The journey down the road of a healthy lifestyle is littered with lots of products that can be tasty and delicious or awful and never to be eaten again. The problem is that you won’t know until you try it. Like your mother said, try it and if you don’t like it then don’t eat it again but at least try it.
I have stuck with this theory in my transformation from eating anything put in front of me to eating healthy. I now spend times reading labels and making sure that what I put in my body is fuel to push me to the next level. I have eaten things with names like Kale, SooFoo, Tempeh and Seitan. I am on the lookout for foods that I can trust to help me become the athlete I always dreamed I would be as a kid.
It is with this mindset that when I came across Umpqua Oats I purchased them. I read the labels and they looked good to me. There were 5 varieties where I was (a church for a business meeting in Dallas) and I bought 1 of each. I have been making my way through them all, along with Karen, and am ready to write a review of them.
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Directly from their site you can get a feel of what you are about to consume:
Two couples, seven kids, eleven active lifestyles, one breakfast philosophy: Nutritious, Delicious, and Fast.
How do you offer a healthy breakfast to families on the go? Why sacrifice proper nutrition and great taste for speed if you don’t have to? Where do you find a healthy AND fast breakfast in the midst of pre-soccer game chaos? These and other questions were on the minds of Mandy and Sheri, two active moms, on the pivotal morning of an important soccer match. The kids needed nutrition and lots of energy to win the game, but they wanted good taste too. Forcing down bland packets of plain ol’ instant oats wasn’t tasty, but it was great inspiration…
So after the game, Mandy and Sheri trekked into the kitchen with the kids to find the secret to a healthy, quick, and mobile breakfast for active people everywhere.
Only the best ingredients, from whole rolled oats, to vegetarian DHA, to the care only moms can provide, go into our products. It’s so good you might even want to slow down, sit down, and savor it!
From the best natural ingredients to the unsurpassed taste, Umpqua Oats is truly the Nutritious, Delicious and Fast breakfast choice.
The products we use make Umpqua Oats different.
Whole Rolled Oats
We use only whole thick rolled oats for an “old fashioned” taste. Rolled oats contain thiamin, iron and fiber. Fiber is helpful in reducing cholesterol levels in the bloodstream. Whole oats are also the only source of antioxidant compounds known as avenanthramides.
Sucanat Sugar
Another quality ingredient we add to our oatmeal is sucanat sugar. Sucanat is whole cane sugar that is simply made by crushing freshly cut sugar cane, extracting the juice and heating it in a large vat. Once the sugar is reduced to a rich dark syrup it is hand paddled to cool creating the porous granules called sucanat. Sucanat adds that caramel flavor to our oatmeal.
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The first thing you will notice are the names of their flavors. Names like Old School, R U Nuts, Monkey Bars, Take a Hike and Lei’d Back to name a few. You know that you are going to be dealing with something that is fun and you hope tasty.
The second thing you notice are the ingredients. This morning I ate the R U Nuts flavor. This oatmeal contains rolled oats, evaporated cane juice, flax seeds, almonds, sunflower seeds, walnuts, sea salt and cinnamon. Can you pronounce each of these ingredients? Is there a parenthesis in any of these items to help extend the list of ingredients to unreadable fonts? The answer to these questions is yes and no. Yes you can pronounce them all and no there are no parenthesis to help explain an ingredient.
As with Better Oats, Umpqua provides you with a way to make your oatmeal in a nice easy container. Umpqua’s directions say to boil water 2/3 to 3/4 cup of water. Then pour it into the cardboard container, cover and let steep for 3 minutes. Remove the cover and stir and you have a perfect bowl of oatmeal.
I happen to like my oatmeal a little thicker so I use 2/3 of a cup and a small splash of coconut milk to make it a tad creamier as well. If you go with the Not Guilty flavor you can add your own sweetener and jazz it up to your liking. The beauty is that you add hot water and steep but that your imagination can take you places. Want to add dried fruit before you steep….knock your socks off. Want to use some crushed pecans or smashed walnuts…add them in. Don’t let the label on the jar limit your imagination. You aren’t ruining the product, you are enhancing it to your tastes and based on what I have read on their site the owners of Umpqua Oats would want just that.
So at this point your mouth is watering and you want to know where to find this. The great people at Umpqua (whom I have never met) have placed a convenient little tab on their menu bar labeled locations. I don’t want you to have to go and type in their URL so I am putting their location link right [HERE] for you.
My suggestion is to buy the variety pack which is all 12 flavors for $39. You can but it from this link. Find out which one you like the best and then go to your store locator and buy your favorites.
** Disclaimer: I was not paid to review this product and was under no obligation to write a positive review. As a matter of fact Umpqua Oats did not know I was writing this review of their product.
I’ve been trying to eat more oatmeal so this looks really good compared to the blah, boring stuff I eat (loaded with my banana!). The names crack me up :).
Jill recently posted..Moab For Wimps
Sounds like a great product! There are questionnable ingredients in my usual granola, so this would certainly be a better option. Great review!
Marlene recently posted..Martian Marathon After-Thoughts
I have tried these at local coffee shops and love them as well. They are very filling and I have no qualms about what I’m putting in my body when I eat them. Thanks for this review!! I keep saying I”m going to buy the variety pack but I never have yet………..soon though!
So, I like oatmeal just like everyone else, but it is OATS and paying five bucks for this product is insane! P.T Barnum has a quote for the folks who pay this kind of cash for oats!
You are right they are just oats but let me leave you with this: Have you ever eaten pancakes at a diner or restaurant? It’s just flour, eggs and milk, but you are paying for it. Umpqua Oats is convenient and that is what you are paying for the same way that you go out to eat and pay 2 to 3x as much for a meal that you could make at home.
Thank you for your comment and I hope that you continue to come back and read the posts.
I tried these at a coffee shop and I loved them! I absolutely can not afford them though. I don’t have the money to pay 4 dollars for breakfast every morining. If I did I would love to eat these every day!
I agree with the expense, but I always try to look at alternatives. For example, what does it cost to go out to eat and can I replace that meal with a bowl/cup of these umpqua oats or anything else for that matter?
They’ve started selling these at my local coffee shop. They are a big seller from what the shop owner tells me! I really like the ease and convenience of these, they make it very easy to have a healthy breakfast or snack. Shop around because the prices at my local shop are $3.50 apiece, or $10 for three, which seems to be less than I’ve found around the web so far. I’ve tried them all and the Not Guilty is clearly the one to go with if you want a basic oatmeal to add your own stuff to. Calories range from 260-320.