Most camp trips, we tend to stray from the traditional breakfast foods such as pancakes, fried eggs, and of course No bacon please (unless it’s vegetarian). Instead, we gravitate towards our preferred “big” breakfasts involving eggs or tofu, smoked cheese, tortillas, avocado, potatoes or yams, green onions, cilantro, tomatoes or salsa, vegetarian sausages or soyrizo, and hot sauce. Our favorite morning meals are Tex-Mex migas and breakfast burritos. That being said, once and awhile we’ll whip up a batch of tasty, wholesome whole grain pancakes, berries and bananas mixed right into the batter, to serve with walnuts or almond butter, high-quality maple syrup, veggie sausages, and fresh fruit. These mornings, breakfast serves as brunch so we can spend the day in the woods or at the river or ocean. Then there are the mornings we want to get going on a hike or bike or paddleboard adventure and don’t want to bother with dishes and cooking. Sometimes we simply crave a lighter breakfast. Enter oatmeal.

Remember, as a kid, those packets of instant oatmeal? As tasty and convenient as they seemed back in the day, commercial brands are laden with sugar, more like a desserty snack, and needlessly because it’s so easy to make your own healthier, nourishing version. Oatmeal grows up.

I’ve been mixing up a large container of my morning oats for quick breakfasts for the last two months. We take it along on camp trips (we eat out of our collapsible fairshare mugs for no-hassle clean-up), but I also throw some in Kevin’s hot food thermos mornings I don’t have time to fuss with breakfast. I pour boiling water on, add a drizzle of maple syrup, stir it, cap it, and into his lunch satchel it goes. I also like it as a snack to appease a sweets craving. My recipe does use instant oats, which are higher processed than old-fashioned and regular style oats, but still healthy. I like to think of it the way I think about white basmati versus brown. One is more beneficial, both are healthy.

I think this will become a tried and true for your overnight wilderness outings and days at home you need a quick breakfast or high fiber snack. Versatile, there are tons of directions to go with this oatmeal. I’m posting my most basic version with notes.

Morning Oats

• 4 cups fast-cooking organic oats
• 1 cup chopped dried apples
• 1 cup raisins
• 1/4-1/2 cups dried, unsweetened, organic coconut flakes (optional)
• 1 TBS cinnamon
• 1 cup toasted walnuts, chopped or pulsed in a food processor
• 1/4 cup roasted pumpkin seeds (optional)

Mix all ingredients together and store in a sealed container or a Ziploc. I store mine in my pantry, but the fridge is good too, to keep the nuts fresh. When you’re ready to eat, put some in a bowl, add boiling water just to cover, cover, and let sit ten minutes. Sweeten with maple syrup or maple sugar, brown sugar, honey, or stevia (we bring along a small container of our favorite maple syrup, Coombs Farms, and use it for sweetening coffee and tea or drizzling over pan-cooked mochi dessert as well).

The variations are endless. Pecans and dried bananas with cinnamon and nutmeg. Dried blueberries and strawberries with slivered almonds. Next batch, to welcome fall, I plan to do something with pumpkin pie spice and dried cranberries, maybe some roasted hazelnuts. I’ll let you know when I come up with another solid recipe.

Kitchen Notes:
So many dry fruit options you could mix and match including dried apricots, prunes, dates, mulberries, banana, papaya, strawberries, blueberries, goji berries, etc.

Experiment with your favorite nuts and seeds. I almost always use walnuts because they are full of omega 3′s.