Canister of Arrowhead Mills Organic Irish Style Oat Flakes with red and green label

Mazie and I enjoy our oatmeal. It is one of our favorite breakfasts. When she was really little I would make 2 servings and she ate about 1/2 of a serving and I got 1 1/2 which was just about right. Now though she wants more, and the oatmeal box only shows water amounts for 1, 2 and 6 servings. We want 3 servings!

Oatmeal cooking chart showing water, oats, and optional salt amounts for 1, 2, and 6 servings

Now I realize your probably thinking it’s simple. 1 cup of water for each 1/2 cup of oatmeal. Done. However, that isn’t right. Note that 6 servings, 3 cups of oatmeal, is 5 cups of water, not 6. Here is the graph.

Line graph plotting oatmeal cups vs water cups showing a 0.63:1 ratio line with points for 1 through 6 servings, compared to a 0.5:1 dashed reference line.

So it seems if you want to make 3 servings of oatmeal, you need 2 2/3 cups water. 4 servings need 3 1/3 cups and 5 takes 4 1/2 cups. Hope this helps everyone with their oatmeal preparation.