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#BringYourBestBowl #Walmart #CollectiveBias
You guys, my family is on an oatmeal KICK. And when I say Kick, I'm talking oatmeal for breakfast on every Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday- Friday- Saturday- Sunday of the week. Aaannnnnnd, it's pretty much amazing. Think 15 minutes prep and breakfast for EVERYONE done.. for the week. It's a good situation. Simple, delicious, customizable and most importantly.. my kids eat it. Currently we are all about making our own "instant oatmeal jars." Most oatmeal packets that you buy at the store are loaded with sugar, additives, and other unnecessary stuff. Not only do these little jars make a perfect grab-and-go breakfast, but my boys love making them. It keeps them busy, and since they pick what goes into their own jars they are excited to eat it. It's a breakfast that I feel good about feeding them. When you mix oats, dried fruit, nuts, seeds, and other extras like flax and/or chia seeds these little jars morph into a super nutrient dense breakfast! Added bonus.. I get to feel "Pinteresty" ... mason jars are involved?.
So when I found out about the Quaker® Oats #bringyourbestbowl promotion (think chance to have your oatmeal created and sold in stores in Fall of 2016 and a $250,000 dollar prize) I decided that the boys and I would make an afternoon out of entering the contest. After a "top secret super serious" brainstorming session we settled on a dark-chocolate covered strawberry theme (Valentine's Day fav around here) and headed to our local Wal-Mart to pick up our ingredients.
Our recipe is simple, requiring only 5 ingredients all purchased at our local Wal-Mart - Quaker® Oats - Quick One - Minute Oats, freeze dried strawberries, unsweetened dark chocolate cocoa powder, dry milk, and coconut sugar (for added sweetness).
I'm going to level with you.. when the boys chose chocolate-covered strawberries as their inspiration, I was leery. I wasn't really going for a dessert for breakfast type thing. I put the kabosh (<-- so scary I know ?) on purchasing chocolate bars from the check out lane to add to our oatmeal, but compromised with unsweetened dark chocolate cocoa powder. The boys were thrilled with the freeze dried strawberries, something about "space man food" so no compromise was needed in that department. Our recipe still needed a bit of sweetness. I used a little bit of coconut sugar instead of the more commonly used granulated white sugar. You could add honey or maple syrup at the end, but I wanted this recipe to contain everything needed for a perfect bowl of oatmeal (aka.. I don't want Cooper in control of pouring the honey/maple syrup into his oatmeal in the morning.. can you even imagine the mess?).
You guys.. these dark chocolate strawberry oatmeal jars turned out perfectly. They are creamy, chocolate-y, wholesome, filling little jars of Quaker® oats with juicy strawberries and just the right amount of sweetness. I swear to you, it's taking all of my willpower not to skip my dinner plans and eat this instead. IT'S THAT GOOD!
Time Saving Tips and Tricks:
Prep: This recipe was meant to be prepped! I usually make 12 jars at a time (because that's how many mason jars I have). When you need one, just dump the contents of the jar into a microwave safe bowl and add 1 cup (just fill the mason jar) with water. Pop the bowl into the microwave for 90 seconds, breakfast ready!
Make Ahead: I don't recommend making the oatmeal ahead of time. It gets pretty thick. Since preparing this recipe is so simple, I don't see much reason not to have it fresh and piping hot.
Freezer: You can store the jars in the freezer if you aren't eating them up fast enough. Just make sure that your mason jars are freezer friendly. Allow jars to come back to room temperature prior to cooking.
Dark Chocolate Strawberry Instant Oatmeal Jars
- Prep Time: 5 mins
- Cook Time: 1 min
- Total Time: 6 minutes
- Yield: 12 jars 1x
Ingredients
- 12 pint sized mason jars
- 6 cups Quaker 1-Minute Quick Oats
- 3 cups freeze-dried strawberries
- 6 TBS dry milk
- 6 TBS dark unsweetened cocoa powder
- 6-12 teaspoon of coconut sugar (depending on desired level of sweetness)
Instructions
- ASSEMBLY: To each mason jar, add ½ cup of Quaker 1-Minute Quick Oats, ¼ cup of strawberries, ½ TBS of cocoa powder, ½ TBS dry milk, and ½ - 1 teaspoon of coconut sugar. Screw on lid and store in pantry until needed.
- COOKING INSTRUCTIONS: Empty contents of jar into a microwave safe bowl. Add 1 cup of water. Cook on high for 90 seconds, stopping halfway to stir. Allow oatmeal to cool for 1-2 minutes. Enjoy.
Helpful Hints:
- When purchasing unsweetened dark chocolate cocoa powder.. there should only be one ingredient, cocoa powder. Also, look for a labels that say "non-alkaline."
- Make sure that your strawberries are freeze-dried. This means that they are crunchy (not gummy like dried strawberries) until re-hydrated with water. Like the cocoa powder, there should only be one ingredient, strawberries. Avoid brands that list juice concentrate as an ingredient. This is code for added sugar.
- If you don't have mason jars, don't let it stop you from trying this out. You can just dump the ingredients into Ziplock bags. I do prefer mason jars because A) they are adorable ? and B) there are measurement lines on the side and since they are 8 oz I am able to use the jar to measure the water for the oatmeal.
- Umm.. are the bowls in these pics not the cutest? I know people are going to ask me where I got them so I thought that I would be proactive.. Walmart. They are from the Pioneer Woman's Dish Collection.
Interested In Entering The Quaker's® National Bring Your Best Bowl Contest?
Enter to win $250,000 - Top recipe entries will be created and sold in stores for a limited time in Fall 2016. The more creative the entry, the better (keep taste in mind too). Your recipe must remain " in the bowl" and entries for the contest should have 2-5 ingredients.
- Contest Start Date - January 2016
- Contents End Date - March 12, 2016
- Announce Winner - November 2016
Check out Quaker® National Sweepstakes Site or Bring Your Best Bowl -Quaker Love to enter for your chance to win!
Let's Connect:
Looking for more healthy grab-n-go breakfast options? Check out Simply Sissom's Breakfast Board on Pinterest. New pins are added daily from my favorite bloggers from around the web!
As always, if you try out this recipe, let me know! Leave a comment, rate it, and don't forget to tag a picture #simplysissom on Instagram or Twitter. I'd love to see what you come up with?.
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