I’ve been bequeathed a giant canister of 100% old fashioned Quaker Oats.
The instructions say to use 1 cup water or milk with 1/2 cup oats. Does either work better? It’s been forever since I’ve made oatmeal that wasn’t the instant kind.
Any other ideas? Cookies probably won’t be an option unless flour hoarding ends.
I use it in meatloaf. I only use water. As a kid we’d add milk to our cooked oatmeal.
We made oatmeal cookies more than once when I was a kid.
Edited to add, here is one recipe. (I prefer cookies without raisins.)
I use milk in my oatmeal. It makes it a little “smoother” than water. I would say “creamy” but if you over- or undercook it, it still comes out like papier mache.
I presume they’re rolled oats. For making porridge, I’ve always preferred water to milk, then stirring cold milk into the bowl of hot oatmeal.
I also prefer heating the water and oats together (as opposed to dumping the oats into boiling water), because I find the texture of the porridge creamier that way. Overcooking is possible with either method, so be careful.
Also, it does make a good filler in meatloaf. The oats, not the porridge.
Love my oatmeal. I make peanut butter cookies and protein bars with them. I use some flour in the batter but you don’t need to. Or, you can finely grind the oatmeal to make your own.
I once tried oatmeal risotto (substituting the rice for oatmeal). You might like it but it was just meh for me.
Oatmeal is a staple at my house. Never without it.
Hot oatmeal (with water) is very very simple. Brown sugar or maple syrup, milk or yogurt on top. For a sustaining winter breakfast.
I eat plain raw oatmeal mixed with dried and fresh chopped fruit and yogurt and nuts for breakfast in summer.
Cooked oatmeal is great to mix into the bread you are making. Laurel’s Kitchen Bread Book has an oatmeal bread recipe I use often. Makes a moist flavorful loaf.
Raw mixed into meatloaf or meatballs.
Raw mixed with butter and flour and brown sugar for a topping on apple or peach crisp
Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Nothing finer.
No bake cookies don’t need flour:
I have looked at some interesting soup recipes.
You can grind up the rolled oats in the blender to make an oat flour. This flour will not behave like wheat flour because it has no gluten, however, you can season oat flour and use it to coat chicken or pork.
~VOW
I like to eat grits with salsa. Sometimes instead I eat oatmeal with salsa.
You can put just about anything in oats. I like almonds and strawberries.
There are many savoury ways to use oats as well.
I cook it in the microwave with almond milk. Don’t forget a pinch of salt! I add any of the following: butter, brown sugar, more almond milk, toasted pecans, dried cranberries, raisins, diced fresh apple, sliced banana, any nuts or seeds or fruit that appeals.
I LOVE the type of no-bake cookies **Tarataratara **linked to. They were called “haystack cookies” when they served 'em at school.
I also like peanut butter oatmeal balls. My niece loves 'em too. I can’t remember the ratio now, but it’s PB, oats and honey. There are lots of recipes online if you Google “peanut butter oatmeal balls” that include stuff like maple syrup, chocolate chips, flax meal and various flours.
If you do get ahold of some flour, and some butterscotch chips, the cookies on the back of Tollhouse Butterscotch Chips is my favorite cookie of all time. Oatmeal scotchies.
O Henry Bars…no flour needed. Best Ever Oh Henry Bars Recipe
Thanks! Was just thinking about that since almond milk is what I usually have around since it works really well in the protein shakes I make.
If you add a couple drops of vanilla to oatmeal, you can get a real cookie vibe going on. When I’m feeling it, I’ll make the oatmeal with salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, vanilla, and raisins, and then stir brown sugar and butter into the bowl. No flour needed! (Although the last couple times I’ve been to the store, flour’s been back on the shelf).
Is the canister a big cylinder? They’re great as large-format pinhole cameras. Wide-angle, infinite depth-of-field, and you can’t beat the price. 
I’m the same - cook with water, cold milk to taste. Sweetened with Golden Syrup.
I routinely microwave it: water and oats in a bowl, about two minutes. Plunge a spoon of golden syrup into the hot porridge to melt, stir with cold milk.
The other main use for oats in my kitchen is flapjack: not a type of pancake, it’s an oatmeal bar kind of thing - oats bound together with some combination of butter, golden syrup, sugar and/or honey. Look for British flapjack recipes - there are thousands. I’d recommend swapping a quarter of the oat content for dessicated coconut, incidentally, and improvising wildly with the fruit content.
I’ve got a blueberry muffin recipe that uses oats. They’re very easy to make. PM me if you’re interested, or I can post it here.
I love my oatmeal with maple syrup and dried fruit. I actually have a nice assortment of dried fruit to keep it interesting. One of the best is dried papaya - the oatmeal absorbed the colour and the flavour from the fruit and left behind these weird clear fiber blobs.