Oats have been getting lots of press lately – one of those super foods, lowers your cholesterol, they say.  Well, I don’t know whether the health benefits live up to the hype – but this baked oatmeal recipe sure does.  I really didn’t know what to expect the first time I tried baked oatmeal – I was away on the beaches of Delaware during the off-season for a work event, and on this chilly fall morning we opted to go find a hot breakfast rather than eat the hotel standard fruit offering.  The picturesque little coffee shop across the street turned out to be well known for its baked oatmeal bars, and so I figured I would give one a try.  It was love at first bite.  The chewy sweet goodness covered in steaming hot milk warmed me up so well I nearly forgot it was October by the coast. 

Now that fall is coming around the corner once again, it was the perfect time to break out the rolled oats and make my own.  The recipe I found called for dried fruit which I didn’t have – I instead substituted some frozen berries I happened to have on hand (at my husband/food critic’s suggestion) and this was probably the best decision I made.  Little did I know how well raspberries would taste baked into oatmeal!  You certainly could substitute other fruit – pears, apples, and peaches all come to mind – but give it a try with some berries on these days where you still crave those summer berry flavors, but with a little bit of the fall baked in.  Serve your baked oatmeal warm from the oven, topped with some steamed milk, and you will have a toasty warm breakfast to brighten up your fall weekend.

Baked Berry Oatmeal – modified from Blanchl, Baked Oatmeal II on allrecipes.com

Ingredients:

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Mix together oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.  Add eggs, milk, melted butter, and vanilla extract and stir until well combined.  Gently fold in frozen berries.  Spread the batter (which will be fairly thick) into a 9×13 inch baking dish, and bake for 40 minutes or until the top is lightly golden.  To serve, slice into squares and top with steamed milk.  Enjoy!

This recipe was initially tried out of necessity, after I decided to make pancakes one morning – but was fresh out of the boxed mix!  So, I went a-googling and found this recipe for which I happened to have all the ingredients, and decided to give it a whirl.  Talk about easy – made me wonder why we ever relied on having mix on hand in the first place!  In addition, the flavors were so much more vibrant than anything that comes out of a box.  They are particularly wonderful with a few blueberries sprinkled in, and topped with maple syrup.  Add a little pep to your breakfast, and try making pancakes the way they used to! 

Ingredients:

Directions:

Sift together flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a large bowl.  Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, and add the milk, egg, and melted butter.  Stir until ingredients are smooth and well blended.  Preheat a skillet or griddle over medium heat and coat lightly with vegetable oil.  Ladle batter into the skillet.  If using blueberries, sprinkle the desired number of blueberries onto the pancake before it starts to bubble.  Cook until bubbles appear, then flip and cook until the other side is also lightly browned.  Enjoy!