Humpastry Day - Baked Oatmeal

Baked Oatmeal

I came across a recipe for baked oatmeal on allrecipes.com and thought it sounded very interesting.  I love making the traditional oatmeal in our zojirushi cooker (best appliance EVER!), but let's face it, it takes quite a bit of time.  I love oatmeal, and although fall is quickly approaching, sometimes I'm just not in the mood for something hot and steamy (get your minds out of the gutter!) when it's not cold out.  So, with a few healthy tweaks in the recipe, I decided to give this a try.  I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised by the result.  You can see from the picture above that it kind of bakes into a type of oatmeal bar.  It is soft and moist and is actually good eaten as is, but it would also be a great snack for during the day.  But, for breakfast, we decided to heat it in the microwave (~45sec) with some milk, raisins, and bananas.  Yum, yum, yum!  Everyone loved it and my boys ate every last bit of it in their bowls!  It was a nice change from traditional oatmeal and I will definitely be making it again!

Ingredients:

Makes about 8 servings

* 3C rolled oats

*  1/2C brown sugar

*  2tsp. cinnamon

*  2tsp. baking powder

*  1tsp. salt

*  1C Soymilk

*  2 flax eggs (3Tbl. flax mixed with 6Tbl. water)

*  1/2C applesauce

*  2tsp. vanilla extract

* 1C frozen blueberries **Note: you could use just about any fruit (frozen, fresh, or dried) instead of blueberries.  Next time I'm thinking about using diced apples...yum!

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2.  In a large bowl, mix together the oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt.

3.  Mix in the milk, applesauce, flax eggs, and vanilla.

4.  Stir in the blueberries.

5.  Spread into a 9x13" baking dish.

6.  Bake for ~30 minutes.

7.  Enjoy!