Sugar Cookie Tea-Infused Oatmeal

I don't remember where I saw this first, probably The Oatmeal Artist blog, and I thought it sounded neat.  This past winter I bought "sugar cookie" herbal tea and saved the last couple teabags to make infused oatmeal.  Well, this week I finally got around to making it!  This was several months late since I made this in the middle of summer with a winter tea, but it was still tasty. 

I went the route of making tea and then used that water to make oatmeal. 

Ingredients

• 2 teabags of "sugar cookie" herbal tea (use your favorite flavor)
• 3/4 cup water (if you're not letting this soak overnight, you'll want to use only 1/2 cup water)
• 1/4 cup oats
• 1 Tablespoon chia seeds (totally optional, but this is what I used)
  

Directions

Heat the water up in a bowl as if you're making tea and add the teabags.  My microwave has a 'hot water' setting where you enter the amount of water and it uses sensors to measure the amount of steam given off. For 1 cup of water it ends up being about 1 min + 30 seconds in my 1200-watt microwave and it comes out at the perfect hot temperature.  Hot enough to be hot, but cool enough to drink right away and not burn your mouth.  
 
Steep for the maximum amount of time recommended (7 minutes for mine), taste to ensure it's strong enough/not too strong, and then remove the teabags.  You don't want to infuse for too long, it can get bitter.

Teabags starting to soak in one of my oatmeal bowls. 
Yep, I have bowls that I pretty much only use for oatmeal.

Add the oatmeal and chia seeds. 

Oats, tea water, and chia seeds.

Cook the oatmeal in the microwave for 1-2 minute on high, then left it sit overnight to absorb all the water. 

It looks like this the next morning. 

My recipe is never the same thing twice since I like to add random things like oat bran, wheat bran, wheat germ, flax seed meal, other rolled grains, etc.  So if it ends up being too thick, I add a little more water the next morning and finish heating it up. This is how I used to make oatmeal at night to eat the next morning.  I liked being able to customize each bowl based on what I felt like eating, but now I need to save time with a toddler in the house so I make a 6-serving batch every few days.  It's definitely quicker to make a big batch and divvy it up into containers and throw them in the fridge.  Sometimes Sonny D has one of those servings, other times they're all mine. And they don't last long, it seems like I'm always making a big batch of oatmeal since I'll occasionally eat one for lunch.  Yep, two servings of oatmeal in one day. 

Verdict

Pleasing, subtle flavor.

I could barely tell this was flavored since it was really similar to my plain cinnamon oatmeal, but it was really nice. The next time I think I'll use one of my stronger herbal teas, like tangerine-ginger.