Simpli Gluten Free Instant Oatmeal – Apricot

Seven years ago, I thought I’d never again eat oatmeal.  Just within the last few years have we had certified gluten-free oats.  As we, as a gluten-free community, became accustomed to having our oats, everybody kept calling for instant oatmeal.

The companies heard.

There are now a few companies producing instant gluten-free oatmeal.  One of them is Simpli.

On the box, and on their website, is an explanation (in a fun diagram form) of the rigorous quality management they employ to keep the oatmeal gluten-free.  (*Scroll to the bottom for an explanation on why we need this.)  Then, they are Elisa R5 tested to ensure they are gluten-free.

A healthy breakfast really doesn’t get much easier than this.  The hardest part was measuring 2/3 cup of water to stick in the microwave.  (I was up really late last night.  The measuring was a little difficult this morning, lol.)  Seriously, you empty the packet in a bowl, pour in 2/3 cup boiling water, stir, and let it stand for a minute or two. Voila!

If you are the kind of oatmeal eater that usually dumps a bunch of sugar in the bowl, you will probably still do that with this oatmeal.  It is definitely not a sugary oatmeal.

It looks like oatmeal with apricots, it tastes like oatmeal with apricots… I guess it must be oatmeal with apricots.

It has a nice apricot flavor, with plenty of little apricot bits in it.  Like the name implies, the ingredients are quite Simpli: oats, apricots, sugar, salt.

Just for the sake of being random, do you pronounce apricot with a long A or with a short a sound?  Me, I say a long A.

If you’ve been missing your morning instant oatmeal, give this one a try.  Perhaps it might fill your void.

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*Why do people with celiac disease/gluten intolerance need special gluten-free oats?
Oats, themselves, do not contain gluten.  There is a percentage of the celiac population (some estimates are 15-20%) that cannot tolerate oats, and have reactions much like their reactions to gluten.  My friend Sara is one of those people.  But for the majority of us, oats are okay, IF great care has been taken.

There are many ways for oats to become “contaminated” with wheat.  Crop rotation: many, if not most, oat fields are wheat fields in another year.  So as the oats grow, some wheat will grow with them.
Harvesting: the equipment used to harvest wheat in one field will be used to harvest oats in the next.
Processing/transport/storage: these all share with the wheat.