I woke up this morning with Caroline right in my face. She was looking at me very carefully and finally asked, “Mama, why do you have stripes on your forehead?”
Because my skin is losing collagen by the day. Thank you.
We spent the morning going to gymnastics and then invited Caroline’s friend, Emily, over to play. The girls had a great time other than occasional skirmish over Barbie Princess shoes. There is nothing 4 year old girls enjoy more than a chance to tattle on each other.
And make chalk handprints on your backdoor.
While Caroline was occupied in a game of tug of war over assorted Barbie jewelry, I spent my time cutting and taping recipes into my recipe notebook.
What’s a recipe notebook you ask?
It’s a handy notebook that I bought many years ago and whenever I find a recipe that I like, I cut it out and tape it into my notebook. The only problem is I tend to pile up about six months worth of torn out magazine pages and shove them into the notebook where they fall out all over the kitchen floor everytime I go to look up a recipe.
It may sound like I’m unorganized and well, I am. The important thing is that eventually they end up in the notebook on a color coded page according to whether they are a main dish, a side dish, or a dessert.
I’ll just go ahead and confess that the dessert section is by far the most populated segment of the book. It’s not that I’ve actually made an Ooey Gooey Snickers Ice Cream Cake, but I am comforted to know that I could if the need arises.
For instance, if the writers’ strike continues and all the good shows go off the air.
Obviously, I am reserving it for a huge crisis.
So, while I was going through the recipes, I found a recipe I had cut out for Baked Oatmeal and thought hey! a hearty, nutritious breakfast possibility for Caroline. I mean she really needs something in her stomach before she starts in on the Halloween candy.
And, since I had all the ingredients on hand along with a big helping of delusions of grandeur, I decided it would be fun for Caroline and I to make it together.
Here’s Caroline with a lemon and frozen blueberries. She can hardly contain her excitement over the lame afternoon activity I’ve come up with.
Here are all the other ingredients and Caroline, who was asking that ceramic rooster, whom she’s apparently named Carlos, if he would like to marry her.
Kid, if you’re going to keep baking here you’re going to need to stay off the drugs.
(Yes, the picture is blurry. Do not adjust your monitor. If you’re looking for good photography, you’re in the wrong place)
While I’m in the midst of trying to wrangle Caroline before she runs off with Carlos the rooster, P comes in with some new navigation software that he’s purchased and needs to install it on the computer.
He heads towards my beloved Mac and puts the CD into the drive.
Nothing.
Takes out the CD and tries it again.
Nothing.
Takes it out and sees wording on label that says, “Not compatible with Mac Systems”.
So, he tries it on our PC.
Nothing.
He enlists my help. So now, I’m a cook and IT support. You do not want me to be your IT support because you know what I know about computers?
Not much.
My main tech support move is to just repeat the same thing over and over again to see if maybe it will work on the 143rd click of the mouse. Or maybe if you just put in the CD one more time it will actually work.
This time I even pulled out the big guns and took the CPU out of the cabinet where it’s housed and kicked it really hard on the side to give it a jumpstart.
Bill Gates has nothing on me.
Meanwhile, Caroline is holding an egg yelling, “MAMA, CAN I GO AHEAD AND BREAK THIS EGG? CAN I? CAN I? CAN I? CAN I? NOW?”
Not yet, Sweetie. Let’s wait and see if you can ask 132 more times and make my head explode.
And what do you know? She can.
P is messing with the computer which makes me very nervous because P doesn’t really have my computer skills or finesse. You have to know how to kick it just right.
Caroline is holding eggs and talking non-stop.
The phone is ringing off the hook because Buckmasters needs to know if P is renewing his subscription.
It really was the peaceful cooking moment I imagined in my head.
But nevertheless, the Baked Oatmeal turned out to be pretty good. And I’ll spare the internet and not tell y’all what Caroline said it looked like as we poured it into the baking dish.
Just know it tastes better than it looks.
