How to Microwave Oatmeal in a Cup

You can save about 90% off the cost of a fast-food breakfast by using a microwave oven to make your own hot oatmeal in your own cup.  Oatmeal (and I mean the old-fashioned kind purchased in bulk, not the kind that comes packaged in single-serving packets) is a healthy and economical breakfast.  But the novice oatmeal might run into a problem: microwave oatmeal often boils over, making a huge mess.  Breakfast isn’t efficient if you have to clean the microwave.  So here’s the way to avoid oatmeal boil-over:

Use the microwave’s power level setting to adjust how much heat does the cooking.

Here’s what works for me:  First, I partially fill my cup with water.  I fill mine a little more than half way.  Then I add the oatmeal, so that the oatmeal sinks below the water level and about half an inch of water remains above the oatmeal.  You will need to experiment to find the amount of water and oatmeal makes a serving the size you want.

Then I cook the oatmeal on the microwave’s high (default) setting for 2 minutes, but no longer.  The goal here is to get it hot fast, but not let it boil over.  Then I set the power level to “3” (on a 1 to 10 scale, so I guess that’s about 30% of the full power level) and I cook it for another 2 minutes.  Some people might consider the oatmeal fully cooked at this point, but I like my oatmeal tender, so I set the power level to “2” and cook it for another 2 minutes.  Cooked this way, the oatmeal never boils over (unless the cup had too much oatmeal and water to begin with).

Another solution is to use a larger bowl, but I prefer to keep only a cup at work.

Bon appetit!

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