Eat Food, Save Money: Breakfast Edition

This is not so much a recipe, but more of a suggestion. Ok, it's probably more like a rant, but whatever. It's my blog.

Uncle Sam (read: the professor) wants you to stop buying those silly single-serving envelopes of oatmeal. You're wasting money and paper, and chances are you are consuming more junk than you need to.

First of all, buying in bulk saves you money. How much are those little packets costing? Maybe $3 or $4? You can get a big ol' canister of oatmeal for about a $1.50. You get more servings and it's cheaper, so why don't you do it?

I know, I know. The little packets are convenient. They're already pre-flavored and pre-measured, you'll say.

Look, I don't mean to sound like a jerk, but you do know how to use a measuring cup, right? What's more, the canister has the measurements and the water amounts written right there on the side! You have to measure the water when you use the packets anyway, so how much more time and energy does it take to measure out the oats, too? If you have a microwaveable bowl, you can make the canister oats in the microwave, too -- it literally takes the same amount of time.

Also, do you really want the pre-flavored oatmeal? Have you read the back of the box? How many terms in the ingredient list do you recognize as food? Yeah, I thought so.

Chances are the flavors you like in your oatmeal are things you already have in your kitchen. Cinnamon? Most people have that. Brown sugar? Most people have that too. Better yet, if you buy the canister of oats, you can have WHATEVER FLAVOR YOU WANT! Heck, you could throw some leftover pumpkin pie spice in there! Or how about some peanut butter? Buy yourself some dried fruit and some nuts out the (very economical) bulk bin and get creative.

You can eat real food AND save money. Ditch the packets. Go for the can.