The real reward is I have a nutritious breakfast that I can reheat and serve to Caroline in the morning which means I won’t have to share my chocolate Pop-tarts.
In case any of y’all are still reading and interested in the recipe, here it is.
Baked Oatmeal
That’s all the ingredients except for the blueberries and lemon shown in an earlier photo.
2 cups frozen blueberries
2 tbs. fresh lemon juice, divided
1 18oz. container regular oats
3 large eggs, beaten
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 tbs. ground cinnamon
4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 1/4 cups water
1 cup milk
1/4 cup melted butter.
Toss 2 cups blueberries in 1 tbs. lemon juice and spread evenly in a 9×13 inch lightly greased baking dish. Combine oats, next 9 ingredients and remaining 1 tbs. lemon juice in a large bowl. Mix well. Pour mixture over blueberries.
Bake, covered, at 350 for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake 20 more minutes or until golden brown and set.
Have a great day and don’t run off with any roosters named Carlos.
I just want to know how on earth you happened to have blueberries, fresh lemon and UNSWEETENED applesauce “on hand”…… ha ha!
Carlos and Caroline. sitting in a tree ….
P-E-C-K-I-N-G.
I kill myself.
I often wear a tiara while cooking breakfast. Caroline is off to a fine start. You should be very proud. Bon appetit.
I will be trying this recipe.
Carlos is a strikingly handsome son in law! You should be so proud.
Yummy breakfast!
I think I will try Baked Oatmeal this morning…my 3 yr old had Fritos and a blue popsicle for breakfast yesterday, so some nutrition might be nice.
Thanks for sharing….
Sarah, TN
Oh my gosh, I have the EXACT same recipe ‘book’ a notebook with recipes cut out and taped to the book. How funny!!!!
Your recipe looks REALLY good.
As I sit and read this while eating my baked oatmeal I hav eto say it is really good.
P
It sounds really good. I might have to make that next time I have to take a breakfast dish to mops. Last time I was really insecure, so I ordered croissants from Williams Sonoma. Now I realize that if I ever spend that much money on a breakfast food again, I’m not sharing that food. I love that big kitchen island, by the way!
Cooking and computers with the potential egg crack, and all the while enthusiasm of a romance with a rooster. Tell me again how to use transition like that! You’re good–I mean really good! Love the smile you give me every morning.
OK, God spoke to me through you this morning. Seriosly. I woke up late, and I know I am supposed to eat breakfast, but I just don’t feel like it. “Make Oatmeal” must have crossed my mind 1000 times in the last hour. But, I don’t feel like wasting 10 minutes to make it. I decide to check my e-mail, I open your blog and BAM! There’s the title. Ok, I am going to go eat some oatmeal now.
LOL… The desert section is ALWAYS the largest section in my cookbooks too.
This looks Yummy!!
I’ve made the Snickers Ooey Gooey ice cream cake. What’s holding you back? I have a similar notebook…and a similar overflowing pile that needs to be categorized….and a similarly large dessert section
Love this recipe. You used Steel Cut Oats?
I always buy the Quaker Breakfast bars for my daughter. This would be healthier and cheaper!!
Mind if I share it on my kids nutrition website? I’m always looking for healthy recipes to give out!
Baked Oatmeal? Am I the only one who has never heard of this? Does it come out like oatmeal? Cakish? Cookieish?
Glad you had a moment of culinary peace.
Baked Oatmeal? Am I the only one who has never heard of this? Does it come out like oatmeal? Cakish? Cookieish?
Glad you had a moment of culinary peace.
I love the recipe book idea. It got me thinking. It might be good to put them in a binder with those clear sheet pockets. Then you could take them out or move them around as well.
Honestly, I had no idea that something called unsweetened applesauce even existed.
Color me enlightened.
The internet is terribly educational.
this sounds fabulous!
And I see from above that P can’t be too bad with the computer: he can eat and type on it at the same time!
Blessings,
k
I am not a fan of oatmeal, but the rest of my family is. Sounds like a good Christmas morning dish. Thanks!
