Oatmeal Copy Cat Recipe

I grew up eating Cheerios - the real Cheerios.  Every morning I would have a big bowlful. If I wanted a snack midday, they would be one of my first choices.

When we got married, or maybe even when I was in college, I realized that there were generic versions of Cheerios.  I also realized that there was a significant price difference.  So I started buying the generic brand.  Let me tell you.  They are NOT like the real Cheerios.  But they were cheaper.  So I kept buying them.

Ethan and I are approaching our 10 year anniversary, and over the years he has teased me about there not being a taste difference in them.  I continued to hold my ground that there was a taste difference, and not only a taste difference, but also a hierarchy within the generic Cheerios world.  Between Walmart, Hy-Vee, and Fareway - Fareway wins by a landslide. (Although they still fall quite a bit behind the real thing!) Like I said, Ethan has teased me over the years about this, but just this year he started to agree with me.  Especially after I got on his case about using the Fareway O's in his chex mix before the Hy-Vee O's that he brought home to make chex mix. (I wasn't really upset, just teasing, but he made sure to leave the Fareway O's alone for his second batch - after he had a bowlful of Hy-vee O's himself.)

As I have been buying Fareway O's over the years, I have watched their price raise from under $1 to over $2.  Somewhere in the middle, I started making oatmeal from a box, not a premix, for the kids instead of giving them O's.  I flavored it and seasoned it as best as I could.  They all enjoy it, but I have never been able to choke it down.  I have even tried multiple times, especially as the price of Tasty O's has continued to go up.  I just figured I didn't care for it because I grew up eating dry cereal.

When Jonathan was born, however, my good friend gave me a bunch of groceries that could make quick meals.  Among these groceries were little packets of pre-seasoned oatmeal. I cooked some up for the kids and decided to taste a bit only to find out that it was good!!

Since buying little packets of oatmeal would probably not save me any money over buying generic O's, I began my quest to find a copy cat recipe for oatmeal.  After a couple attempts and adjustments, I came up with one that I actually enjoy eating.  I ran out of O's a few weeks ago and have been eating this oatmeal.  I surprised myself this week that I was actually disappointed when I ran out of oatmeal!  (Since I'm trying to go the rest of the month with buying as few groceries as possible, I'm on to the next breakfast idea.)

I have 2 different versions of my copy cat recipe.  The first one is for those of you who don't have a fruit sauce.  The second one is for when you do. (I have quite a bit of pear sauce canned up that I am using.)

Since my little ones are about to get up, however, I will have to save my recipes for the next post (hopefully tomorrow!)  Don't forget to check back!