Cooking for Seven

I am so pleased to announce that I am engaged to be married to Reuben James.

To see more engagement photos, please stop by my photography blog: {link}

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Ever since I can remember, I have enjoyed waking up to the smell of oatmeal baking in the oven. The toasty aroma enticed us kids from our warm beds to the breakfast table. Even now, crawling out of my bed is that much easier when someone announces, “Baked oatmeal for breakfast!”

The other morning I crawled out of bed, shut off the alarm, and made my way to kitchen to make a special breakfast treat. I had bragged the night before that I was going to make baked oatmeal for breakfast. Imagine my horror when I couldn’t find my favorite recipe. Instead of panicking, I turned on my computer and quickly selected a substitute recipe. With a few modifications, it turned out just the way I wanted.

Notes: The original recipe called for cinnamon and cranberries. Whereas I think this would be a lovely addition, I knew my dad would freak out if I included them. I also decreased the amount of sugar by 1/4 and used maple sugar in place of granulated; you could use any sweetener you like - this recipe is quite forgiving.

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Simple Baked Oatmeal

Recipe adapted from here.

Printable recipe

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
• 3 cups old fashioned rolled oats
• 3/4 - 1 cup maple sugar, maple syrup, or sweetener of choice
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup whole milk
• 2 eggs, slightly beaten
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 350° F. Place the butter in a square (9×9 or 8×8-inch) baking dish and place in the oven to melt. Make sure to keep an eye on the butter, or it will burn!

2) In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the oats, maple sugar, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl, mix together the milk, eggs, and vanilla.

3) Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix well, making sure all of the oats are moistened.

4) Remove the pan with the butter from the oven. Pour the oats mixture into the pan and stir, mixing until most of the butter in incorporated, but leaving some unmixed at the edges & bottom of the pan.

5) Bake in the preheated oven until the edges are golden, about 30 minutes. Serve hot with cream.

Makes approximately 6-8 servings, depending on how hungry everyone is.