And My rooster is named Jose’, thankyouverymuch.
Gallo Carlos your new son- in -law.
To think that I had the regular cook-on-the-stove oatmeal this morning… I’ll just print this one out for the next time I tell my kids that they have to eat something good for them… I’d say “like tomorrow morning’, but you know I don’t have any frozen blueberries hanging out in my freezer.
OMG! I have a recipe notebook too! Actually, I have two of them. One I started handwriting in my favorite things my mom cooked when I was 16 and doodled the name of my boyfriend in the margins (who is my husband now). The other I just bought a little binder with dolphins that will expand a little that I just randomly tape or glue every receipe I cut out of every magazine and newspaper that I fully intend to try. Someday. Its in the cabinet with all my church cookbooks and Paula Deen cookbooks full of great receipes that I fully intend to try. Someday.
What is Irish Oatmeal? Never heard of that. All we have around here is Quaker and some other brand whose name escapes me.
“Not yet, Sweetie. Let’s wait and see if you can ask 132 more times and make my head explode.”
“Caroline is holding eggs and talking non-stop.”
thank you SO MUCH, big mama, for describing my day in a nutshell.
the talking. oh, the talking.
and the head explosions.
thank you.
baked oatmeal: yummy
kids, hubby, and phone all vying for your attention: remarkably like the Jubilant household
a moment’s peace while wolfing down said oatmeal: priceless
Yum, yum. Imagine how good this would be with cranberries! Or strawberries! Mmm.
I love this story! I came over from Linda’s to see your twin rooster. How cool is that? The oatmeal sounds yummy, but I’m in the “I hate to cook club”. I enjoyed my visit.
Have a great night…I hope to come back for a visit soon.
I linked to your blog from 2nd cup of coffee and am so glad I did! Love your blog, you’re so funny!
I have been making baked oatmeal for years. I started with the basic baked oatmeal recipe, only my original called for apples not blueberries. Anyway, one day I had no apples or any kind of fruit (hey, it was winter!) but I did have CHOCOLATE CHIPS!!! The baked oatmeal turned out like a giant chocolate chip oatmeal cookie and my family LOVED it. I’ve never been allowed to go back to apples
Your little Caroline is really adorable. If God is only going to give you one child… she is perfect for you. Can you imagine how much fun she is going to be as a teenager. When our three got to teenage, we bought a water-skiing boat and each child got to invite a friend for our two weeks at the lake. I can tell from your writings that you are going to be a happy momma through her whole life.
Dang! I forgot what I was going to say — I appreciate your 23rd Psalm up in “The Word” section. When I was a student nurse, one patient had little slips of paper in her bed. I picked them up and saved them as I made her bed. It was the 39th Psalm.
I had a dangerous surgery on Monday — all went well, because I have this verse. Psalm 39:16-18
“Hear my prayer, O Lord;listen to my cry. Don’t sit back, unmindful of my tears. For I am your guest. I am a traveler passing through the earth, as all my fathers were.
Spare me, Lord! Let me recover and be filled with happiness again before my death”. (Living Bible translation) It is my favorite verse, because we claimed it on Sunday night on our knees and God answered our prayers.
Oooh…sounds yummy. Does it freeze? Mama’s having surgery next week and if I could make this and put it up in smaller batches for her to defrost when she’s out of the hospital, that’d be great! She loves her oatmeal.
Thanks for giving me giggles and grins on a regular basis.
From one of your “knit stalkers” in DFW…and Fellow Former Student (Class of ’89)
Your recipe notebook was just what the doctor ordered for me. I am swimming in a sea of recipes clipped from here and there. Thank you so much for sharing that tip!!
Good grief! What a great post. There’s so much going on here, I don’t know where to start.
So let me just thank you for reminding me to check my Crisco. I’ll bet mine’s rancid, too, and I would have been up to here in a recipe when I discovered it. Seriously. Thank you!