baked oatmeal with raspberries and toasted almonds

As I've said before, breakfast is hands down, my favourite meal of the day. That's all well and good on the days when I work evenings - I can turn on the radio, laze around in my pyjamas and take my time: break out the waffle iron, turn on the oven, make some coffee. What about those mornings I have to leave the house before it's light out? I'm not a morning person, and I don't function well in the early morning: breaking things, pouring juice on my granola instead of milk, salt instead of sugar in my coffee. 

Early mornings are the reason I cook batches - I make a triple amount of waffles or pancakes, wrap them up, and throw them in the freezer. I toast up a giant batch of granola on the weekend, leave it in a jar on the counter. Or I make this fabulous oatmeal, from Heidi Swanson's Super Natural Every Day. 

But here's my latest version of the recipe. I like to change it every time I make it - it's just asking to be modified. Right now, I'm really missing summer berries, so I dug a bag of frozen raspberries out of the freezer. You can change up the fresh/frozen fruit, add dried fruits, use honey, maple syrup or different sugars, vary the type of nuts you use, or throw in other spices (nutmeg, citrus zest, ginger). Also, this recipe is almost vegan - you can replace the butter for oil (as I do anyway when I'm too lazy to melt butter) and replace the egg with 1/2 a mashed banana or a flax egg.

baked oatmeal with raspberries and toasted almonds

Adapted from Super Natural Every Day. Serves 6. 

2 cups rolled oats

1 cup almonds, chopped and toasted

1/3 cup demerara sugar, plus 1 tbsp for sprinkling

1 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp sea salt

2 cups milk

1 egg

3 tbsp melted butter

2 tsp vanilla 

1 cup frozen raspberries

Preheat the oven to 350. Grease a baking dish (9x13) or 5 or 6 small ramekins. I used an assortment of sizes - and canning jars are great here too. 

In a bowl, mix together oats, almonds (save a few tbsp for topping later), sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. In another bowl, whisk together milk, eggs, melted butter and vanilla. 

Put the 3/4 of raspberries in the bottom of the baking dish (or ramekins). Top with the oat mixture, then pour the milk mixture on top. You might have to give the dish a few whacks on the counter, to help the milk move down through the oats. Top with the rest of the berries, the rest of the nuts, and a sprinkle of sugar. Bake for 35-45 minutes, until the oats have set and the top is golden. 

This oatmeal keeps great in the fridge for a week. Just reheat it, perhaps with a bit of milk and maple syrup to help revive it. 

cheesy egg bake + oatmeal brown sugar scones

I love breakfast - almost as much as this blog I just discovered - xo breakfast. Let me count the ways... maple syrup, fruit, oatmeal, pyjamas, mimosas, coffee, sunshine, radio, sleeping in, warm baked goods, old episodes of the colbert report, orange juice, waffles, jam, butter. I could go on. It's my favorite meal of the day, hands down.

cheesy egg bake
You can switch up the vegetables and cheese for whatever you have available. Serves two, increase for more people.

olive oil
1 onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 cup mixed peppers, large dice
handful of kale, stemmed and torn into chunks
handful of mixed herbs, chopped (I used lemon thyme, parsley and oregano)
2 eggs
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella

Heat a swirl of olive oil in a pan. Preheat the oven to 400. Cook onions and garlic in olive oil, until translucent. Add peppers and kale, and cook another 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, and stir in chopped herbs. Turn off heat. Grease two large ramekins with olive oil (the 2-cup kind is best). Divide the vegetables between the two ramekins, and make an indentation for the egg. Crack the egg into the indent, and top with grated cheese. Bake for around 10 minutes, until the egg is cooked to your liking.

Alternately, you could make this in a cast iron frying pan - just cook the veg in the pan on the stovetop, make indentations for eggs, then transfer the whole thing to the oven. (I just love the individual ramekins for purely aesthetic reasons.)

oatmeal and brown sugar scones
From this post on xo breakfast. Makes 6 scones.


3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 c cup + 2 tbsp rolled oats
1/4 cup brown sugar plus extra for sprinkling
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
4 tbsp cold butter, cut into small pieces
1/3 cup milk

Preheat oven to 425ºF. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper. In a large bowl, mix the flour, oats, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt together. Use your fingertips to rub in the butter until the mixture looks like large crumbs. Stir in the milk. Turn the dough out onto the pan and pat it into a rectangle. Cut in six and spread them out about 2 inches apart. Sprinkle with brown sugar. Bake until golden, about 20 minutes.

I ate mine with Blueberry Ginger Jam from Food in Jars, and Ginger Butter (crystalized ginger + butter pulsed in the food processor).

oatmeal with caramelized bananas

There's something about cooking bananas that makes them sing. They develop a sweet, complex flavour that's totally different than fresh bananas, and they make a plain old bowl of oatmeal so much more exciting. Make these bananas as a topping for  all sort of things: pancakes, waffles, tapioca or rice pudding.


oatmeal with caramelized bananas
(one serving)

1/3 cup large flake oats
1 cup almond, rice or soy milk
pinch of salt
handful of chopped walnuts

1 tbsp butter or grapeseed oil
1 banana, sliced
1 tsp cinnamon
1 or 2 tbsp maple syrup

Combine oats, milk, salt and walnuts in a pot. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer until cooked (about 10 minutes). In a pan, melt butter over medium heat. Add sliced bananas, and sauté for 2 or 3 minutes. Add cinnamon and maple syrup, and stir to combine.

Serve oatmeal with some cold milk, topped with bananas. Sprinkle on some walnuts for extra crunch.

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

I finally borrowed Veganomicon from the library! It's an awesome vegan cookbook; beautifully designed, clear and conversational. And, the whole thing is available on Google Books! Anyway, here's the first recipe (of many) that I tried out, with a few minor changes. It's wheat free, and obviously, vegan. Don't let this turn you off - I brought them to school and fed them to a bunch of non-vegans with no complaints. Actually no complaints AND enjoyment and delight! (Although dancers are pretty much always eating, you can feed them anything sweet and free and they will be happy.)

Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies (wheat-free chocolate chip cookies in Veganomicon)

1 1/2 cups oat flour (just throw some rolled oats in a blender or food processor)
1/4 cup oatmeal (I added this for some extra texture)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp ground flax seeds
1/4 cup soy milk (or rice or almond or chocolate soy milk - that's what I used)
1/4 brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup chopped dark chocolate (try a flavored chocolate - orange or mint)

Preheat your oven to 375 (my oven is a little over-excited, I turned it down to 350, but I don't have a thermometer to check the real temperature). Whisk together the oat flour, oats, baking soda and salt. In another bowl, whisk together the flax seeds and soy milk. Add both sugars, canola oil and vanilla and whisk until the oil in emulsified, about 1 minute. Mix the wet and dry ingredients together, then fold in the chocolate chunks. Spoon tablespoons of batter onto a slightly greased sheet - be sure to leave at least 1 1/2 inches between the cookies - they spread! Bake for 8-10 minutes, then let them cool a bit on the sheet. Don't let them completely cool on the sheet though! My first batch glued themselves to the sheet.

I used Endangered Species Dark Chocolate with Mint, but you could use any dark chocolate bar well-chopped. My next batch will be with Cocoa Camino's Dark Orange, maybe with some pecans thrown in. Can you tell I'm a big fan of dark chocolate? Sorry for the lack of picture - they were gone too fast to photograph!