Oatmeal On the Cheap!

So this post will be a little different. I am about to go back to school and become very poor. I am also going back to school for nutrition, so, I am going to try and make meals this summer that are nutritious, cheap and also (hopefully) delicious.

This morning I went out and bought bulk oats (Bob Red Mill, thick cut), bulk flax seed (for omega 3's and fiber) and bulk trail mix to add to my oatmeal. I like thick rolled oats since they are a little more chewy and they are less (for lack of a better word) gooey. I also ended up sneaking in about a half tsp of maple syrup that I have had forever and no longer remember the price for. As it is about 1/80th of the bottle, I am think it's about 10 cents.

On a side note, I looked up the instructions on how to cook the oatmeal on the Bob's Red Mill website. They suggested cooking you oatmeal with 1/4 tsp of salt for each 1/2 cup serving. I thought it sounded reasonable until I looked on the salt container and realized that was 24% of the daily recommendation. I guess I am in for an eye-opening experience if I want to keep on the healthy side of my sodium intake. In the restaurant I work in, we use salt in everything and we use a lot of it.

Here's how I made my oatmeal this morning (serves one adult).

1/2 cup rolled oats
1 cup water
1/8 cup trail mix (mixed nuts and raisins)
1 tsp brown, whole flax seeds
Tiny dash of salt
1/2 tsp maple syrup

First I brought the water and salt to a boil. Then I added everything and let it cook for about 10-15 minutes until the oats were cooked through. Depending on how you like it, they recommend cooking between 10-20 minutes. I didn't put the lid on during cooking, but I think I will next time. I ended up adding extra water since the oats absorbed everything and I wanted it to have oatmeal texture. I also stirred it quite a bit at the end to break up the oats and make it a little more glutinous.

This was delicious and very healthy tasting. So, if you aren't used to eating healthy things you might find it to be not sweet enough or salty enough. Feel free to add more sugar and salt when you first make it, then try to wean yourself down as far as possible. By the end of it, you won't miss the sugar that much.

And now for the money reveal:
Oatmeal: $.19
Flax seed: $.01
Trail Mix: $.54
Maple Syrup: $.10
Total: $.84

Oh, and I had a banana that was on sale for $.20

All this for a meal that was whole grain and under 400 calories. It also had about 1 1/2 servings of fruit, 2 servings of grains and plenty of fiber, protein and almost all the sugars came from a banana.