Cinnamon and Spice Oatmeal – Instant or Overnight Oats Recipe

Are you looking to speed up your morning breakfast routine and want to include some heart healthy whole grain oats in your day? While you could snag a box of those grocery store instant oatmeal packets… I think you’ll like this recipe as well or better! There’s a super easy way to hack those little packets at home. Yay!

First, though, let’s consider why we even bother making these ourselves instead of using the packets of instant oatmeal. It’s not like they’re bad, right? Not at all! A bowl of oatmeal is always a healthy breakfast, especially compared to something like doughnuts or fast food. And looking over the nutrition facts and ingredient checklist, they generally don’t look too conspicuous.

Why make your own?

However, there’s one sneaky factor on most of those lists. Natural flavor. Sounds harmless, right? I mean, it’s natural! What does that actually mean, though? Well, even though these natural flavors come from plant or animal sources originally, they’re really lab created, manipulated, and injected or added into our foods. So pretty much just like ‘artificial flavor.’ They can contain upwards of 100 secret ingredients and make food irresistible and addictive, so we keep coming back for more! Those sneaky tricksters.

When making this homemade version, you can avoid those questionable additional ingredients, plus it’s easy to adapt this to have less sugar. You could even leave the sugar out completely and just drizzle each serving with a little honey, maple syrup or fresh fruit pieces. Customizing to the time of the year is a good idea too! Nothing better than a batch of oatmeal topped with orchard fresh apples, or pumpkin pie oatmeal on a crisp fall day.

Low waste and more options!

Another benefit of making your own instant oatmeal mix is that it’s low waste! You can store it in any airtight container, like an up-cycled glass jar, and scoop out as much as you need for each serving. Oh, and you can easily customize your serving size! I don’t know about you, but one of those packets is never quite enough, but two is just a bit too much.

Ok, last awesome point before we get on to the recipe: you can use this same mix to make healthy overnight oats! Perfect for hot summer days or rushed school mornings! Just add chia seeds and almond milk and toss in the fridge – next morning, you’ll have a delicious serving of creamy oats to enjoy. You can use this method to prep oats up to 5 days in advance. If you want to add a little protein, the cinnamon spice goes surprisingly well with a spoonful of peanut butter or almond butter.

Ingredients:

To make this tasty breakfast, you’ll only need a few things. Most importantly, of course, is oats. I prefer old fashioned oats for this recipe. Quick oats may work, but they might not hold up as well for making overnight oats. You’ll also need a little brown sugar, a little powdered sugar, some cinnamon, nutmeg, and half a teaspoon pumpkin pie spice.

Method:

There really isn’t much work to this recipe. Take 1/2 a cup of your oats and pulse in a blender or food processor until roughly chopped. Not as fine as flour, you still want some texture. Combine oats with remaining dry ingredients and stir well. Feel free to adjust the amount of brown sugar to your own taste. Transfer to an airtight container and store in a dry place.

Oatmeal recipe:

To serve hot – scoop desired amount of oat mix into a bowl, cover with hot water, cover and let sit 2-3 minutes or until thickened. You can also start with cold water and heat in your microwave oven, but I prefer the hot water method, as I always have a kettle on the stove ready to boil water. Top with desired additional ingredients, such as raisins, dried or fresh fruit, sunflower seeds, nuts, or pure maple syrup.

To make overnight oats – Combine 1/2 cup mix with 3/4 cup non-dairy milk, 2 tbsp chia seeds, and 1 tbsp nut butter, if desired. I add all the ingredients to a mason jar and shake well to combine. Refrigerate 2-3 hours or overnight, stir, add any additional toppings, and enjoy.

If you have more time, try serving your oats with my Vegan Buttermilk Biscuits