Breakfast

I enjoy a bowl of cereal… especially Cheerios. However, the price for cereal keeps going up and the box keeps getting smaller. Has anyone else noticed this? So, I am banning cereal. However, a girl still needs to eat a good breakfast. Lately I have been making Baked Oatmeal. I found a few recipes online, but have changed it a bit to make it my own. The original recipe was calling for a whole cup of brown sugar and a ½ cup of melted butter (1 stick)… too sweet and too much butter. Here is what I have come up with:

Ingredients:

3 cups of rolled oats
1/3 cup of brown sugar
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
2 teaspoons of baking power
1 teaspoon of salt
1 cup of milk
½ cup of applesauce
2 teaspoons of vanilla
¾ cup of dried cranberries (or other dried fruit)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix together the oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat the milk, eggs, applesauce and vanilla. Stir the wet mixture into the dry ingredients. Stir in dried fruit. Spread into a greased 9x13 baking dish (or line the dish with parchment paper).
3. Bake for 40 minutes or until browned.
I eat mine warm with a glass of milk. It would also be good mixed with yogurt.
This keeps in a container for a few days (or until it’s gone).

On another note:
We are leaving the Midwest sometime today and making our way to Jamestown for the night so that Aunt Pattie can spend a bit of time with the twinkies. We will then leave for Olean from her house tomorrow morning. We will spend Christmas Eve at Dad & Wendy’s house – they usually have a holiday open house; Christmas morning at Kathleen’s and the rest of the day at the White’s house. Busy, busy. Not relaxing at all it seems. I am hoping we just stay home next year.

Merry Christmas everyone!