This Is the $3 Target Breakfast I Eat Almost Every Day

My routine is rather boring when it comes to breakfast. I want the meal to be fast yet filling, flavorful yet simple, and somehow still flexible enough for me to modify on occasion. I am also most definitely not a morning person — try as I might — which means that all of this has to be accomplished before I’ve had a chance to finish a cup of coffee. That’s why this meal has been nothing but predictable for months: I make microwaveable oatmeal. 

Hear me out: Oatmeal is delicious if you manage to achieve a thick consistency, and thanks to toppings like chocolate chips and brown sugar or blueberries and chia seeds, it can go with the flow of your preferences. Plus, microwavable oatmeal requires little to no skill, so you can make it on autopilot. 

Over the course of the winter, where warm oatmeal first thing in the morning is a lovely way to wake up, I bought a number of oatmeal varieties in the hopes of finding my favorite. Some packets were a bit too sugary, and others were too expensive. The 18-ounce cartons seemed too big, and the standalone oatmeal cups appeared to produce too much trash.

Of all the oatmeals I tried, I preferred the packets I found at Target — and seeing as I’m cruising those aisles more than I’d like to admit, I never forget to stock up. Good and Gather’s Instant Plain Oatmeal is my current breakfast of choice. 

The first detail I like about this pick is its look and feel fresh out of the microwave: With a half-cup of milk, my spoon disappears beneath a thick coating of warm oats, rather than a lackluster cereal. I like that there’s no sodium or added sugar, and that the plain flavor truly lives up to the name — I can make this my own with a few ingredients.

I start with a dash of chia seeds and a teaspoon of brown sugar or honey, and then add in fruit like blueberries and raspberries. If I’m feeling more awake than usual, I’ll slice up bananas, strawberries, or apples and slide those in. (An externality of this routine is that it forces me to use the fruit I bought aspirationally.)

I never feel hungry before lunch (another upside to this filling breakfast) and it takes the guesswork out of what I’m eating in the morning. So, yes, eating oatmeal for breakfast isn’t the most exciting revelation. But if you’re like me, a boring routine that leads to a reliably delicious meal is worth it. 

Buy: Good & Gather Organic Instant Plain Oatmeal, $2.99 for 8 packets at Target

What Good & Gather groceries are you constantly picking up at Target? Tell us about it in the comments below.

This post originally ran on The Kitchn. See it there: The $3 Target Breakfast Find I Eat (Almost) Every Morning