Cranbery Baked Oatmeal

With the fall season here, don't you get the hankerin' for some cranberries? All red and juicy and plump, these gorgeous little gems are a staple in the American diet, especially in the colder months. It's easy to see (and taste!) why.

I don't cook breakfast very often these days. I'm not much of a breakfast person at all myself, and Dustin usually drinks a high impact breakfast smoothie each morning. I say high impact because it has everything but the kitchen sink. Organic yogurt, milk, at least one kind of protein powder, raw oats, a mixture of fruit (usually banana, peaches, strawberries, or blueberries) and a couple handfuls of baby spinach (nope, you can't taste it). It gets him through til lunch and is packed with nutrients.

This weekend though, I wanted to do something different, so I decided to make some baked oatmeal. I've made this before with mixed results. See, Dustin doesn't like mushy oatmeal. He'll eat raw quaker-type oats or cooked steel cut oats, but that's it. He does not like regular cooked oatmeal. The first baked oatmeal recipe I tried, he liked. The next one or two were too mushy and he was not a fan.

This one is non-mushy and tastes great. I made it with cranberries this time, but next time I might go for blueberries. Yum.




Cranberry Baked Oatmeal

2 cups quick or old fashioned oats
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
A few dashes of cinnamon if desired
1 cup milk
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup sucanat (sucanat is unrefined evaporated cane juice... you can use regular brown sugar if you don't do natural stuff.)
Dried cranberries or other fruit of choice, optional (I just dump some in until it "looks right")

In a large bowl, mix together oats, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and sucanat. Stir in milk, eggs, applesauce and fruit and pour mixture into a greased casserole dish. Bake at 325 degrees for 45 minutes or until well set.

I refrigerate the leftovers. It's good both hot or cold.

Enjoy!