Cake For Breakfast

I just bought a fifty pound sack of organic rolled oats. I had been buying them in twenty-five pound sacks, but I had to upgrade since we were going through them too quickly. I’m not sure how long it will be till I’ll need to order again, hopefully at least six months.

We mainly use oats in granola, cooked oatmeal, and baked oatmeal, though I do put some in bread and cookies. The kids all love the baked oatmeal. Yo-Yo Boy says he likes it because it cools really fast once he pours milk on it. Mr. Handsome likes it because it offers more protein than cooked oatmeal (something he hates with a passion). I like it because of the oaty-ness of it, because it’s simple to make, and because it’s like a hearty cake, and I love any excuse to eat cake, especially at breakfast-time.

Baked Oatmeal
Adapted from a recipe that my sister-in-law Dee made for us once upon a visit to New York

4 ½ cups rolled oats
1 cup sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons salt
1 stick of butter, melted
3 eggs, beaten
3 teaspoons vanilla
1 ½ cups milk

Mix the dry ingredients, add the wet ingredients (I add the melted butter last, after stirring in the milk and eggs and vanilla, so that I don’t accidentally cook the eggs), and pour the batter into a greased 9×13 pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or so, until it has baked through and is a beautiful golden brown.

Dish into bowls and top with cold milk.