Review: Quaker Real Medleys Apple Walnut Oatmeal +

Up until about a year ago, I went through about a four to five year stretch where I ate oatmeal for dinner about 3-5 times per week.  It was ridiculous.  Finally, I think I got burned out on it and now I only have it sporadically.  So, as I was walking through the breakfast aisle at Meijer recently, I spotted a sale on Quaker products and decided that I'd pick up one of their oatmeal products and do yet another Quaker review, so that leads me to this review of their semi-new Quaker Real Medleys Apple Walnut Oatmeal +.  This was priced on sale at $1.50 and it is 2.64 ounces with 290 calories.  Today is also National Oatmeal Day, so I can think of no better day to post this review!

Upon review of the ingredients, it's actually pretty impressive how many different things Quaker jammed into this relatively small serving.  Obviously there's oatmeal, dried apples and walnuts per the name of the product, but this also included dried cranberries, cinnamon and brown sugar to add more flavor.  All of these ingredients are some of my favorite oatmeal add-ins, so needless to say, I was giddy to try this one out.  I used microwave (read: lazy) preparation instead of just pouring some boiling water into the container and letting the oatmeal brew for a few minutes prior to eating and when I pulled this out of the microwave, I was immediately met with a wonderful smell of the plentiful dried apples and also the cinnamon.  Based on smell alone, this was delicious.

It wasn't just the smell that was delicious, but it was also the actual taste, which is obviously the most important part.  The oats themselves, which were some of the biggest I've ever seen, were pretty standard stuff buy when the sweet and caramel-like brown sugar mixed with those, it made for a nice sweet combination.  Combining that with the tartness and sweetness of the strong tasting apples and mild tasting cranberries which re-hydrated with the water made added an additional sweet taste that made me devour each spoonful with incredible speed.  The walnuts, while not adding much flavor, did break up the sometimes mushy mouthfeel of oatmeal by adding an occasional crunchy pop and as a guy that doesn't often add crunch to his oatmeal, I found that a nice change of pace.  So nice, in fact, that I think I might have to start incorporating that into my oatmeal concoctions that I've been making with decreasing frequency.

Buy It or Fly By It?  I won't say that I loved this because that would be too strong of a way to describe it, but I will say that I liked this a whole lot, so it gets a BUY IT rating.  Between the sweetness, crunch and heartiness, this was a nice little treat.  I wish it had been bigger because I was starving at the time, but on any other day, this would be the perfect size and flavor for a nice breakfast treat, especially if you've only got a few minutes and have to eat quickly on the way out the door.

BUY IT!!