Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Baked Oatmeal

I like warm food. It's so much more comforting to have a bowl of warm soup than a cold sandwich. Or melted cheese on crackers, instead of just cheese with crackers. A tuna melt instead of a tuna and cheese sandwich. Toast instead of cereal, and so on and so forth.*

But in the morning, in the rush to get out of the door for school, I don't have time to make eggs + toast unless I plan it out ahead of time (which would mean exchanging hair-time for cooking-time). In general, I stick to quickly made foods. Unfortunately, that means I sacrifice my warm food for a bowl of cold cereal quite frequently. Unless, of course, I make baked oatmeal in the evening and then heat it up in the microwave as I'm tossing my lunch in my lunch box.

I read somewhere that the longer oatmeal takes to cook, the better it is for you. Hence, steel cut oats are the best for you. If you haven't ever seen them, they look like little pellets of oatmeal, but they take forever to cook -- an hour, according to the outside of the can. Then there are rolled oats (old fashioned) and instant oats, whose cooking time decreases in that order. I don't mind the kind of instant oatmeal that you buy in packets and put in the microwave, but I so often get little crunches of yucky sugar/salt/flavoring that grosses me out. In any case, there is quite a lot of sugar and salt in those little packets!

So in the interest of my warm breakfasts and healthy start to the day, here's my very favorite oatmeal recipe. A note: If you like your oatmeal the consistency of snot, this isn't for you -- it's a very solid oatmeal. But that's what Dan and I like about it. It also keeps me full until lunch. Thank goodness!

Baked Oatmeal, recipe courtesy of Aunt Amy
Bake for 40 minutes at 400 degrees; Serves 6

2 1/2 cups regular rolled oats
1/4 cup oat bran
1/4 cup flaxseed meal
1/4 cup steel cut oats
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 cups milk
1 egg, beaten
1/3 cup applesauce
1/4 cup veggie oil
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 cups fruit (1 15.5 oz can of peaches, drained and cut into small pieces; blueberries; some combination of the two, or anything else your heart desires)

In a large mixing bowl, stir together rolled oats, oat bran, flaxseed meal, steel-cut oats, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. In a medium bowl, stir together milk, egg, applesauce, oil and sugars. Add to oat mixture and stir. Turn into a lightly greased 2 qt. casserole dish. Bake, covered, 20 minutes. Stir in fruit. Bake 20 minutes more, uncovered, or until lightly browned. Spoon into bowls. Top with yogurt, milk or cream, or eat it as is.

*This does not apply, of course, to my all time favorite food: ice cream.

3 comments:

Colleen said...

...The consistency of snot. "
Excellent.

Being a lifelong oatmeal hater, I may just try this. Sounds better than meh.

Unknown said...

May I suggest:
http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2010/12/breakfast.html

Especially awesome if you have a slow cooker with a timer but most of the stuff is good for reheating as well. And it's cheap. And it's easy. Hurray.

Nick and I did leftovers for breakfast last weekend and man was it awesome. Started off a solid day of apartment searching with a realy breakfast even though we were out the door early and it was hearty enough goodness that we skipped lunch.

-Jn

Anonymous said...

Hilary:

That recipe is actually compliments of your mom who gave it to me. It is one of my favorites!

Aunt Amy