Overnight Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal

My husband has old fashioned oatmeal with honey and frozen blueberries every single morning for breakfast.   So when I was looking through a cookbook and came across this recipe, I thought I would make it for him for a few reasons.

1. His breakfast would already be ready for him in the morning. &

2. I thought maybe it would be nice to try a new flavor.

3. I get to try out my new crock pot!!

FYI-  ** THIS MAKES WAY TOO MUCH OATMEAL FOR OUR FAMILY OF 7. SO YOU MIGHT WANT TO SCALE IT DOWN **

The Recipe

(adapted from Fix-It and Forget-it Christmas cookbook)

3-4 apples, peeled and sliced

3/4 cup of brown sugar

1/2  tsp. of nutmeg

1 1/2 tsp. of cinnamon

2 TBS of Butter

3 cup of uncooked rolled oats

6 cups of milk

Layer the apples in the bottom of your slow cooker.

Sprinkle with brown sugar, nutmeg and cinnamon.  Dot with butter

Layer oatmeal over the fruit.

Pour milk over oatmeal and stir together until well blended. Cover cook on low for 6 hours. Then wake up to the smell of baking apples. So yummy.

I served it with a bit of whipped cream and sprinkle of cinnamon and sugar.

I was super YUMMY!  The only thing that my husband didn’t like about it was the texture, since he is used to having old fashioned rolled oats every morning he likes his oatmeal to have some bite to it.  This oatmeal cooks so long that it is more like instant oatmeal in texture. But the flavor is so great! But like I said it also makes way to much, when I make it again I would try making about 2/3 of a batch.

ENJOY!!

Pancake Bake

I modified an awesome Christmas breakfast recipe from my husbands family to deal with leftover pancakes. You of course could use bread instead of pancakes, but either way it’s yummy.

The original recipe is made in a 9X13 pan but we can’t even come close to eating that much so we make half of it and make it in a 8.5 X 11 pan or an 8X8 pan.

First you’ll need to cover the bottom of the pan with slices of buttered Texas toast or buttered pancakes * note on the pancakes if you just happen to have leftover apple cinnamon pancakes they work AWESOME in this recipe. 

If I’m using pancakes I also cover them with a little maple syrup. 

Then you cover the pancakes with a healthy layer of cheese and bacon or sausage.  We prefer sausage, especially maple flavored sausage.  Seriously go with the sausage. (I never said it was healthy, just yummy)

Cover that with another layer of buttered pancakes, or bread.

Then in a separate bowl mix together

6-7 eggs

1/2 quart of milk

1 tsp. of Worcestershire sauce

salt and pepper

pour it over the pancake bake and put it in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours or overnight.

Bake at 325-350 degrees for 1 hour.  Then Enjoy!

Sorry there are no after pictures it was already eaten before I could get any. 

On the horizon

• French Herb Bread (seriously awesome bread)
• 
• Crumble Top Banana bread
• 

Pancake Mix

I tried 2 different recipes for homemade pancake mix.  One you keep in your refrigerator and one you keep in the pantry.  I thought they both were great, but I’ll keep making the one you keep in the pantry because I never have much room in the refrigerator.

Pantry Mix

4 cups flour

2 cups wheat flour

2/3 cups of sugar

2 TBS baking powder

1 TBS baking soda

Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl until their combined.  Store in a cool dry place for up to 6 months.  I would also double or triple this recipe for our family of 7.  One batch doesn’t make much.

To Make Pancakes

Add 1 egg and 2/3 cups (ish) milk to every 1 cup mix. The original recipe called for 3/4 cup of milk but it was way to much, so play with that part a bit.  ALSO we have a lot of powdered milk so next time I make this I would add 1 cup of dry milk to the mix and just use water to make the pancakes.

Fridge Mix

4 cups of flour

2 cups of whole wheat flour

1 TBS. salt

1 cup dry milk powder

1 cup shortening

1/2 cup sugar

Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl until their combined.  Store in your refrigerator.  I would also double or triple this recipe for our family of 7.  One batch doesn’t make much.

To Make Pancakes

Mix 1 1/3 cups of mix, with 1 egg and 3/4 cup of water.

ENJOY!!

On the horizon

• Leftover pancake bake
• 
• French Herb Bread (seriously awesome bread)
• 
• Crumble Top Banana bread
• 

Baked Blueberry French Toast

Yesterday was the kids first day of school, so I wanted to make them something special for breakfast.  They had a choice between baked blueberry french toast and a baked oatmeal.  (I’ll share the baked oatmeal recipe soon) They picked blueberry french toast. I found the recipe here and she found the recipe here.   We make a savory version of this breakfast every year for Christmas and I will share that recipe with you later on too. So YUMMY!!

First you’ll cut 6 slices of Texas Toast into cubes. Variation- You’re suppose to cut up a 8 oz. brick of cream cheese into cubes and sprinkle them over the top of the bread, but I find globs of cream cheese seriously off putting.  So next time I would spread the bread with the cream cheese and then cut it into cubes, I also only used about 5 oz. of the cream cheese.

Sprinkle with the blueberries, it calls for a cup but I used more like a cup and a half.

Cut up 6 more slices of texas toast and pour the egg mixture over the top.

I sprinkled the top with cinnamon and sugar.  Then you cover it with foil and let it sit in the refrigerator overnight.

Then you set your alarm to 4:55 a.m. because you husband has an early morning business call at work and has to be there are hour early and you really don’t want him to miss out on the wonderfulness. But luckily your oven at least can be set so you don’t have to wake up any earlier to pre-heat the thing.  SIDE NOTE – I seriously wish someone could invent the refrigerator stove!!

There is also a blueberry syrup recipe to go with the french toast.

So how was it?? Well 4 of the 7 of us LOVED IT, 2 of us LIKED it and 1 of us gagged it down like they were forced to eat earthworms. 

Strawberry Vanilla Pancakes

We are lucky enough to have a pretty awesome strawberry patch.  So last year when I was looking for recipes to use all of our strawberries I came across this Strawberry Vanilla Pancake recipe at allrecipes. I made it again yesterday for Memorial Day. And I hope your Memorial Day was just as wonderful as ours was. 

Strawberry Vanilla Pancakes

The batter is thinner than most pancake batters but it didn’t seem to be that big of a deal. 

Pretty & Yummy!