Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Baked Oatmeal with Blueberries and Walnuts

blueberry baked oatmeal

I adapted this pretty closely from Orangette's Baked Oatmeal, which she adapted from Heidi Swanson's Super Natural Everyday, for brunch for me and Biggie before we went to sign trading cards at Graham Crackers Comics, plated with an extra pat of butter, a big scoop of greek yogurt, and a sliced banana, oh my word, it was so good.

Then I ate the rest for dinners for the rest of the week, with just greek yogurt, cold, it was like eating cake and ice cream for dinner. Dinner is when I have reserved starchy proteins for, oatmeal is a starchy protein. Oatmeal for dinner, why not. And I have ideeeas for this—raspberries and almonds and honey, mango and coconut and agave, and also maybe savory baked oatmeal, eh?

I still love you veganly beans, but I'm going to be just a little bit obsessed with baked oatmeal for the next few weeks.

2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup walnut pieces, toasted
1 tsp baking powder
1-1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
however much you want of a 12 or 16 oz bag of frozen blueberries
2 cups milk
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 egg
2 Tbsp butter, melted
2 tsp vanilla

butter
greek yogurt

Heat oven to 400 degrees.

Mix together the oats, walnuts, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. I am superstitious and buttered my skillet, then I put the oats in the skillet and emptied a bag of frozen blueberries on top of the oats. (If you don't have an ovenproof skillet, Orangette calls for an 8x8 baking dish.)

Whisk together the milk, maple syrup, egg, butter, and vanilla. Pour the milk over the oats and let it soak into the oats.

Bake until the oats are golden and set, about 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and if you give it a few minutes to cool, it sets up even more so that you can cut perfect slices. Not that puffy giant scoops of baked oatmeal aren't awesome.

Serve with a pat of butter and a scoop of greek yogurt, and some fresh fruit is nice if you have that.

Leftover slices can be refrigerated and eaten cold with greek yogurt.