I made a stand-by for breakfast recently, Blueberry Oatmeal, only I used strawberries instead because we still have some in our freezer from last year's harvest. I wanted to mention it here on the blog and realized the original page at Money Saving Mom is gone. Tragedy!
That's just not acceptable for all you poor people that haven't tried it yet. (The post was a few years old; I'm guessing they either expire after a while or it got lost when she transitioned to her new and improved site recently.)
So here's the Range recipe, a modified version of an original posted in the comments at Money Saving Mom by Suzanne Mosley. You can find her at Keep In Touch Stationary Co., though I don't think she's posting any recipes there.
Blueberry Oatmeal (aka Baked Oatmeal with Blueberries)
6 1/2 cups old fashioned oats (18 oz) *
1/2 cup brown sugar **
1 cup applesauce
1 cup milk ***
1 1/4 cup water
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tbsp cinnamon (increase or decrease according to your taste and how much cinnamon may already be in your homemade applesauce)
cooking spray
2 cups blueberries (fresh or frozen) ****
Preheat oven to 350.
Mix everything except the berries together in a bowl. Stir well.
Coat a 9" x 13" Pyrex dish with cooking spray. Pour the blueberries in. Top with the oatmeal mixture. (I prepare the oatmeal this far and store it in the refrigerator overnight. It makes it a bit quicker in the morning. Just pull it out and leave it on the counter while your oven is preheating, then bake as below.)
Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake an additional 16-20 minutes (until browned).
Serve warm. My kids like brown sugar sprinkled on top. I like a little milk poured on top.
If you have any left-over, it is yummy warmed and served the next day or for a snack. It also works well cut into squares and frozen for a quick breakfast. It can be reheated directly from the freezer.
* Do not, I repeat, do not, substitute quick oats for any portion of the regular oats. Not even a tiny bit. Your baked oatmeal will be dry, tough, and unwanted. You may end up feeding a significant portion of it to your chickens, not that I would know anything about that.
** The original recipe called for 3/4 cup brown sugar. I'm decreasing it a bit at a time because we always sprinkle the brown sugar on top. My kids don't believe in brown-sugar-less oatmeal and they can't see it if it's already in the oatmeal. I should be bold and just eliminate it altogether.
*** You can substitute 1/3 cup dry milk plus a cup of water if you're short on milk, which we often are when I decide to make this. No one will notice.
**** I used four cups of whole frozen strawberries. The two cups didn't seem to cover enough of the bottom of the dish and we have a lot of frozen strawberries. I think having more was nice with the strawberries because they melt into the oatmeal more than the blueberries. I also think it would still have been good with only two cups if you don't happen to have the luxury of your own strawberry patch and an abundance of strawberries.
