont actually live there (22 miles north of though).
I used to eat it but about ten years ago I developed something with the after taste that just makes me want to puke (and sometimes I do).
I can handle souse and scrapple
freefall
01-17-2008, 23:15
Can you drink your oatmeal, or do you need a spoon?
(How much water do you add?)
Neither, I rip the package open and turn it up. No cooking, no water and no mess. Plus it gives it some texture which has always been a turn-off for me on oatmeal. And it saves time, weight, etc... as I don't have to pump/ carry the extra water or clean anything up when I'm done. Just toss the empy envelope in my trash bag and I'm done.
Grumpy Ol' Pops
01-18-2008, 08:58
Is a spoon really so heavy that you would consider making your oatmeal runny just to save the weight of a plastic spoon?
Ever been to Hawai'i and eaten poi? It's like oatmeal's consistency and is eaten with the fingers. Remember that the only dining utensil at one time in Europe was a dagger. Forks and spoons came along much later. Most meals were eaten with the fingers. When you have some spare time, visit Medieval Times if there is one near you. It's a learning experience with regard to fine dining. Every part of the meal is eaten without utensils of any kind.
On the trail, a pair of chopsticks are great! They can handle just about anything!!!
Thoughtful Owl
01-18-2008, 11:20
quaker instant, cold water, just like my coffee singles. eat right outta the pack and go. cheese grits until you cant find them anymore or cant have them shipped. then maybe oatmeal. brown sugar or maple whatever.
in my experience, one should never listen to anybody from virginia when it comes to grits.
:DWhat? Whats this about not listening to anybody from virginia when it comes to grits? Some of us know how to fix and eat'em. Now if you are talking about N. VA that's another story. Lot of transplants up there.
I actually drink my oatmeal all the time. I find it is much easier to eat on the go. As I am usually just gulping it down because I know I will regret it later. Also when on the trail I look at it as a dehydration issue. If I eat dry oats then it's going to suck water from my body and may cause some stiff excrement.?
I drink a package of oatmeal in about 10 seconds almost every work day and especially on the trail. It is just so nice and easy brakfast is nice and easy for me this way.
I like my oatmeal inbetween (although it doesn't always end up that way) and, on the trail, with some peanut butter in it :)
Mother Nature
01-28-2008, 09:00
Oatmeal used to be breakfast of choice on and off the trail. In 2004 I had a medical problem on the trail and I found it difficult to keep food down...after a while the taste of recycled oatmeal made me lose my love of the stuff.
I found that if I doctor it up with left over rice or put instant rice in the mix, sprinkle cinnamon or use cinnamon flavored oatmeal then fill it with goodies like raisins and nuts that it tasted more like rice pudding.
I sometimes cook it the night before with the rice and if the weather is cool it is like a congealed rice pudding in the morning.
On shorter trips (<2 weeks) I make large oatmeal breakfast cookies and take them along.
MN