During one of my volunteering trips to Point Reyes, I’ve “discovered” a very simple but super awesome breakfast meal – hot coca oatmeal.

Now, I know that this probably isn’t any huge discovery, and am aware that people have probably been making this for quite some time now. But I still want to share this with you because I don’t want anyone to miss out on this piece of culinary art. (Okay, I might be taking it a bit far here.)

It’s simple. All you need is some instant oatmeal and a packet of hot cocoa. Boil some water, pour it over the oatmeal as you normaly would, wait for the oatmeal to be done, y’know, the usual – you know how to make oatmeal. And then stir in a packet of hot cocoa mix.

What I love to do is use apple-cinnamon instant oatmeal – together with hot cocoa mix, it’s the very best breakfast I’ve ever had while living out of my backpack or a car (yes, let’s keep in mind that everything tastes better outdoors, and especially if it’s a warm meal after a cold night).

That’s all. This is what I wanted to share with you. I’m convinced that this is going to be a staple in my backpacking/thru-hiking meal plans because, let me repeat this; after a cold night, apple-cinnamon hot-cocoa oatmeal tastes like heaven.