I've been on an oatmeal kick this month, especially since it's (sort of) winter. I keep hoping the the kiddo will enjoy it too, but he keeps refusing to try it. I usually make the old fashioned style on the stove and add a bit of brown sugar and cinnamon, along with raisins or currents. I like the texture of the steel cut oats, but they take much longer to make, so I often make them overnight in a water bath in the crock pot.
I started making baked oatmeal last year, adding fresh blueberries and peaches to the mixture before baking. It is amazing! I have seen many baked oatmeal recipes online (on Pinterest!) and decided to try a few out with the hopes of enticing the little guy to try it. I had success with a peanut butter baked oatmeal that he tried and declared yummy. For that one, I made half the recipe, used old fashioned oats, and added a spoon of homemade strawberry preserves to the top of mine along with a splash of milk. Kiddo ate it dry, sort of like a cake or muffin. (Hmmm, which gives me the idea to bake it in muffin tins to see if that will make it more appealing to him.) We ate the peanut butter version before I had a chance to photograph it! It was really good!
This week I made a half recipe of blueberry baked oatmeal with a bunch of blueberries I had that were about to get too mushy to eat. The kiddo refuesed to touch it, but I loved it even more than the peanut butter version. I did use old fashioned oats in this recipe and a kid cup of Stoneyfield blueberry yogurt, because I didn't have vanilla on hand. I added a splash of milk when serving it. Definitely a keeper!
