What Can I Make with Leftover Oatmeal?
I posted awhile back about regular oatmeal, but I’ve had a special request to post about leftover oatmeal. You know — that gooey stuff remaining in the bowls when the kids have decided they’ve had enough.
I just hate to throw out food, but I don’t know what to do with it. So, creative moms, do you have any recipes or ideas to use leftover oatmeal? I’m listening. 
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June 19th, 2006 at 9:32 am
Add to muffin mix, cookie or pancake batter.
Oats add moisture, extra nutrition and sweetness. You might need to adjust the liquid ingredients a bit.
Cold oatmeal also makes great “brains”. Stick your hand into a bowl sometime.!
June 20th, 2006 at 12:34 pm
Also, you can make it into patties and fry it in a little butter on a skillet. Then top with syrup. It’s called Mush. Very scientific term, that
You can do the same with leftover cornmeal or grits too.
July 9th, 2006 at 8:59 pm
Believe it or not, it warms up really well. Just put it in a microwave safe dish the next morning, heat it up, stir in a little milk or water, and feed the kids the left-overs. My kids never know the difference.
Alternatively, I sometimes warm it up for a mid-morning snack. I toss on some almonds, walnuts, raisins, and flax seed for extra flavor and added nutrients. Very tasty.
August 5th, 2006 at 8:28 am
We use the instant flavored oatmeal so there is never any left, however after reading some of the comments this morning I decided to experiment. I fixed three packets of peaches & cream oatmeal. I prepared it like I would for the kids, sugar, butter & milk added. I had a little over 3/4 C. oatmeal. To this I added the following:
1 med. egg
2 Tbs flour
1 1/2 C dried bread crumbs (for extra nutritional value use a whole grain bread). On the average one slice of bread equals 1/2 C crumbs.
pre heat oven to 350
mix all ingredients in a bowl and using a spoon place
spoonfulls on a lightly greased (spray canola oil) cookie sheet. Use the spoon to shape mixture. I did 1 1/2″ x 2″ bars. You could make bite size balls for eating on the go. Doing the bars I ended up with eight of them with this size receipe.
Place in over and bake until golden brown, approx. 25 minutes for this size bar. Remove from pan and place on cooling rack.
Allow to cool fully and store in closed container or zipper bags.
If using plain oatmeal try adding nuts, raisins, your favorite dried fruits, a dash of cinnamon or almond extract. Use you imagination.
You now have a healthy snack for your kids (or yourself) and you have not wasted any food.
August 5th, 2006 at 8:32 am
What a FANTASTIC idea, Dorothy! Thank you so much for experimenting for us.
I’ll definitely try that.
January 26th, 2007 at 5:14 am
What a great place. We just had to replace a vehicle and are now trying to find a way to stretch the budget to pay for that car. I just looked at all of that oatmeal and felt so bad that most of it didnt get eaten. Thank you all for the advice. I am going to try all of it! I feel so fortunate to have stumbled on this website.
March 10th, 2007 at 12:17 am
Has anyone tried freezing it?
April 1st, 2007 at 12:10 pm
I’ve been surfing the web for leftover oatmeal ideas and stumbled on the following recipe that has you FREEZE it first, so yes, I guess it works:
Fried Oatmeal
Put oatmeal in a square freezer box to the depth of about 3 inches. Mash down. Freeze.
To use, take out of freezer and let it set on the counter for about 15 to 20 minutes until it is just firm enough to cut with a sharp knife or electric knife. Cut into slices, such as you would with SPAM, about 1/4 inch thick.
Lightly coat with flour. Spray skillet with PAM or equivalent. Lightly brown each side of the slice of oatmeal and allow to warm through. Don’t walk away.
Serve with pancake syrup and powdered sugar or a spoonful of brown sugar or nuts sprinkled over top.
You can also do this with just refrigerating the oatmeal, but the freezer method gives nice firm slices. No electricity? In the frozen north, just set the oatmeal outside overnight and it’ll freeze up. This recipe also works with leftover cornmeal mush
October 2nd, 2007 at 5:14 pm
I add it to bread and muffins – the kids never know it’s in there and it makes it a little healthier, or even to pancake batter.
November 10th, 2007 at 11:00 pm
I like to add it to muffins and breakfast breads like banana nut bread. It gives it a little more density and texture.
November 16th, 2007 at 8:44 am
Not for leftovers, but we tried using marshmallows and chocolate chips instead of brown sugar.I didn’t care for the chocolate, but some of the kids liked it. I found I prefered marshmallows to brownsugar. Not terribly healthy, but the kids ate a lot more of it and if you are careful on the sweets it is pretty good. I imagine those additions would make any of the previous recipies good too. Everyone, would eat up the leftovers.
February 1st, 2008 at 8:56 am
I use it as a healthy alternative to brownies when I’m craving them. No kidding!
I use plain oatmeal cooked with skim milk. I add about 3 packets of Splenda and 3 teaspoons Hershey’s Cocoa powder. Mix it up. Stick in in the microwave until it’s warm. Sprinkle some walnuts on top, and you’ve got something chocolate and filling.
May 8th, 2008 at 5:24 am
You can put it in a smoothy. Use oatmeal, strawberries, soy milk, a banana, vanilla extract, and a smoothy. Blend them together well. Delicious with a creamy texture.
August 29th, 2008 at 10:11 pm
You all had great ideas! & thank you very much I decided to make my own recipe from some of your suggestions, and boy do they taste amazing!
3 Cups Cooked Oatmeal with a Dash of Salt
3 Tablespoons Cocoa Powder
3 Tablespoons Flour
6 Tablespoons Sugar
1 Large Egg
And for extra flair 3 teaspoons insant vanilla coffee mix.
300 in an oven until firm!
December 9th, 2008 at 11:14 am
Hi, Here it is December, but I just found this blog. I was looking for additional ways to use, because we eat alot of oatmeal around here come fall/winter. I usually have at least a cup or two left, even when my youngest daughter has some later in the day for snack. I alternate whole rolled and steel-cut for breadfast and find either works for leftover recipes. We usually make oatmeal cake (the one with the fab topping of coconut/pecans/bsugar/butter, or I make a poolish for some great dinner rolls or bread. To make the cake, I just follow any recipe for oatmeal cake but where they call for oats and warm water, I sub in the already done oatmeal. The poolish (sponge for yeast breads) I put the warm oatmeal in a bowl with a couple of tsp butter, a T or 2 of molasses, honey or agave nectar, 1/4 tsp salt 1-2 tsp yeast (depending on how much you make yeast breads) and 1-2 cups flour, bread or other. Stir, should be gooey-ish, cover and let make stringy, glutenous poolish 1 hr-3 before adding enough flour to knead into a smooth ball. either by hand or in bread machine. Rise and bake as usual.
December 11th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Do you reccomend the use of flavored oatmeal when using this recipes? or that would change the concept of it?
March 23rd, 2009 at 1:53 am
hey cheers for that… very informative – i’ve added your blog to my netvibes account – thanks
May 15th, 2009 at 6:28 pm
My husband and I make oatmeal with maple and brown sugar, then any leftovers we freeze and I add it to chili when I make it. It gives the chili a little sweetness plus thickens it a little. We’ll do this with leftover cornbread and stuffing as well.
November 17th, 2009 at 6:33 pm
Portion it out into your dog’s dinner. Arlo loves steel cut oats in his regular kibbles.