pumpkin spice oatmeal

In honor of October (my favorite month), I'm kicking it off with a warm, ooey-gooey, pumpkin-spicy recipe: Pumpkin Spice Oatmeal. Over the past month or so I've seen multiple recipes for pumpkin flavored oatmeal so I just had to give it a shot. Oatmeal is one of my favorite breakfast foods although I usually stick to "old-fashioned" or "quick cooking" varieties. This time, I decided to go for the glory and try out the infamous STEEL CUT OATS. I can only say that I am sad that I waited so long. They are gooey, chewy, and kept me full for SIX HOURS (that's unheard of for me). Needless to say, steel-cut oats are my new best friend and you'll be seeing much much more of them on this blog!





Total Recipe cost: $3.75
Servings Per Recipe: 5
Cost per serving: $0.75
Prep time: 5 min. Cook time: 30 min. Total: 35 min.

INGREDIENTS		COST
1 cup	steel-cut oats	$0.89
15 oz. can	pumpkin puree	$1.99
2 tsp	pumpkin pie spice	$0.10
5 Tbsp	chopped walnuts	$0.40
1/4 cup	brown sugar	$0.37
TOTAL		$3.75

STEP 1: In a large pot boil 4.5 cups of water. Once it boils, stir in the oats. After adding the oats, add the pumpkin puree, brown sugar and pumpkin pie spice. Stir well.

STEP 2: Reduce the heat to low and simmer for about 30 minutes or until the oatmeal is as thick as you like it. Remember, after you remove the oatmeal from the heat completely, the oats will thicken further.

STEP 3: Divide the oatmeal evenly among 5 resealable containers and refrigerate. When you are ready to eat your oatmeal, simply microwave for about 1 minute 30 seconds and top with 1 Tbsp. of chopped walnuts (and milk or whatever else you prefer). The refrigerated oatmeal will stay good in your refrigerator for 5-7 days.



NOTE: I'm sure that steel-cut oats can be purchased for less than what I paid but it was an impulse buy and still very affordable so I went for it. I paid $3.59 for a 24 oz. brand name container (about 4.25 cups).

If you want to splurge, replace the water in this recipe for milk for an extra creamy oatmeal porridge! I prefer to have my milk poured cold on top of my hot oats so I used water for cooking.

Let me know what your favorite oatmeal toppings are and they might find their way into a budget bytes post in the future (with credit to you, of course!).