I filled the container with ½ cup of raw oatmeal and added skim milk. I put the pieces together as the manual stated and put it in the microwave. The first wave was for 1 minute. I did it again for another minute and with 8 seconds to spare, it boiled over. I pulled it out and cleaned up the mess and let it settle. You could easily see that the oats were still not thoroughly cooked. I put it in again for another minute and with 15 seconds to spare, it boiled over again. This time, much more. I cleaned up the mess again and let it settle, again. I put in one more time for 20 seconds because I know the oats needed more time to cook. It boiled over slightly this time.
After letting the oats sit a while with the cover on, it continued to cook in the heat that remained in the container. I removed the lid and the green insert and gave it a quick stir. The oats were still a little runny, but I prefer it that way. I added honey and let it sit for another few minutes. The sucker was still too hot to eat. After letting it sit the oats thickened up to how I like it.
This product is not a total fail. I am a little afraid to cook rice in it, but will be trying that out tomorrow because I really wanna see what this thing can do. I’m sure had I used the quick minute oats and water it probably wouldn’t have boiled over as much as it did this morning. I just prefer milk over water in my breakfast oats.
My suggestion to Tupperware is to include the cooking recipe and instructions to oatmeal as well as rice in their pamphlet. The brochure clearly shows the oatmeal which is why I bought it. When I got it, the pamphlet only mentioned rice and that only white rice should be cooked in this container. I’ve read reviews on amazon that rave on its ability to cook rice for 1-2 people and I look forward to finding out if this will work for me too.
In the meantime, I think this product does work, but just like using any other container to cook oatmeal in a microwave, you have to really babysit it. I was hoping this would allow me to pop it in the micro and walk away from it so I could get my coffee or make toast rather than stare into the microwave and absorb all the radioactive rays its spitting out. I felt like a doof standing in front of the micro in the office staring into it like it was a boob tube.
Clean up of this product was simple. As long as you don't let it dry out. So take the lids to the sink and wash them pronto. Although my bowl did sit for a bit before I washed it, it was easy to clean. The oats didn't dry on like cement onto the plastic and it was a quick wash.