Oatmeal is one of my favorite breakfast foods. Any day, but especially on a snow day, like today!
There are many ways to make oatmeal and many different things you can add to make it extra special. And I like just about all of them! Regular oatmeal has a different texture than instant oatmeal. It’s a personal preference, for me the more robust and coarse the better. If I have extra time, I will make oatmeal on the stove, but most days I turn to the instant version and either use the hot water tap on our water cooler or the microwave.
Fast and Easy Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal is so simply delicious that it’s a frequent “go-to” meal in our house. For this recipe, I use instant oatmeal and make it in the microwave. These are the ingredients:
- Instant Oatmeal – Apple Cinnamon Flavor
- 1/2 cup of Nonfat Milk
- Apple
- 1 Tb of Water
- Cinnamon, to taste
I cut the apple into small pieces, but going to take a small detour here…. As long as I’m cutting apples, I make some apple fries for Rosie to snack on later. Okay, I admit it, me too! I use the bruised or smaller apples for cooking in the oatmeal and the large, beautiful ones for apple fries. You cut the apple in quarters, slice out the core. With the skin side down, cut in ninety degree angles straight down. The turn those pieces sideways, skin to the right or left and cut the ninety degree angle straight down again. Sorry, hard to explain, but you get these shapes. Fun!
Okay, back to the Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal! I cut the apple for this into small pieces so they will cook quickly.
Then, add a tablespoon of water.
Microwave the apples and water for one minute. This will start the apples cooking. The longer you cook, the softer-less-crunchy, the apples will be. Of course, you can adjust all these quantities and times for your own tastes and microwave.
Add the packet of instant oatmeal and 1/2 Cup of Nonfat Milk to the hot apples.
Put back in the microwave for 1 minute. When you take it out, sprinkle with cinnamon and, voila!
Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal for breakfast is
- Healthy? Check!
- Easy? Check!
- Fast? Check!
My kind of meal and it was inspired by Nutrisystem! The Apple Cinnamon instant oatmeal I use for my breakfast is from my Nutrisystem plan. Nutrisystem recommends that I eat a Nutrisystem Breakfast Entree, a Dairy or Protein, and a Fruit for my Breakfast meal. The entree is the oatmeal. The fruit is 1 small apple. The dairy can be a number of things in addition to this recipe, including:
- 8 oz of Fat-free Milk
- 6-8 oz of Light Yogurt
- 1 oz of Fat-free of Low-fat, Low-sodium Cheese
- 2/3 cup of Non-fat or Low-fat Cottage Cheese
Doesn’t that make a great breakfast and eating all of this, I’m still losing weight!
One more side note… Before I wrote this post, I have to admit that I didn’t know if the milk used in the oatmeal counted as my dairy, or if I was allowed an additional dairy. If I was having an especially hungry day, I would add a dairy, if not I would skip it. I’m not big on restrictions *blush* and rules. But before I told you guys, I wanted to find out. So here is my experience with Nutrisystem customer service, which I have to say was outstanding *whew*.
Saturday morning…. I dial the number on the bottom of every page of the Nutrisystem Meal Planner where it says, “Have a question? Call: 1-888-NS1-CORE (671-2673)”. (Isn’t that nice? No searching for a number.)
Recorded voice says, “Thank you for calling the new Nutrisystem.” For …. press “1”, for …. press “2”. You know. So I press the appropriate number, and the recorded voice says something to the effect of someone will help you soon.
I watched the timer on my phone, to see how long it would be before someone answered. From when I first dialed, until I heard, This is Debbie, how can I help you? (or something like that), was one minute and 20 seconds! Thumbs up, Nutrisystem! Debbie was very helpful and answered my question immediately – you should have a dairy or protein, other than the milk included in the preparation of the oatmeal. Grand total 2 minutes, 14 seconds and I had an answer to my question and was on my way! Enthusiastic thumbs up, Nutrisystem!
If you have any questions about my journey with Nutrisystem, please write a comment below. I’m, obviously, very enthusiastic about it. As my jeans slip down if I don’t wear a belt and I actually love weighing myself every day, I am thrilled to share my experience. If you’re ready to start your own journey, just go online to Nutrisystem.com or call 1-888-853-4689.
Disclosure:Â Nutrisystem products have been provided to me free of charge as a selected blogger of the Nutrisystem Nation Blogger Program. All opinions are 100% mine and no monetary compensation was given for my opinion.