Having said that, I have always liked baked things containing oatmeal--and let's be specific here because I'm talking about oatmeal cookies and especially the ones with golden raisins or chocolate chips in them which are amazing lumps of heaven here on earth; but sadly frowned-upon as a breakfast food.
Being almost fifty has turned my mind to dietary things; and despite still having the finicky taste buds of a five-year-old, I have tried to be more adventurous when it comes to things that are so good for me that I really should be eating them like a big girl now. So flipping through Pinterest one night as I'm wont to do, I came across a recipe for Baked Oatmeal; and it looked appetizing enough to try. And boy did I try it. Now several batches later, I've settled on a recipe that is now my family's favorite grab-and-go breakfast. And bonus: it's super-easy, two batches last us for most of a week, and we're all noticing that what we formerly thought was just an inherited personality disorder was really that we were all kind of hangry a lot of the time before this thing came into our lives.
"Gee", you're thinking. "I wish she'd share that recipe!" Which I'm going to do whether that's what you're thinking or not, because I have a blog post to fill. Also, I'm not going to mess with do-this-then-do-that directions or whatever because this is neither rocket science nor brain surgery. This is muffins, yo (albeit a much denser, more cookie/bar kind of a thing than your standard) ... pretty much as entry-level as baking gets.
Mo's Oatmeal Stuffins
2 1/2 cups old fashioned oats
1/4 cup brown sugar (or honey, or half of each or whatever ... you get the idea)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup almond flour plus a couple of tablespoons of whole wheat or regular flour (or use only wheat/regular flour if you can't do the nut thing)
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
some cinnamon, or nutmeg, or cardamom, or all of those ... whatever baking spice makes you happy
1/2 stick of melted butter or margarine (I use butter because I am a purist and because it's Delicious AF)
2 snack cups of all-natural, no-sugar-added applesauce (I use chunky; and if you want to be a health Nazi, you *can* cut out all of the butter and go straight-up applesauce)
I like mine a little on the "dry" and kinda crumbly side, but you can throw in a little water if you like yours creamier.
That's your base; and you can mix this up and throw it into canola-spray-greased muffin cups (be a little more diligent about that greasing part if you left out the delicious, delicious butter) and bake at 350 for 25 minutes and have your slightly sad but probably still tasty little healthy breakfast lumps ...
... OR you can do what I do which is to get busy on the FABULOUSLY AWESOME MIX-INS, which can be any dried or fresh fruit your hungry heart desires (go ahead, take a sing-along break. I know you need one now).
Okay, so I haven't used nuts yet (except for the almond meal), but I'm sure you can do that, too; and even nut butters. I also like to throw in a small handful of organic dark chocolate chips because they are a) organic, duh; and b) God's way of telling us that he loves us and wants us to be happy. No, wait ... that's beer ... but chocolate is a neck-and-neck second. Seriously, mix in what makes you look forward to breakfast because it absolutely is the most important meal of the day. Thus far, with delicious results, I have mixed and matched my must-have dark chocolate chips with:
blueberries
blackberries
raspberries
dried apricots
dried cherries
After they cool, I wrap each in a little piece of press-and-seal and fill a bowl in the fridge for portability. At work, I unwrap one, pop it into a paper coffee cup, nuke it for 30 seconds, and breakfast is served.
It takes a double-batch of these to keep my household of four in grab-and-go breakfasts for most of the week; but my son bench-presses small automobiles for fun and yours probably does not. And when I double-batch it, I do the base first, divide into two bowls, then use different mix-ins for each so we have a little variety. My fridge is, at this very moment, sporting one batch that is so crammed with blueberries (along with the standard amount of chocolate) that the pan kind of exploded a little in the oven in a spectacular way; and another that got chocolate, blackberries, diced dried apricots, and a handful of dried cherries.
Your mouth and your family will thank you. Your heart and colon will also be appreciative.
We call this kind of a situation a very, very delicious: Win-Win.
