So tasty and yet so handy

I learned a new camping trick from my girlfriend this weekend at Glacier. It involves Quaker instant oatmeal packs. I can't really fault my dad, an Eagle Scout, for not teaching us this one when we were younger--I'm not sure instant oatmeal was around when we were kids. Though even if it was around we certainly weren't going to eat that crap while camping! My dad was often a cook (which reminds me of a story about "soaping" the oatmeal pot before cooking to help with cleanup) in the Scouts and usually had a feast ready for us every morning. So many pancakes and sausage links, mmmm.

What I am surprised about is that none of my friends, or my brother, out here knew about this trick, or at least told me about it.

It's really simple: you can use the packet itself as the bowl for your oatmeal. You don't need to dirty another dish to eat instant oatmeal. Just heat up your water and carefully pour it into an open packet, mix it up, and you're ready to eat. Make sure you mix it really well though--all the way to the corners. Steph and I didn't do it well enough with our first packets and there was unmixed stuff in the bottom. The packet even acts as kind of a hand warmer, it isn't too hot and it feels nice holding it in your hand on a crisp morning.

Anyway, I had been excited to try this out when Steph told me about it and it exceeded my expectations. I hate washing dishes, especially while camping, and this just made eating tasty oatmeal so easy.