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I have a new favorite breakfast: Instant Oatmeal Jars.

It’s fast.

It’s easy.

It tastes great.

It saves me money.

I can have absolutely any combination of flavors I want. These breakfast oatmeal jars are amazing! While I found the basic idea on Pinterest, it took some testing before I found the flavors I really liked. But finally, after a long process of testing, I have some amazing combinations for you! Plus, I’ve calculated the calories for all of them for you. Yes, really. This is a fairly long post, so bear with me. It’s all good information!

I’ve also included a free printable of all the flavor combinations (including the calorie counts). Because I’m just nice like that. (haha). For the printable, all of the files are in pdf below. Or click on the image. It will open in a new window and you can either print directly or save to computer.

***Update- If you find the post below interesting, you might be interested in “Fall Oatmeal Jars: Easy, Cheap, Pick Your Favorite.” That post includes some new FABULOUS flavors (in fact, I like them better than the ones below). In addition, it includes a printable version of all the recipes along with a blank printable for writing your own!

Storing Options:

• In mason jars, make sure you use pint; you’ll need the extra space as the oats swell up. This is the option I use because I can cook them right in the jar and don’t have to mess with little baggies.

• You can store in little snack-size plastic baggies. Then pour into a bowl in the morning and follow cooking instructions. Cooking Instructions:

• Preferred method: add between 2/3 cup and 1 cup of water or milk. Heat in microwave 2 minutes, stirring halfway through.

• Boil between 2/3 & 1 cup of water (depending upon how much fruit in jars). Stir into oatmeal jars, mixing well. Allow to sit (covered) 5-10 minutes until oats cooked.

You can use any quick-cooking oats. I recommend Quaker, though. Oats Options: Quaker Old Fashioned Oats- this is what I recommend. They taste great, they work well with the “process,” and they’re cheap.

Bob’s Red Mill Rolled Oats (ones that cook in 5 min., no long cooking ones!)- they cook the same as the quaker, but I thought the taste was horrible! But if you’re looking for a more natural option, try this out.

Freeze-dried fruit works wonderfully in these jars! They fluff up and are very filling. Dried fruits are another great option in the jars. Cheaper than freeze-dried fruit options. Sweetener options: Splenda- benefit of zero calories, but some people don’t like the artificial ingredients. Many of the recipes below use it.

Brown sugar, use 1 & 1/2 tsp. in place of Splenda below & add 25 calories per recipe.

Maple sugar- runs approx. $20 a pound, and can only find on Amazon. If you want to invest the money, feel free. I did not. Fruits & Nuts Freeze-dried fruit: this is the best option, but they can be hard to find and are fairly expensive compared to other fruit. I had to go to Trader Joe’s to find them. To balance out the price, maybe one in five of breakfast includes freeze-dried fruit.

Dried fruit- any and all. Mix and match to find what you like.

Nuts- any and all. Mix and match to find what you like.

A few flavoring options. Not shown are various extracts and homemade spices (such as pumpkin pie spice!) Flavoring notes: Powdered vanilla is a good one. But it is much too expensive. If you want to invest, feel free. I’ve heard good reviews. But part of my site is saving money. So instead, I tried out two other option: vanilla protein powder and dried instant vanilla pudding powder. The pudding powder works all right, but the protein powder was better. In fact, it was great! I used the Muscle Milk vanilla. If you don’t want to use protein powder, substitute 10 grams of pudding powder.

PB2- dried peanut butter. Sounds weird, but tastes all right.

Spices (recipes for homemade apple pie spice & pumpkin pie spice at bottom of post)

Extracts- if you don’t mind the extra step of adding a little bit of extract with water, this is a great idea. Vanilla is great, especially if you have good quality vanilla. My two FAVORITE flavorings are pumpkin pie spice and apple pie spice. I have posts for both of them on how to mix your own homemade (trust me, much better than store-bought mix).

2 Weeks Worth of Breakfast!