Baked Oatmeal

Hello again from my perch at the island!  Coffee is my neighbor, along with hubby at his laptop playing, once again, interesting guitar vids on his laptop.  The kids are half awake, half asleep, with no school today and nothing specific on the agenda except returning their sleepover friend to his home sometime today.

I love breakfast!  I seriously lay in bed some days, thinking about what I will eat when I get up.  I sigh through my morning coffee, savoring every steaming hot sip, sputtering at the cold stuff that remains at the bottom of the cup.  But I love a morning when no one has to be anywhere and you can take time to stray from the normal toast and cold cereal options.

This following recipe was served at a ladies' retreat that I was at a year ago.  I returned home from the retreat and, thanks to the World Wide Web, quickly found a comparative recipe and have been cooking it for breakfast on occasion ever since. 

Baked Oatmeal

Ingredients

• ½ cups Vegetable Oil
• 1 cup Brown Sugar
• 2 whole Eggs
• 1-¼ cup Milk
• ¼ teaspoons Salt
• 1-½ teaspoon Baking Powder
• 3-½ cups Quick Cooking Oats
• 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
• ¼ cups Maple Syrup (I think this is optional; it is plenty sweet as is)
• 1 dash Vanilla

Preparation Instructions

Beat together oil, brown sugar and eggs. Stir in milk. Mix in salt, baking powder, oats, cinnamon, vanilla and syrup. Pour into a greased 9-inch pan. Bake at 350 degrees until firm, about 30 minutes. Cut into squares and serve warm with milk.

I often add some "add-ins" - fresh or dried blueberries, a diced apple, a handful of sliced almonds, raisins, dried apricots....the sky is the limit for creativity with add-ins.

One pan of this is good for 9-10 (ish) servings.  Since the boys are largely uninterested in anything so delicious, we eat it fresh for breakfast one day and then refrigerate it and heat-and-serve the leftovers for the rest of the week.  I really like taking it to work for my morning break ("second breakfast" as Merry and Pippin would say...name that movie....)!