Baked Oatmeal with fruit & nuts

Hello.

I hope your well.  I haven’t been blogging much, cause well….I haven’t been eating much.  I’m hangry.  It’s no fun to blog when your hangry.

I’m starting to worry that social services is going to come knocking on my door asking for the hangry mom.  My kids will answer the door, unless they are home alone in that case they will hide in a closet and wait for the door knocker to go away.  (This is the world we live in.  When I was a kid if someone knocked on our door, you’d ask them in and offer them a lemonade and a seat until your parents got home. But really who ever comes over any more anyway?  Except social services.)  So then the kid who answered the door will say, when asked if a hangry mom is in the house…

the kid will say….

“Yes.” And point down the hall to my bedroom where they will find me standing on my scale bug eyed and drooling over my instagram feed.  Who’s LAY-MO idea was it any way to have hashtag doughnut week while I’m in the middle of a sugar/carb & dairy free diet?? Who? WHO? WHO I ASK??!!

I’m Ok.

No really I am.  NOT.

One more week. I have learned some great “goto” alternatives for my sweet tooth rather than a cookie.  Fruit, perhaps.  I’ve never been a fruit eater.  Raw carrots.  A date. Crickets, and hay.

No seriously.  I came up with this Oatmeal Bake after Big D came at me with an oatmeal bake she had made but it had 2 cups of sugar, 4 eggs, oil, and whole milk in it.  We decided surely there had to be a way to make this recipe taste good with out all the fat and sugar.  So I decided to figure it out, and Voila! it worked and tasted good.

Here’s how I sweetened it up.  I cooked 1/2 cup of dates in water for 10 minutes, then I mashed them and let them cool.

Then I whisked together 2 eggs, unsweetened applesauce to replace the oil, some spices to give some flavor, vanilla because everything is better with vanilla in it, and unsweetened almond milk.

I miss milk.  Bessy cow this milk drinking mamma will be back soon.  Did I mention I’ve cut out dairy too?

[insert primal scream]

Screaming and whisking, it’s like Munch’s paining Scream only the food version.

 

I have a bag of mixed dried fruit and nuts that I purchased at Costco.  I’ve used that.  But this time I wanted to use my favorites,  so I rough chopped 1/3 cup dried cherries, 1/3 cup unsalted whole almonds, and 1/3 cup pecans.  Use what ever you have on hand, or what ever you like best as far as fruits, and nuts.  Or you could only used fruit, and no nuts.  I also think this would be good with diced apples mixed in.

Now add the oatmeal, fruits, nuts, salt, and baking powder to the wet ingredients.  If you are an observant soul ignore the date mash in this picture. It should have been added in long ago, back with the eggs and stuff 😉

 

Grease an 8×8 baking pan (with whatever you like, I used a squirt of PAM) pour oatmeal mixture in pan.

 

Cover with foil and place in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes.

 

There you have it!  It really is quite good.  Even my 17 year old son ate some, and didn’t freak out. You can eat this plain, or you can drizzle a little almond milk or if you are able drizzle a little maple syrup and milk over it.

It’s good stuff Maynard.

 

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Baked Oatmeal with fruit & nuts
9 servings

1/2 cup whole Dates
1 cup Water
1 cup unsweetened Applesauce
2 Eggs
1 1/2 cups unsweetened Almond Milk
1 teaspoon Vanilla
1 teaspoon ground Cinnamon
dash Nutmeg
3 cups old fashioned Oatmeal
1 cup dried fruit and nuts, roughly chopped
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Baking Soda

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
1. In a small sauce pan bring dates and water to a boil, turn temperature down to low,  let simmer for 10 minutes, remove from heat, and allow to cool, mash with a fork until dates become a paste.
2. In a large mixing bowl whisk together applesauce, eggs, almond milk, mashed dates, vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
3. Add dry ingredients to the wet. Oats, fruits, and nuts (I used dried cherries, whole unsalted almonds, and pecans. Feel free to use what ever you have or nothing at all.) salt, and baking soda. Combine with a spatula until all ingredients are incorporated.
4. Pour in to a greased 8×8 baking dish or pan. Cover with foil, place in preheated 350 degree oven for 45 minutes. Uncover, cut into squares, and enjoy!

Optional: If you rather you can substitute the dates for 1/2 cup brown sugar, and the almond milk for cow’s milk.

Note: Use whatever dried fruits and nuts you have or like. If you don’t have any or like them, feel free to leave out.

Enjoy!

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