Porridge - Best for value and taste?

ruthiejb

Maybe I don't get out enough but I'm so excited by my 'discovery' that I had to share...

Last night at Tesco, I finally couldn't stand paying so much more for oatso simple sachets so I decided to try a huge pack of oats (not all at once). I just calculated the cost difference and I'm really shocked!

Normally, I get into work, have a bowl of oatso simple and get on with the day. I've been doing this for the past 18 months (!) as it keeps me away from the dreaded vending machine :A

However... last night I measured out a small amount of oats from a kg pack into a tupperware and this morning I made porridge in exactly the same way (except watching to make sure it didn't explode... which it nearly did!). It came out really well!

I sat down at my desk to calculate the saving and I am still picking my jaw up off the floor...

On offer, 20 sachets of oatso simple are £3.00 at tesco (maybe cheaper elsewhere but I'll assume a cost of 15p per sachet is about right). Taking approximately 220 or so working days in the year when I'm actually working in the office, that leaves a total cost of £33 a year on oatso simple!

OK... now to work out the difference . Each sachet of oatso simple weighs in at 36g each. So, that means I eat a whopping 7.92kg of porridge a year (ugh, makes me feel full just thinking about it!).

Say I switch to 1kg of Tesco Scottish Porridge Oats at approximately £1 per pack, I'm looking at about £8 a year. Overall, that's a saving of £25 a year just on my breakfast cereal (more if I go for value oats which I'll try once I've finished the pack I just bought based on the earlier recommendations).

Wow... makes me wonder what else I'm doing to save me a bit of time that ends up costing me money.

:j

larmy16

kakdulac wrote: »

Try Flahanans Irish Porridge Oats, available from Tesco, Waitrose and Sainsburys. They are great

Thanks for this tip. I bought them yesterday and they are indeed very very nice. I hated Sainsburys Taste the Difference. They were too grainy for me and very stodgy (in my opinion).

Tesco Value are nice too.

invisiblecabbage

just a little tip courtesy of Salcombe Youth Hostel many years ago ....
soak porridge pot in COLD water after use, makes it so easy to clean.:T

System

ruthiejb wrote: »

(except watching to make sure it didn't explode... which it nearly did!). It came out really well!/QUOTE]

How do you prevent it exploding? The two minute satchets ones are ok but when I make the 4 minute scottish oats which I weight out myself what a mess in the microwave...

chem_j

The Oats so Simple satchets flavoured with the fruit contain a hugh amount of sugar added. I used to buy them until I realised what the powdery stuff at the bottom of the packet was! Now I used dried fruit or fruit flakes instead.
I don't know whether there is much difference in taste, but one time we got a box of fancy oats reduced, and I was amazed at the difference in the size of the flakes. They went in flapjacks though, so it was probably a bit of a waste!

sb44

invisiblecabbage wrote: »

just a little tip courtesy of Salcombe Youth Hostel many years ago ....
soak porridge pot in COLD water after use, makes it so easy to clean.:T

Thanks for that tip, tried it this morning, it def works.

:T

sb44

I haven't had porridge for about 40 years as I couldn't stand the stuff.

However, after reading this thread I decided to have a go as I had some Scottish Porridge Oats in that I use for Twink's Hob Nobs ( http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=471992&highlight=hob+nobs ).

I used 50g of oats with 300ml of milk (Creamfields 0.75% fat 3ltr £1 Tesco, I actually just put the bowl of porridge on the scales and added 300g of milk, not sure how close that is to ml's), put it in the microwave for 2 mins on high (we have an 850w), stirred, put in for another 2 mins then left for a minute.

I did add a teaspoon of sugar but it probably didn't need it.

It was quite nice, I was really surprised and have felt stuffed all morning so not picking at stuff like I normally do.

I bought the oats from Tesco, 42p for 500g, I know I can get 1kg of value ones for for 58p but wasn't sure how good it would be with those.

barginunter

As a menopausal woman, I make porridge with 1/3rd water and 2/3rds soya milk - really creamy.
Sainsburys do a nice kilo bag of oats with bran for about £1. Lidl do 500g packs for 35p ish - yummy.

Welshwoofs

Oatso are, to be blunt, utter crap - overpriced and very bad for you. If you look on the ingredients list you'll find the second item listed is sugar which means that, after oats, it's the next biggest ingredient. Also, as the oats are so refined they've pretty much lost any of their slow-energy release qualities.

They sell on the convenience - the 2 minutes in a micro. Normal oats also take 2 minutes on high in a micro.

I use jumbo rolled oats, half water/half milk. I eat with a teaspoon of honey and sometimes put on sliced banana or berries.

System

sb44 wrote: »

I haven't had porridge for about 40 years as I couldn't stand the stuff. However, after reading this thread I decided to have a go as I had some Scottish Porridge Oats in that I use for Twink's Hob Nobs (

sb44 wrote: »

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=471992&highlight=hob+nobs ).

Thanks for the link to the hobnob recipe, that's fantastic - I don't look on this forum normally but will start to take a look.

Do most of the hobnob bakers recommend a certain brand of porridge? I will read through the thread but it's a very long one