Oatmeal Week: Baked Oatmeal

Have you had McDonald's oatmeal yet?  You should!  Man, is it delicious.  Yes, it is high in sugar, but you can order it without the brown sugar if you want.  And did you know you can order it any time of day-- not just at breakfast?  Mmmm... a warm cup of comforting, healthy, yummy goodness.

McDonald's oatmeal really has nothing at all to do with the oatmeal I am about to share with you.  Although I did put apples, raisins, milk, and brown sugar (and oats!) in mine, the similarities end there.  This oatmeal is baked, people.  No nuking here!

Here are the ingredients: Brown sugar, milk, quick oats, oil, raisins, apples (optional), eggs, cinnamon, salt, baking powder.

Beat the eggs.  I put them in this here measuring cup for no good reason.  I thought it was a good idea because I could just measure the other things in, but I forgot that having the eggs in there would already take up space.  Duh.  I make this mistake all the time.  Luckily, this recipe is not terribly precise, so I just eyeballed things.

Add the milk and the salt...

...and the oil and the baking powder...

Oh yes!  And the cinnamon.

Note: although not shown here, this would be an EXCELLENT time to add the brown sugar.  I was not so smart and forgot it until later.

Add your oats and give it a stir.

Then put it in a greased baking dish because you ran out of room in your measuring cup that maybe wasn't such a good idea after all.

Add the raisins...

Brown sugar photo bomb!  This is the part where I remembered that I had forgotten (huh?) the brown sugar. you see, there really is quite a simple explanation.  It was cleverly disguised as a ceramic canister instead of a bag of brown sugar...anyway, here it is.

And we just dump it in there.

First I sliced my apples using this contraption (if you don't have one, you should!), then I diced them.

Action shot!  Dump 'em right into the dish.

And give it all a good stir... and an especially good stir if you didn't add the brown sugar until now.

Then bake it!  Serve it warm... I like to pour milk over mine, but Tim likes his just as is.  Often I will bake it on the weekend, then have it in the fridge and then we can just warm up individual bowls throughout the week.  Ok, so maybe that method would require some nuking.

Other notes:

• The apples are optional.  You could completely leave them out or add some other kind of fruit.
• I suppose the same is true of the raisins.
• This might be delicious with nuts it in, too.
• What I'm trying to say is, the possibilities are endless.
• I found this to be plenty of sugar (read: way too much).  Next I time I will AT LEAST cut the sugar in half.
• If you wanted a more "oaty" texture, you could prolly use old fashioned oats.  I think I might try that next time.

There you have it kids...

BAKED OATMEAL

Mix together thoroughly:

• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 c milk
• 1/2 c vegetable oil
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Stir in:

• 3 c quick oats
• 1/2 c rasins (see note above)
• 2 apples chopped (see note above)

Pour into a greased 8 x 12 baking dish.  Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 25 minutes.  Serve warm with milk.