:: strawberry baked oatmeal ::

 

Now that my mum and sister have returned home, I've spent this week trying to figure out how to fit all my daily happenings around my little cutie without any extra hands to help. So far it's been pretty cruisey, but that's mainly because newborns sleep a lot. 

At the moment, the day looks like this: Willem wakes at 8:30am, has a 'happy time' for about an hour and a half (in which time I often bath him). 10:00am I feed him and he promptly falls asleep until about 1:00pm. During this time I can do anything and everything! Breakfast dishes, laundry, paint my nails, whatever. Around 1 or 2pm when he finally awakes (by this time I'm bursting with milk, as well as just missing his little face so badly) I feed him, and then he does his afternoon "happy-and-kinda-sleepy-but-never-quite-getting-there" thing. During this time I have him in the bouncer and I'll use this time to catch up on my emails/photo editing/facebook/pinterest on the laptop, while I bounce him with my foot. I don't know what I would have done without this bouncer - it's a life saver. He'll have another feed late arvo, I'll tight wrap him (helps him go into a deeper, longer sleep) and he sleeps from around 4pm to around 6pm. Then he'll have another "wakey-and-sometimes-sleepy" time with Daddy in the evening while I do the dishes and shower. Then at 9pm I tightly wrap him again, feed him and put him to bed for the long haul. And I'm not far behind.

One thing that I've found a problem with, is if I don't get up at 7am with Jason (and sometimes I really can't don't want to) he won't have breakfast. He's not a big fan of breakfast, but that's not good enough for me. He doesn't like cereal (which I don't keep in the house anyway) and he can't be bothered making himself eggs. But I can't let him get away with this. I won't go into all the reasons why you should always eat breakfast (if you want a low-down, click here) but it's important. Especially for weight loss. Interestingly, my mum hasn't been eating brekkie lately, but when she was staying with me for 3 weeks she starting eating it again. At the end of that short time she'd lost some weight and she's positive it's because of eating breakfast again.

So in my pursuit of finding a breakfast food that hubby will enjoy, and one that will allow me an extra hour in bed, I stumbled upon this baked porridge/oatmeal. It tasted absolutely sensational. I made it the night before and it was good enough for dessert (so.. we did!). Such great flavours and you could put anything in it... apple, pear, pepitas, pumpkin, apricot, sultanas etc. Jason loved it, and just reheated himself a bowl of it this morning. 

It's a winner and it's staying.

Baked Oatmeal with Banana, Strawberry & Chocolate

Adapted from Inspired Taste

• 2 cups rolled oats
• 1/3 cup light brown sugar (shall be trying stevia)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teas cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup walnut pieces, chopped (I used pecans)
• 1 cup sliced strawberries
• 1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (optional... I indulged this time)
• 2 cups milk
• 2 eggs
• 3 tablespoons butter, melted
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 banana, peeled, 1/2-inch slices

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C and grease a baking dish (one with about a 5-6 cup capacity)
2. In a large bowl, mix together the oats, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, half the nuts, half the strawberries and half the chocolate (save the other half of strawberries, nuts and chocolate for the top of the oatmeal). In another large bowl, whisk together the milk, egg, butter and vanilla extract.

1. Add the oat mixture to prepared baking dish. Arrange the remaining strawberries, nuts and chocolate on top. Add the banana slices to the top then pour the milk mixture evenly over everything.

1. Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until the top is nicely golden brown and the milk mixture has set. Serve with yogurt or a drizzle of maple syrup.