easy organic breakfast...

we are always looking for new breakfast ideas around here--especially now that our go-to breakfast has become a big stack of pancakes. not so good for the figure (well, lucy can pull it off). anyway, i was happy to try a baked oatmeal recipe that i found online at one of the baby communities i frequent. we tried it out today and everyone enjoyed it, including lucy who was insistent for more. this would be really simple to make with all organic ingredients--i used the oats that we had on hand (trader joe's quick cook steel cut oats) but everything else (excluding cinnamon) was of the organic variety. a good way to start off the day.

here's the recipe:

baked oatmeal (makes 12 servings)

2 1/2 cups steel cut oats (rolled/instant oats will not work, but i had success with the quick cook steel cut oats that trader joe's now carries)

3 1/4 cups milk

2 eggs

1 tbsp vanilla (we just switched to real vanilla extract instead of imitation--the difference is amazing)

1/2 brown sugar (trader joe's sells organic)

1 tsp cinnamon

3/4 cup dates, raisins, chopped/diced fruit, craisins, etc. (i found organic raisins at costco!)

1/2 cups chopped/sliced nuts (we left these out since lucy hasn't been exposed to nuts yet and jeremy is not really a fan of them anyway)


preheat oven to 350. combine ingredients and let sit for 15 minutes. pour mixture into an 8" greased round baking pan or rectangular baking dish. bake for 45 min or until set. cut into wedges/ squares. serve warm with milk (we topped with an extra sprinkling of sugar, too). individual servings can be frozen after they have cooled.

next time i think i'll add some frozen blueberries. the original poster of the recipe said her favorite variation is with diced pears--i'll be giving this a try, too. and maybe apples would be good...

now i'm looking forward to tomorrow's breakfast--bonus points for the fact that it's already made!