Pumpkin Spice Instant Oatmeal

I admit it...I buy a big box of instant oatmeal at Costco every month. My kids love it, they can make it themselves..and I get to lay in bed a little bit longer on the mornings it's on the menu. (They even make it for the toddler!) I love my kids. The last couple times I have bought it, ALL of the maple and brown sugar are clumpy and we cannot break it apart. I took the first box back when I realized the problem and got another one. However the second box did the same thing. So this time they ate all the other flavors and I won't be buying more. I found a recipe online for instant oatmeal packets and did a little tweaking..and voila!! I made two big batches of two different flavors that will hopefully last us a couple weeks. (big family problems)

First things first..here is what you need! (You can put these into individual baggies- but that is not necessary and creates a lot of waste.)

10 Cups Quick cooking oats
1t salt
2 Cups brown sugar
1 Cup powdered milk
3t cinnamon
3t pumpkin pie spice

Take 6 cups of the oats and put it in a big bowl. Put the rest of the oats (2 cups at a time) in the blender and blend into a powder, i just pulse it. This is what will thicken your oatmeal and give it the instant texture we are used to. Then mix the two kinds of oats together. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix together thoroughly. Put into a good air tight container.

To make: use 1/2 cup of oatmeal mixture and add hot or boiling water until you reach your desired consistency. My husband likes his oatmeal cooked in the microwave, so you can also add some water then pop it in the microwave for a minute or two until it is cooked that way.


I also made Apple Cinnamon flavor- Keep everything the same except go up to 4t cinnamon and add 3 cups crumbled dehydrated apples and omit the pumpkin pie spice.

I'm not sure of cost comparison with store bought, but I do know homemade is way better because there are less ingredients. Also, I buy everything in bulk- so the only thing I might have to go back to the store for to make more would be pumpkin pie spice.

I put my label maker to good use too ;-)