Oatmeal Travel Packets

I grew up on my mom's oatmeal.  She believed in a hot breakfast every morning.  Whether or not I was awake enough to eat it before school was another matter altogether.  I'll admit that I usually have a piece of peanut butter toast and coffee at home, but when I'm camping I LOVE to eat oatmeal.  Something hot in your stomach feels wonderful in the morning, and all you need is hot water to make it.  I cheat when we have our camper by running water through the coffee machine and using that to make the oatmeal before I brew my coffee.  It's easy, and it works! 

The individual packages of flavored oatmeal from the store are too small for my teens.  Even I add regular oatmeal to the package stuff when I'm at home.  When I am packing up my pantry for camping, here is my recipe for oatmeal.

Creamy Homemade Fruit Oatmeal Packets
1-cup quick cooking oatmeal
3 tablespoons powered coffee creamer
2 tablespoons dried fruit or (2 tablespoon fruit preserves)
2-3 teaspoons confectioners sugar - more or less to taste

Optional: Add a little cinnamon, pumpkin spice, salt or brown sugar

Directions for Each Oatmeal Packet:
Place 1/2 cup of the oats in a blender and grind until powdery. Then place in freezer zip-lock bag along with all of the other ingredients.

 

To Make: Open the bag and pour 1/2 cup into a bowl.  Add 1/2-cup boiling water, mush and wait.  If you like thick oatmeal, use less water and if you like thinner oatmeal use more water.

Instant Oatmeal Travel Packets 

3 cups Quick-Cooking Oats

1 teaspoon Salt

Small sized Zip Baggies

Put 1/2 cup oats in a blender and blend on high until powdery. Set aside in a small bowl, and repeat procedure with an additional 1/2 cup oats. If you're using a food processor, you can do the 1 cup of oats in one batch. Put the following ingredients into each zip baggie: 1/4 cup un-powdered oats, 2 Tbsp. powdered oats, and 1/8 tsp. salt. Store in an airtight container.

To serve: Empty one travel packet into a bowl. Add 3/4 cup boiling water. Stir and let stand for 2 minutes. For thicker oatmeal, use less water - for thinner oatmeal, use more water.

Variations:

Apple-Cinnamon Oatmeal- To each packet add 1 Tbsp. sugar, 1/4 tsp. cinnamon, and 2 Tbsp. chopped dried apples.

Sweetened Oatmeal- To each packet add 1 Tbsp. sugar or 1 packet 'Equal' artificial sweetener.
Brown Sugar/Cinnamon Oatmeal - To each packet add 1 Tbsp. brown sugar & 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
Oatmeal w/Raisins & Brown Sugar - To each packet add 1 Tbsp. packed brown sugar and 1 Tbsp. raisins.
Health Nut Oatmeal - To each packet add 2 Tbsp. any kind of wheat germ
Fruit & Cream Oatmeal - To each packet add 1 Tbsp. non-dairy coffee creamer and 2 Tbsp. dried fruit
Fun Fruit Oatmeal - To each packet, add 6 or 7 pieces of 'fruit snack' type dehydrated fruit.
Confetti Oatmeal - To each packet, add 1 tsp. decorative cake/cookie sprinkles.
S'More Oatmeal - add 6 miniature marshmallows and 1 Tbsp. Milk Chocolate Chips to each packet.
Cookies n Cream Oatmeal - add 1 crushed Oreo cookie and 1 Tbsp. non-dairy coffee creamer to each packet.
Exploding Oatmeal - add 1 tsp. sugar, and 1/2 tsp. 'Pop Rocks' candy to each packet. This one is fun for celebration days, such as birthdays.
Bart-man Oatmeal - add 2 Tbsp. 'Butterfinger B.B's' candies to each packet.

We especially like raisins, chocolate chips and dried apples in our mix. I'll add some other flavor combinations below.   Enjoy!

Tripadvisor Hotel Bookings

 

Hello, again.  My life has wandered through many holidays and mountains of snow since my last post.  Today I'm planning our summer camping adventure to California.  For those of you who mix up the hotels and camping experiences, I've just read an article that I'd like to share. 

If you'd like to know how to find a clean hotel that doesn't break the bank, read this article from About.com: http://gocalifornia.about.com/od/calodging/a/we_choose_hotel.htm.
These travel writers taught me how to use the website www.tripadvosor.com. 

Here is my take-away:

1. Google your hotel and find the tripadvisor.com source for the hotel.
2. The first line will show:
3. The number of circles filled in - you want 3 1/2 or more. 
4. The number of reviews - you want more than 30 reviews for the   above circles to be reliable.
5. The average price indicated by the number of $ signs.
6. Look for the ratings on this preview: 23 out of 108 (hotels in this city).  The lower the number, the better.
7. If all of the above information make you feel pretty good about this hotel, click on the link and look at both the cleanliness and value ratings.

I'm feeling much more confident about booking a hotel for a couple of days in San Francisco before we rent a camper and head out to Yosemite National Park for a week!

Enjoy, Tammy