A Breakfast Confession

Here goes nothing.

(deep breath)

Wait, before I confess anything I want to tell you that Mr. Wonderful and I do not eat fast food very often.  Once maybe twice a month tops.

Okay, let's try this again.

About every few (2-3) weeks Mr. Wonderful calls me on Saturday morning when he's on his way home for work and asks about breakfast.  When he calls I know deep down in my heart that he's wanting fast food.  Way deep down inside, I do too.  Because I am mostly lazy and this would save me from having to actually think of something to make, make it and then clean up afterwards.

Something happened last night.  I had the strangest urge to not be lazy about this mornings breakfast.  So I scoured the internet for things that I could make ahead and have ready for whenever Mr. Wonderful got home.

It had to be something warm.  It had to be nourishing and most of all, it had to be yummy.

One of my favorite recipe sites is Mennonite Girls Can Cook.  Have I ever made anything from their site? Nope.  But a girl can dream can't she?

I found this recipe for Baked Oatmeal with Apple and Cinnamon there.  But, Houston, we have a problem.  I don't have any oats! I used them all and haven't remembered to replenish them.

Which got me thinking and forced me to get up and rummage through the pantry. Lo and behold I actually some Steel Cut Oatmeal left over from another time I had stopped being lazy about breakfast. Woo-hoo!

So, I started my search over and, quite brilliantly, entered 'steel cut' after baked oatmeal.  And that, lead me to here, Nourished Kitchen.  Now the stinker of a problem was I didn't have half of the stuff the recipe called for, and one pound of oats? Geez louise, that would feed an army!

The next link Google brought up was this one: Beef 4 Breakfast who in fact got his recipe from Nourished Kitchen.  However his proportions seemed more manageable so that is what I kind of did.

The recipe that I used is down below the pics:

Soak the oats over night by covering them in about an inch of water.  I let mine soak for 8 hours, but I think next time I'll soak them for a few hours longer.  There were some that I ran into that were hard little nuggets still.

Oats that have been soaked over night

Drain the water - My every day colander has enormous holes so I used this one which has a sifter like screen.

Why I set it over a bowl and not the sink, I'll never know

This is where I think the creative process can really excel.  I figured I would stick with apples and not get too fancy my first time out.

Then comes the Magical Concoction that you pour over the whole thing.  Mine consisted of: eggs, butter, brown sugar, half & half, walnuts and a wee bit of maple syrup.

Butter the bottom of your dish and spread the oatmeal in the dish

Pour your Magical Concoction over the top, sprinkle with cinnamon and bake!

And this is the finished product straight out of the oven!

Recipe:

1 1/2 C Steel Cut Oats - this just so happened to be the exact amount I had

2 large apples - I used two Fuji apples we picked up at the Farmer's Market

2 eggs - courtesy of my MommaBeans Chickens

1 C half & half - I have nothing left for coffee, must go to the store immediately

2 Tbs butter, melted

1/2 C brown sugar 

1/4 C walnuts - it's the amount I found in the pantry

1 tsp of Maple Syrup - I was experimenting...

Cinnamon 

• Soak the oats the night before. Do not skip this step.  I put mine in a mixing bowl and covered with about an inch of water. I threw a flour-sack towel over the top and went to bed.
• Drain the water from the oats using a colander and put in a large mixing bowl
• Dice your apples and mix them in to the oats along with the walnuts
• Stir together in a small mixing bowl the eggs, milk, brown sugar, maple syrup and melted butter
• Butter the bottom of a baking dish then spread the oatmeal mixture evenly
• Pour the Magical Concoction over everything
• Sprinkle Cinnamon on top
• Bake at 350° for 45 minutes
• Cool for 10 minutes and serve!

Oh.Em.Gee and even I like it- and I am not known for trying new foods.

This is a seriously awesome dish and you should absolutely try it!  

I am going to make it again next weekend but I think I'm going to try different ingredients now that I know I like the basics.

A victory for this culinary mamby-pamby!