Eat oatmeal, it’s the right thing to do
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.
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