Baked Banana Oatmeal accompanied by the worst pictures ever taken even if I say that every post

[Let me just get this off my chest: our apartment staff invaded our place to give us all of these “upgrades” since we signed a new lease with them.  Said upgrades include track lighting in the kitchen that absolutely makes me want to rip it out of the ceiling and light a candle.  I might as well cook in the dark and post all black pictures and you can all just guess what it is.]

I got the best email from a sweet friend from high school, Mrs. Day, whom I will forever know as Pickle.  I have to confess that sometimes I look at her pictures on the book of faces, and I wish she would consider having 2 roommates…as in DC and me.  That wouldn’t be weird, right?  She and her husband work for a camp in Texas, and they live in a cabin on the camp grounds.  She goes for trail runs with her dog (who wears shoes)and they have the sweetest life.  They keep it simple and I love that.

Mrs. Day sent me this recipe, and y’all…it’s so delicious I can’t stand it.

You’ll thank her for this, I promise.

Preheat your oven to 375

In one bowl, mix all of your dry ingreeds:

2 cups oats (I use the real deal oats- instant gets a little mushier)

Cinnamon to taste

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp kosher salt

dash of nutmeg

dash of ground cloves

1 tsp Splenda.  I left the Splenda out because we just don’t like it, then I got nervous thinking about the guy on Good Eats and what he would say about how my baked oatmeal will fail based on science and the lack of Splenda.

In a separate bowl, mix your wet ingreeds:

1 mashed banana

with 1 beaten egg

1.5 cups skim milk

1 tsp vanilla

Then add the wet to the dry and stir until well mixed

The recipe calls for [optional] 3/4 cups frozen blueberries, but as usual, I cannot follow instructions and I forgot to buy them.

But we did have a bag of mixed berries, so I used that.  And I used more than 3/4 cup…berry good.  Gong.

Another option is to add 2 Tbs chopped pecans.

We didn’t have any

So I added slivered almonds.

I don’t think there are many rules here- you can add things you like

Again, I cannot follow instructions or recipes.  You will want to line your 8 inch round or square pan with parchment paper.  I forgot to buy some, so I sprayed mine with cooking spray and wiped it around with a paper towel making sure to get all of the crevices.  This ended up working fine.

Layer the bottom with banana slices, then pour your mixture in adding more banana slices to the top.

Bake at 375 for 26 minutes.  Then set your oven to broil and sprinkle the top with brown sugar- broil for 3-4 minutes.

My brown sugar burned in some spots because I forgot about it while I was trying to bake 94 other things last night.

Dig some out and enjoy.

This is the best already made quick breakfast that you can just heat up

And I think it would be an amazing pre-run/pre-race meal

So I’m going to make some for my marathon relay team this weekend

Lauren, thanks SO much for sending this my way! 

You have changed my oatmeal-loving life.

And please let us move in.  Kthanks :)