DIY Instant Oatmeal Mix: 5 ways for 5 days

5 Different oatmeal mixes to spice up your week of oats for breakfast! These are delicious hot or cold and can be made in advance for easy meal prep, take take on the go and to save time in the mornings (to get in that extra 15 minutes of sleep!)

I love oatmeal. Oatmeal is hands down one of my must-have food staples and I ALWAYS need to have it in my pantry. A day without oatmeal… I just feel like my day isn’t complete. It’s packed with fibre, keeps me full and so versatile. Being a student, it’s just so convenient for me to meal prep instant oatmeal packs and/or overnight oats that I can bring with me on to campus and to classes. On days I have access to a microwave, I bring some instant oat packs with a banana and use the microwave to cook up some nice warm oatmeal (perfect for Canadian weather!) and on days I need to eat in class, I prepare my tofu-overnight oats (which is my absolute FAVOURITE way to make overnight oats).

Instant oatmeal packs are so easy to put together and you can add your own favourite ingredients together to the base: nuts/seeds, dried fruit, spices, super foods… the flavour combinations are endless (see below for some of my favourite:). Not to mention, they are way cheaper to make and are probably much more healthier than what you would buy at the store (usually filled with lots of sweetener and artificial ingredients).

SO… here are 5 of my favourite flavour combos:

1. Cherry Maca Chocolate: reminds me of dark chocolate forest cake 😉

2. Tumeric Mango: I love my golden milk, so of course I would love creamy tumeric oats! The mangoes help sweeten it and gives it a nice fruity touch.

3. Coconut Matcha: being japanese, I grew up with everything matcha so naturally love the idea of matcha for breakfast

4. Zesty Orange Cranberry Cacao: yeah… more chocolate because if you know me you know that I am a chocoholic and love the combo of orange and cranberries together!

5. Vanilla Bean Maca Pitachio: vanilla bean is so major key for this, maca gives it a caramel flavour and the salty pistachios is such a 10/10 combo.

but I hope you guys give these flavours a go too! If you do, don’t forget to take a picture and share them with me via instagram @lisakitahara. I love seeing all your recreations 🙂

INSTANT OATMEAL BASE

Ingredients

1 c oats
2 tbsp coconut sugar*
1 tbsp chia seeds**
1/4 tsp vanilla bean powder
pinch of salt
Notes:

*I personally LOVE the taste of coconut sugar but sometimes I switch it up for maple or cane sugar, use your favourite sweetener.

** Flax seeds work great as well. Both chia and flex seeds help thicken up the oatmeal, but any nuts and seeds are delicious 🙂

Hot Oatmeal Method:

Pour it into a bowl and add 1 c of liquid (your favourite plant based milk or water)
Microwave it for 2:30 minutes OR cook on stove top on medium until all the liquid is absorbed

Overnight Oat Method:

Place the instant oat pack into a jar or container
Add in 3/4 c of your favourite plant based milk and 1/4 c of plant based yogurt
2Or, if you’d like to try my tofu overnight oats, blend: 1/2 block of silken tofu (90g), 2 dates (30g), 1/4 c of almond milk and pour into the jar. (NOTE: This is for one portion so multiply ingredients by how ever many you’re planning to make!)