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Because a box of cereal is $7.
And oatmeal - didn't that used to be one of the cheapest foods!? wtf happened there I have no idea...
Steel cut oats are still relatively inexpensive; no reason to buy prepared oatmeal.
The instant kind, which used to be an identical rather than now twice the price for Quaker Oats (ymmv), still has some benefits: ability to nuke it anywhere e.g. even at work without access to a stovetop, less cleanup for the pan, and less knowledge (zero chance to burn it) and effort required.
Maybe the uncut kind tastes better, or something? For Quaker Oats I never thought so, especially not given the aforementioned tradeoffs, but probably other brands can be way better.
Anyway thanks for the suggestion - that is a great thought. It may take some effort to switch over, but it seems like it may be worth it.
Here’s what I do: Robin Hood steel cut (way better than Quaker):
Bring water to boil in a pot
Add oats and return to edge of boil, without stirring
Turn off pot and cover with lid for 10 minutes
Oats are ready to eat
— the water to oats ratio differs depending on taste and volume, but it only takes a few tries to get it the way you want it.
Thank you. I will miss the "1-minute", no-prep, no-clean aspect, but I needed to make the switch anyway, b/c despite the superfood health benefits the instant stuff tastes like crap.
If you don't mind my asking, why no stirring - wouldn't that help?
And what does "edge of boiling" mean? Is it just above, like I've heard for pasta and noodles, or just below, for whatever but I've heard it called "simmering"? Yeah, I don't know the first thing about cooking, for the most part - I know how to stick something in the oven and leave it alone, and like fry-cook a scrambled egg, and that's about it. Companies are taking advantage of my weakness there, by making low-effort prepped foods like cereal cost more, b/c they know that most people will just give in and pay more rather than learn to eat other foods:-(.
Another good one to try is to put the oats, some frozen berries and a little bit of milk into a mason jar.
Put the jar in the fridge overnight, they'll be ready in the morning, sweeten as desired.
Omg "cold(-brew?) oatmeal", this just blew my mind a little:-P.
It kind of is like cold brew! Haha. They call them "overnight oats". I have a bad habit of skipping breakfast and it really helps!
You heat it back up until the oats start to roll in from the outside.
You don’t stir, because this makes the oats stick to the pot. Cleanup is really simple if you don’t stir; serve the oats, then rinse the pot in soapy water and leave it to dry.
Cool, thanks! None of that really makes sense to me, so I guess I will just have to follow your directions and watch it happen in order to learn. Especially if I can find something where I can enjoy or even halfway stand the taste, that will be great:-).
Go to a Latin market and buy it in big 5kg bags for cheap
Thanks. It sounds like my biggest problem is the over-reliance on the "quick 1-minute" kind, which really did used to be IDENTICAL in price - or at least I recall the two Quaker Oats versions, side-by-side, were the same price, though steel-cut ones of other brands may be better and/or cheaper.
I am also referring to quick oats, not steel cut ones. Just avoid name brands like Quaker. Buy in bulk.
I routinely buy big boxes of "extra raisins" raisin-bran at Walmart for less than $4/box, did so today in fact.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
After years of managing household budgets through the stress of the worst inflation in a generation, US families are increasingly pressured by a different kind of financial squeeze: The cost of carrying debt.
The figures suggest a difficult reality for the millions of consumers who are the engine of the US economy: The era of high borrowing costs — however necessary to slow price increases — has a sting of its own that many families may feel for years to come, especially the ones that haven’t locked in cheap home loans.
Nikki Cimino, a 40-year-old recruiter living in Denver, said she finally saved up enough to buy a condo last year, but missed out on the ultra-low interest rates that had made homeownership more affordable in the early days of the pandemic.
It helps that many families are relatively well-positioned to service that debt: Broad wage gains mean workers are pulling in larger paychecks, and higher home prices have bolstered many households’ net worth.
While the share of income going to debt service is higher than it was three years ago — when stimulus checks were making it easier for people to throw money at their credit card bills — it is still low by historical standards.
And part of the reason some Americans were able to take on a substantial load of non-mortgage debt is because they’d locked in home loans at ultra-low rates, leaving room on their balance sheets for other types of borrowing.
The original article contains 1,345 words, the summary contains 239 words. Saved 82%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
People also tend to increase their spendings when they have more money... (not saying inflation isn't part of it too)
this post was submitted on 16 Mar 2024
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