Blueberry (Banana) Oatmeal

Everybody knows that breakfast is an important meal: it gets your body going in the morning! I love breakfast! In fact, I love it so much that I could eat breakfast foods at any time of the day and in place of any other meal, example: cereal for dinner.

Zach does not.

It is hard to get him to eat breakfast, although he has gotten better about it. His breakfast of choice is a granola bar and some coffee. Or occasionally a greek yogurt. (We've recently discovered greek yogurt and how delicious it is! He loves the fruit on the bottom feature and I love the protein content!)

Last week I found a blueberry oatmeal breakfast recipe on Pinterest, followed the link to the original recipe, gave it a whirl, and LOVED IT.

Loved the blueberries and bananas.

Loved the oatmeal & nuts.

Loved that it tasted like I was eating blueberry crisp!!!

Loved the low sugar. Only 1/4 cup maple syrup in the whole pan!

I recommend you make it today!

Blueberry Baked Oatmeal
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Bake time: 35-40 minutes
Serves: 6

Ingredients:
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1/4 cup chopped walnuts, divided
1/2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
Pinch of salt
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 cup milk (I used 2%)
1 large egg, lightly beaten
2 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2-3 ripe bananas, peeled and sliced
1 cup blueberries or raspberries, fresh or frozen, divided

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375F.

2. Lightly grease a 2-quart baking dish. (I used a 1.5-quart dish because I wanted a thicker finished product) In a medium bowl, mix the oats, half of the walnuts, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Stir to combine. In a liquid measuring cup, combine the syrup, milk, egg, butter, and vanilla.

3. Spread the sliced bananas in a single layer over the bottom of the baking dish. Top with half of the berries. Sprinkle the dry oat mixture over the fruit in an even layer. Pour the liquid ingredients evenly over the oats.

4. Sprinkle the remaining nuts and berries over the top. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until the top is browned and the oats have set. Let cool 10 minutes before serving.

I made up a pan of this on Monday and ate it for breakfast every morning last week. YUM! If you're making it for a whole family it will probably be gone in one sitting. Since Zach doesn't stray from his usual breakfast foods, he didn't see this in the refrigerator until there was only one serving left. Which he tried and LIKED (even though it contained bananas, which he doesn't like) since it tasted like dessert.

Here is the link to the original recipe. 

Try it out!

Sarah

Last. Day.

I don't feel like writing too much.

Other than today was my LAST DAY of work!!! And of course we had to go out with a bang --- we took all three first grade classes to the Grand Rapids Public Museum for the day... thankfully we had lots of parent chaperones so the kids were in pairs or triples and I got to float between groups. I'm grateful to the other teachers and parents who rode the bus because this nine month pregnant lady was not about to ride the bus an hour each way with 60 screaming kids. :)

We have no school tomorrow for Good Friday and then next week off for Spring Break then my maternity leave begins! It hasn't really sunk in that I'm not going back because EVERYBODY is going on break next week. It will probably hit me next Monday morning when I'm home and everyone else is going back to work.

So here's some pictures and a BRIEF description.

The other day I went on a cooking spree. As in I started making some dinners and freezing them now so when baby gets here we'll have so ready to go options. 

One of the things I made was these egg casserole bites. I didn't follow a recipe or write anything down... so you'll have to bear with my explanation then experiment on your own.

Egg casserole bites

First, I cut up some whole wheat bread into cubes and put a few in the bottom of each muffin tin (which I generously sprayed beforehand with cooking spray). 

Next, came the bacon (cooked and chopped), a sprinkle of cheddar cheese, and some diced onion.

Then, in a separate bowl, I whisked up some eggs with a splash of milk and added spices that I like: salt, pepper, parsley, and garlic.

Finally, I poured the egg mixture over the top of the bread, bacon, cheese, & onion. It didn't take much to fill them up - don't overfill them because the puff up a bit when you cook them!

Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes. I let them cool and froze them. They're easy to reheat in the morning and put on a piece of toast or an English muffin. I even got the Zach stamp of taste approval for these - and he's NOT a breakfast person!

Here's the past two weeks of baby bump photos:

37 weeks

38 weeks

Easter is almost here.

Baby is almost here.

Spring break IS here.

I'm a happy camper.



Love,

Sarah

Thursday: Cinnamon Rolls

Last recipe post, I promise! Well, at least for today anyways!

My brother Justin got recipe from his friend for homemade cinnamon rolls so we decided to try them out this morning. Justin and Michael spent the night at our house last night. We got home pretty late after Vacation Bible School. By the time we had eaten a snack (I made popcorn, the boys reheated leftover enchiladas) Zach arrived home! Yay! He's been gone for what seems like forever. Okay, only two days but it seemed longer. We all put on pajamas and cozied up on the couches to watch August Rush. I've owned the movie for over two years and have never watched it until last night. It was pretty good but the ending was not what I had hoped for... however, the music throughout the movie kinda made up for it. The movie got over around 12:45AM so we all went to bed. Poor Zach had to get up and go to work this morning after being up late! :( I'm proud of him for going even though he really didn't want to today.

Anywhooooos, here's the cinnamon rolls. They were SCRUMPTIOUS! Justin said he didn't want to eat it because it looked too good! He got over that real quick!

HOMEMADE CINNAMON ROLLS

Ingredients:
2 c. Bisquick
2/3 c. milk
2 TBSP butter, melted
cinnamon
sugar

Combine Bisquick and milk to make dough. Add more Bisquick if necessary until the dough is barely sticky. Spray an open counter space with nonstick spray and press out dough by hand until approx. 1/4 to 1/2-in thick. It all depends on how thick you want your rolls.

Brush dough with melted butter.

Cover with cinnamon. Literally. So you can't see the dough. Sprinkle sugar on top of the cinnamon. We didn't measure (do I ever?) but guessed it to be about 2-3 TBSP.

Cut dough into 1 1/2 to 2-in strips. Again, this is an estimation.

I used 3 fingers as a measuring device...

Grease an 8-in round cake pan. Roll strips and place in pan.

Bake at 375 degrees F for 10-15 minutes or until tops are light brown. Top with icing, frosting, whatever sweet thing you please. We took the icing out of a store bought tube of cinnamon rolls I had in the fridge....


Makes: about 6 rolls