It just occurred to me that the instant oatmeal that comes in envelopes would be a good storage item. I was thinking about storing boxes of cereals, but they are so bulky and what about milk? Oatmeal is warm and stays in your stomach longer. It comes in lots of flavors for variety, too.

-- Amy Leone (leoneamy@aol.com), September 24, 1999

Answers

Amy,

I've been picking them up as they go on sale, lots of campouts for this family & those packets are great. I've noticed that the generic store brand has a better envelope for each portion, lined with something that looks a bit like foil - as opposed to the Quaker kind which is just thin paper. The generics appear to have a longer storage life.

-- flora (***@__._), September 24, 1999.

Although we will have some cooking ability, I'm thinking mostly of noncooking items. I believe rolled oats will be a good food to have. It can be eaten with dried fruit and tahini dripped on it. I think that's a great breakfast.

-- Mara Wayne (MaraWayne@aol.com), September 24, 1999.

I think half and half. They are handy for quick meals yes. But they are only hot if you have the resources to make them hot. Otherwise it will be lukewarm mush. Personally, I'd rather eat cereal than lukewarm mush... :)

-- James Collins (jacollins@thegrid.net), September 24, 1999.

We hate the stuff, but got lots of it the other day as I figured it was a good thing to give people who may be hungry. Taz

-- Taz (Taz@aol.com), September 24, 1999.

For those of you who like oatmeal, it can be bought in bulk at your heath food store. Got mine in a 50 lb bag, for under 20 cents a pound.

-- thinkIcan (thinkIcan@make.it), September 24, 1999.

Buying oatmeal in little envelopes will cost you a fortune. Check out www.honeyvillegrain.com and you can buy 50 LBS of oatmeal for around $13.00 Cream of whaet 50 LBS is only $15. They deliver anywhere! They are located in Salt Lake City.

-- freddie (freddie@thefreeloader.com), September 25, 1999.

I pack a 5 gal bucket with a mylar bag of rolled oats, a bag of dry milk, some brown sugar and some salt. That way, I only have to open 1 bucket instead of 5 different ones. I label mine "breakfast" You also only have to look for a bucket that says "breakfast", a time saver when you might have lots of other time consuming things to do..... If you are creative, you could throw in some dried fruit, nuts or whatever.

-- (a friend@pnw.wet), September 25, 1999.

Allright you guys, thanks for all the tips. BUT I live in CA & some of my finicky eaters don't care for my home-whomped up version of instant oatmeal- yet. So I have fallbacks of fallbacks - from my own roller, to oats,to you name I can identify the wild stuff in the field if I have to { poor man's viagra - have you heard that?! }. I've picked up the store stuff when it's been priced 2 for 1, I know if it'll get eaten, it feels legit to me. We've had 11 disasters in the last 10 years here, I'm always thinking on long & short term fixes.

You know, some of us may take sick, having some convenience foods that family members can easily fix when they're feeling overwhelmed may come in handy, I'm not suggesting it as a way of life.

-- flora (***@__._), September 25, 1999.

Quick cooking or instant oatmeal is what I put in meatloaf, meat balls, etc. to get the "good" grains down the kids. (I also finely grind carrots - they never know they ate (ugh) carrots!)

Oatmeal in pancakes - just a bit - makes them heartier (no pun).

Oatmeal in trail mix. Drizzle honey over oatmeal, toast at 225 for 6-8 minutes and add to trail mix.

Oatmeal - as in cookies - my ultimate comfort food.

Oatmeal, brown sugar, melted butter mixed together and glopped on top of fruit and baked is Betty.

Oatmeal, ground up in a blender, is oat flour. Substitute 20% flour with oat flour in baking recipes - heavier, moister.

Now I think I may need to stockpile some more!

-- mom (mom@mom.com), September 25, 1999.