I Made It - Peanut Butter Baked Oatmeal

"Breakfast is the most important meal of the day."

"You need to eat a good healthy breakfast."

"A hot breakfast would do you good."

Does any of that sound like your mother? Much as we don't want to admit it sometimes, Mom was right. Breakfast is important. And as mothers ourselves we want to feed our children healthy meals. But sometimes, mornings are hectic and getting a healthy breakfast on the table is a challenge.

Enter the easy and healthy recipe. I have been making this Peanut Butter Baked Oatmeal recipe that I found on Lynn's Kitchen Adventures for several months. In short... we love it.

The Back Story:

I've been on a quest to feed my family something healthier than Pop-tarts and cereal for about a year now. It's taken a bit of time, but I now have a good hand-ful of recipes that I make on a regular basis that feed my family a good hot breakfast. At the top of the list is this recipe for Peanut Butter Baked Oatmeal.

The Review:

This recipe goes together incredibly easily. You just melt the butter and peanut butter together, dump it in a bowl with the rest of the ingredients. Pour that into a pan and bake. Very simple. And there aren't any funky ingredients that I don't have on hand either! It bakes in about 20-25 minutes; just enough time to pop through the shower or read a few chapters in my Bible.

Over the past few months I've tried a few variations of this recipe. The first time I made it I got up early and made it. Since then, though, I've mixed it together the night before and then baked it in the morning. Fresh from the 'fridge I've added about 5-8 minutes to the baking time so that the top crust is just the way we like it. My family really likes peanut butter, so I usually add a bit more for us. I've also made it replacing the peanut butter with mashed banana. I use about 1 whole banana to replace the peanut butter. This has become our favorite way to eat it, because it gives my kids a bit more fruit, and those who really like peanut butter can add peanut butter to the top while it's still warm - really yummy that way.

Lynn has the recipe for a full 9x13 on her site - you can find it here. I found that a 9x13 made too much for my family. I cut the recipe in half and use an 8x8 square pan - this makes enough for our 2 adults and 2 small children with a tad leftover. It will depend, of course, on the size of your servings and appetites.

Here's the ingredients for the smaller version:

1 ½ cups quick oats

½ cup milk

¼ cup brown sugar
¼ cup peanut butter, melted
1 Tbsp butter, melted
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt

For the direcitions go to Lynn's Kitchen Adventures.

Updated: I've recently discovered you can cut this into squares and freeze it. Just reheat in the microwave. That makes this recipe even better in my book.

Do you have a great breakfast recipe? I'm always on the look out for good breakfast recipes. Let us know in the comments.