Food for a Saturday Morning

One of our normal Saturday rituals is making baked oatmeal for breakfast. The children used to be interested in only eating the oatmeal but lately they have found the wonder and joy of making it. They help out Mommy, taking turns putting ingredients in the big bowl and mixing it all up (each with their own spoon).

Two helpers use vertical enhancement to reach the bowl.

Happy to mix!

They also keep an eye on the oven to see when it is preheated. Once the oven's warmed up we put our pan in. Twenty-five minutes later we have a super-yummy breakfast that's almost, but not quite, a raisin oatmeal cookie. The twenty-five minutes is usually play time for Jacob, Lucy, and one adult while the other sets the table, cleans the dishes, makes tea, and maybe even fries up some bacon!

Finished product

If you want to join in the fun, here is the recipe. I hope you have enthusiastic helpers, too!

Baked Oatmeal

Ingredients:

• 3 cups oatmeal
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup pecans (chopped)
• 1/2 cup butter (1 stick), melted
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups milk
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375 Fahrenheit or 190 Celsius.
Mix all the ingredients.
Pour into greased 9 by 13 inch cake pan.
Bake for 25 minutes.

Since we like it is so much, this recipe is a double batch. You can halve the ingredients and use an 8x8 pan for a smaller batch. Cooking time is about the same. The other thing we do is to measure out a second set of dry ingredients (up to and including pecans) and keep them in a gallon zip lock bag. Then next week's batch is even easier to make.