Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Baked Oatmeal: The Perfect Marriage of Breakfast and Cookies

“She’s gotta be lying”, “Well, I never…”, “Oh, come on. This is a joke.” These are the typical responses I predict will occur when you read the following line:

At the age of 27, I took my first bite of baked oatmeal.

Shocking, yes, but truthful nonetheless. I always loved my bowl of hot oatmeal in the mornings and oatmeal cookie dough is my favorite raw batter treat, but for almost 3 decades of my life, I never even knew a hybrid of these two staples in my diet existed. I mean, I'm sure you do know that’s what baked oatmeal is: an oatmeal cookie formatted in such a way that it qualifies as a breakfast food—beautiful.

I’ve had a lot of baked oatmeal recipes in the 5 years since my first bite, and honestly, the first recipe I ever had is still my favorite. The recipe is from my dear friend, Becca, who got it from someone else, but since I don’t know that person, I’ll just save us all the trouble and call this recipe:

Becca’s Baked Oatmeal

2/3 c. oil
1 c. sugar
2 large eggs, beaten
4 c. quick oats
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 ½ c. milk

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Mix oil, sugar, and eggs. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Pour into 9x13 inch pan and bake for 25 minutes.

Folks, there really isn’t a whole lot that wouldn’t taste spectacular on this. I’m going to give you a short list of baked oatmeal toppings I have enjoyed in the past and let you mix and match as you choose: fresh strawberries, fresh blueberries, fresh fruit salad (as pictured above), flaked coconut, dried cranberries, and milk. This recipe is such a lovely way to showcase the yummy berries in season right now, and I feel semi-healthy when I eat the baked oatmeal/fresh fruit combo so that’s just an added bonus.

And in tomorrow’s post, I share about the highs and lows of my “treat-free week”, a sentence imposed by my seven-year-old son, Cade.

4 comments:

  1. yeah!!! cookie food for breakfast...like you I have a sweet tooth that is barely contained to after breakfast time...this recipe is just what I needed. .....Dawn

    ReplyDelete
  2. The one I had at your house was delicious! Great and easy recipe. Can't wait to hear about Cade's idea of treat-free week. So funny because I am calling Thursday's post Thursday Treats! Ha!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I bought quick oats today at Wegman's so I can try this recipe! But I have a confession...I've never had baked oatmeal and I am 31...I hadn't even heard of it till your blog post!

    ReplyDelete
  4. yesturday I finally made this and I have got to say..IT IS DELICIOUS!! I cooked mine a few more minutes, let it cool and cut it into bars (that I can munch on throughout the day)
    ..Dawn

    Next time I will deff. use some of the coconut in it.

    ReplyDelete