Here at 128 john st. everything gets eaten. EVERYTHING. (Even most the mistakes.) On Sunday morning when I woke up, I was not so much in the mood to make cupcakes, which may be a first for me. I wanted to make something that I could eat every morning for breakfast, although, let's be honest, I promote eating cupcakes for breakfast (and eat them often < READ: eat them more often than not for breakfast). BUT this time, I wanted to switch it up.
Did I mention that I wanted to do this, without leaving the house?
It was hot. I mean HOT outside. I don't want to be "that-gal" that is always complaining about the weather, but give me a moment while I reflect. IT WAS FREAKIN' HOT OUT. SOOOO I didn't want to go to the store. I wanted to whip up something perfect and gorgeous and good enough to share with you WITHOUT BUYING ANYTHING.
I should also mention we don't keep much in the house, and by much, I mean we usually have a few cans of beans, wine and butter.
Moving on.
I began ripping through the kitchen cabinet. Under all the stuff (note to self: clean out cabinet, why do we have so much crap in there?) I found A TON of Bob's Red Mill Oats. I went with Old Fashioned Thick rolled oats. Well, thats a start, and something we can certainly work with.
Now you're wondering why I have so many damn slow cook oats I bet. Lucky lady I am, sometimes I get free food at work. I take it. Always.
What else did we dig up? You won't even believe me. I got SO lucky.
1 Green Apple. A Bag of Walnuts. YUP & YUP.
We were getting somewhere. Baked Oatmeal here we come.
FOR THE BAKED OATMEAL /
2 cups oats
1 cup walnuts (chopped preferably, but you can shop 'em)
1 tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. baking powder
½ cup sugar
1 green apple
1 stick of unsalted butter
2 eggs
½ tsp. almond extract (or vanilla extract)
1 / Preheat oven to 375˚F. Cut the apple into small pieces. Leave a few large slices aside to place on top (it makes it super pretty). Chop the walnuts if they aren't chopped yet.
2 / In a large bowl, mix together the oats, walnuts, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder and sugar.
3 / In a small bowl melt the whole stick of butter. Set aside.
4 / In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and stir in the almond extract.
5 / Stir the butter mixture and egg together.
6 / Fill your favorite casserole dish with the dry ingredients. It filled my 8-inch square perfectly!
7 / Pour the wet ingredients over the dry.
8 / Place the sliced apple on top of the assembled oats.
9 / Bake for 45-55 minutes or until bubbly and brown!
I would say this makes around 6 full serving, but if you were serving it as part of a brunch with other items, you could full smaller cups (I used some sturdy cupcake cups) and it could make about 12!
I kid you not when I tell you I was impressed with this dish. I'm not a huge oats person, but nuts and apple really take it up a notch (not to mention the butter and cinnamon, I mean, c'mon, of course it's good!).
So, whats the lesson here?
1- You sometimes have more in your house than you think, and can make something fabulous out of it.
2- Oats are yummy.
3- Jamie needs to clean her cabinets out more often.
4- Jamie should probably food shop once in a while.
Have you ever made baked oatmeal? This was a first for me, and I see many more in my future (I've got more oats, why not!).