Breakfast Diaries

Pumpkin Cranberry Baked Oatmeal

Yesterday the kids had a snow day so I figured I could take some time making breakfast. 2 days prior we had just had another snow day and I had make pumpkin pancakes. I had 1/2 can of pumpkin that needed to be used but didn't want to do pancakes again. When Spencer's parents lived in East Liverpool, OH we would sometimes eat at a nearby bakery-shop. Once I ordered baked oatmeal and I loved it. It's not like regular oatmeal that is eaten with a spoon. Baked oatmeal is more firm and eaten with a fork. It's like the softest, most giantest (sorry, been around Camille too long) oatmeal cookie you can imagine.
In the past I've used a recipe for Blueberry Peach Oatmeal from Taste of Home. I kept the basic oatmeal parts and traded the fruit parts and came out with this! I happened to have fresh cranberries from the store. I think dried cranberries or even diced apples would work as a substitution. (Because I love Graeter's pumpkin ice cream mixed with their apple cider sorbet, so those two flavors obviously belong together, right?)

Ingredients:

(Dry)
3 cups Old Fashioned Oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt
cinnamon/nutmeg to taste

(Wet)
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
2 glugs cooking oil (no idea how much, I didn't put much though)
1/2 can pumpkin puree
1/2 cup (?) 2 hand fulls (?) fresh cranberries
1 teaspoon vanilla

Grease a small casserole dish. Add wet to dry and mix until it is a batter-like consistency. May need more milk. Pour in casserole dish and bake until spongy in the middle. 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.

Claire was still mad that I didn't make pancakes so I drizzled a little maple syrup on top. But then they all loved it and all asked for seconds (even without syrup the second time).