Amazon and Uncle Sam

While I am not a dedicated Room Camper hauling a suitcase full of cooking apparatus and bulk supplies of Ramen Noodles, rice, and dried soup, I am a member of the Hot Pot Club. A Hot Pot is handy to have on the road for little things like hot chocolate when the weather turns cold, or a light dinner when your only choice is the Huddle House next door, and your roommate has returned to tell you the restaurant ran out of meat. (Ask Susan Rider, if you don’t believe me.)

My morning routine on tour begins with a four mile or so walk, followed by a leisurely breakfast in my hotel room. Sometimes I’ll have yogurt and fruit, if there was a grocery store along the route back to the hotel, but more often than not, I whip up a nice hot bowl of stick-to-your-ribs oatmeal with my trusty Hot Pot. My favorite brand is Uncle Sam’s Oatmeal with Whole Wheat Flakes and Flaxseed. (I avoid seafood on tour, thanks to a few unhappy bouts of food poisoning on previous tours, so I have to get my Omega-3’s elsewhere.) I usually stock up on a few boxes before leaving and pick up what I need along the way.

This year, though, I have been unable to find Uncle Sam’s anywhere. The local grocery stores stopped carrying it, the commissary doesn’t carry it, and even the Uncle Sam’s website was unhelpful. I checked out many other brands, but all were lacking something, be it the high fiber content, the flaxseed, the low levels of sodium and sugar, or they had something added I didn’t want. (Picky, picky, I know.) I was starting to wonder if I was going to have to re-think my traditional tour breakfast or settle for something less.

But Amazon to the rescue! Lo and behold, Amazon had a case of Uncle Sam’s Oatmeal with Whole Wheat Flakes and Flaxseed for not a lot of money, and I qualified for free shipping, thanks to a book I was ordering for Jamey. The book arrived on Saturday, so I knew the oatmeal couldn’t be far behind.

When I climbed the porch steps this afternoon after rehearsal, there was my case of oatmeal sitting in front of the door. In “case” anyone was wondering, there are only six boxes in a case of oatmeal. Each box has eight packets, which, if you don’t want to do the math, totals 48 packets. More than enough to get me through Tour, since I don’t restrict myself entirely to oatmeal, but not so much that I’ll be finishing it when the next tour rolls around.

For those of you who blanched when I mentioned oatmeal for breakfast, while I don’t buy the artificially flavored and highly sugared instant oatmeal, I doctor my very plain packet for my own gourmet instant oatmeal, much like what I would make from scratch at home. No added salt, no added sugar, very tasty, and very filling.

Cindy’s Hot Pot Cuisine
Room Camper Oatmeal

1 packet Uncle Sam’s Oatmeal (with Whole Wheat Flakes and Flaxseed)
4 dried apricot halves, diced
1 Tbsp. dried tart cherries
1 Tbsp. sliced raw almonds
Allspice, Nutmeg, or Pumpkin Pie Spice to taste
½ Cup boiling water

So Kira – maybe the next Marine Band Cookbook can have a section of “Recipes for the Road"!