Oatmeal Breakfast Bake

This is a fantastic breakfast if you are having company or hosting a breakfast or brunch! It's easy to make and it keeps well for leftovers, too!!!

 Check out the easy recipe below:


Ingredients:
2 cups rolled oats (not instant)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
1/3 cup sugar or maple syrup
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 cups milk
1 large egg
3 tblspn unsalted butter, melted (and divided in half)
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 ripe bananas, sliced into pieces
1 1/2 cups of fresh blueberries (you can use other berries as well)

To prepare:
Preheat oven to 375 with rack in top 1/3 of oven. Butter or spray an 8x8 or 9x9 baking dish.

Then, in a bowl, mix together your oats, half the walnuts (if using nuts), sugar (or maple syrup), baking powder, and cinnamon.

 In another bowl, whisk together milk, egg, half of the melted butter, and vanilla.

Now, arrange your sliced bananas on the bottom of your pan, covering the entire bottom with sliced bananas. Sprinkle 2/3 of your berries over the bananas now. Cover your fruit with the oat mixture.

Then, slowly drizzle your milk mixture over your oats. Gently shake your pan and give it a few soft whacks (yes I said whacks) on your countertop, so the milk mixture spreads throughout your oats.

Now, scatter your remaining berries and nuts on top.

Bake for 35-45 minutes, until the top is golden and the oats have set.

Remove from oven and drizzle remaining melted butter on the top.

This is DELICIOUS if you serve it with warm syrup to pour over the top of each piece! It's great without the extra syrup but we love it that way, too!!

Hope you enjoy this and let me know if you try it and let me know if you use other fruit besides bananas & blueberries! Those are the only two we've used and I would love to hear what you do with this!

Enjoy!
Brenda

Autumn Apple Crisp

This is seriously one of my all time FAVORITE desserts! I LOVE apple crisp! This is a super easy recipe, too! Check it out and enjoy this decliciousness! Your kitchen is going to smell amazing!

Ingredients
5-6 apples of your choice ( I use honey crisp because they are my favorite)
3 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt (fine)
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup uncooked rolled oats
1/2 cup flour
6 tablespoons cold butter (cut into small pads/pieces)

Tip: Now is a great time to preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

To prepare:

Peel, core and slice your apples thin.

Toss your apple pieces into a bowl along with the sugar, cinnamon, salt and nutmeg and coat apples evenly.

Once you are done, toss your apples in an 8x8 glass dish.

Next, prepare your crisp topping.

Mix together the brown sugar, oats, and flour until evenly combined. With a pastry cutter or your fingertips (I use my hands), blend in the butter pieces until small clumps form and the butter is well incorporated in with the dry ingredients.

 Spread the crisp topping evenly over your apples and bake at 350 degrees for approximately 30-40 minutes (until the topping is crisp and brown).

 

Serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped topping and enjoy!

Hope you love this as much as my family does!
Brenda

Growing Through the Pain of Pregnancy Loss

October is Pregnancy & Infant Loss Awareness Month. To all of the women that have experienced such a tragic loss, many of whom I know and have grieved with, and to the women out there reading this that have known the pain of losing a baby, I pray for you today.

We are coming up on our 3 year anniversary of our loss, and it is still such a real and painful loss for us. For the women that have experienced this great pain, it is something that will be with you forever. There are a few things that I have learned from our loss that have given me HOPE and that have spoken to my heart: 

1. We will see our baby again one day in heaven. Until then, she's hanging with Jesus and there is no other better place she could be.

2. That experience taught me that you never truly know what someone is going through in life. For every woman that has had to go through this unspeakable experience - every story is different. For us, we were heartbroken when we found out our baby didn't make it. I had to deliver our little one and we were at the grocery store to buy things to prepare for this unspeakable event in our lives and I was literally walking around the store looking at the list from our doctor and just feeling complete.... numbness. I can't think of another word or feeling; it's that everything was just blank to me. The only feeling I had was a deep grieving heavy heart and everything else just felt numb, like it didn't exist. Every person I walked passed, every person I gave a blank stare to, every person I accidentally bumped with my cart - they had no idea what I was going through. They had no idea of the years and heart wrenching negative pregnancy tests that I endured and the prayers that went into this wee one. To them, I was probably a rude woman that bumped their arm and didn't apologize. To them I was the zombie woman walking aimlessly through the store and seeing right through them. They didn't know. How could they know. They didn't know me. They didn't know our story. That experience has taught me to have more compassion and empathy for people. When the waitress is just not on her game that night, or when the cashier doesn't speak 2 words to me during checkout, or when the person I smile at doesn't smile back - it may be that they are just rude jerks, but it could be so much more. That experience taught me to not see what is happening on the outside, but to pray for what may be happening on the inside. To give grace. To be more understanding.... because you just never know. 

3. That experience taught me more about God's love than I have ever experienced or felt before. I have never felt His presence more in my life and He continues to teach me wonderful marvelous things about hope, strength, and love. 

If you have been touched by loss, if you have experienced the great pain and heartache that this journey affords, I pray for you today. I pray that you cry, and let yourself cry. I pray that you share your story, because there are so many women (and men) affected by this great pain and it's great to have the support and I pray that if you don't know God, that you open your heart to Him, because it is easier to go through these tough experiences in life with the HOPE, COMFORT & LOVE that only He can give.