Baked Oatmeal

"It's the most wonderful time of the year!"  I LOVE Christmas!  There is so much joy, happiness, and excitement in the air.  I love knowing I will get to see all my family, especially those I don't see enough throughout the year.  

The other fun part of this time of year is everyone announcing they are having babies...including US!  Alex and I are expecting our first child around June 28, 2012!  We are beyond excited.  We feel so blessed that things happened so quickly for us after the miscarriage.  

With the celebration of babies coming we have also been celebrating those who have recently been born.  I recently had the pleasure of visiting Andrew Thompson Heller and his mommy, Holly.  

Precious quilt that Molly made for Mr. Andrew!

I wanted to bring something healthy and different from all the dinner casseroles most bring.  I found this great breakfast recipe that can be eaten any time of day.  Holly is health conscious anyways, but even more so after the baby so this was perfect for her and her new family!  I hope you enjoy!

Caledon Baked Oatmeal
Source:  The Eat Clean Diet Cookbook

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of old fashioned oats
• 2 cups low fat or skim milk or soy milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup slivered almonds
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries or other dried fruit of your choice
• 1 large unpeeled Macintosh apple, grated
• 4 Tbsp. maple syrup
• cooking spray
• 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
• a pinch of nutmeg

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Coat a 3 quart casserole dish or baking pan with cooking spray.

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl.  If you are preparing this the night before don't add the liquid ingredients such as milk or grated apple until morning.

Place mixture in a casserole dish.  Bake uncovered for 45 minutes.  (My oven cooks quick so this was too long, just keep an eye on it!)

Basic Overnight Oats

The beaches in Mexico are beautiful.  I grew up going down to the Gulf of Mexico in Florida so I am spoiled by the white, beautiful  beaches.  I don't love vacationing to the east coast because the beach just isn't as pretty.  Mexico did not disappoint.

Here are a few pics of us enjoying the beautiful weather we had.

 Alex (A.K.A picky husband) laying out trying to get some color.

 The view back up towards the resort.

 Alex and I about to head down to the beach.

 BEAUTIFUL.  Alex wanted to wind surf and/or ocean kayak the whole time we were down there, but the water was too rough.

 My amazing husband of almost 5 years!

He knows how to make me smile.

I have been seeing overnight oats all over the blogging world lately.  I finally had a chance to make my own this weekend.  Unfortunately we were completely out of groceries so my ingredients were limited.  I wish I had some fresh fruit to add in.

I used steel cut oats instead of the regular rolled oats.  You get in a 1/4 of a cup of steel cut oats what you would get in 1/2 cup of rolled oats.  They tasted great.  A little chewier than regular oatmeal.  Definitely give these guys a try even if you don't normally like oatmeal.

You can make overnight oats into whatever you like.  The options are endless.  I first read about them on Kath Eats Real Food.  You can see there is so much you can add.  Have fun with this one.  Also try it with regular rolled oats.

Here are some of my future ideas of things to add:  greek yogurt instead of protein powder, cocoa, strawberries, bananas, blue berries, any fruit, peanut butter or other nut butter, nutmeg, honey, etc.

Overnight Oats

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup quick cook steel cut oats (Trader Joe's has the quick cook)
• 1/2 cup almond milk
• 1 scoop vanilla protein powder
• 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 Tbsp. ground flax seed

Place oats and almond milk in a container to sit in refrigerator overnight.  In the morning add all other ingredients.  Mix and eat!