Disaster Chef: Peanut Butter Baked Oatmeal

My son is a picky eater, so sometimes dinner is a bit of a battle as it seems he never gets anything he likes. Once in a while, I like to let him choose dinner. Usually he’ll ask for a grilled cheese sandwich or something. But after trying baked oatmeal at my sister’s house, he’s really wanted me to make it. So, I looked up baked oatmeal on Pinterest and found about a billion recipes. He chose peanut butter baked oatmeal, and even though it’s summer and I encouraged the more summery blueberry baked oatmeal, he wanted the pb version, so that’s what I made.

Here is the recipe, off the fabulous Tidy Mom.

• 1-1/2 cups quick cooking oats (I used regular and increased cooking time to 30 mins)
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar (here I used 1tbs black strap molasses)
• 1/4 cup white sugar (I used xylitol instead)
• 3/4 cup milk (whole milk)
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 1 egg (I used 2)
• 1 tsp baking powder (I used 1/4 tsp baking soda here)
• 3/4 tsp salt (and left this out)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup Skippy® Peanut Butter (I used East Wind organic)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350° and grease a 9×13 pan. Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl and stir well. Spread in to pan and bake for 20-25 minutes (I used 30 mins for regular rolled oats) or until edges are golden brown. Serve with warm milk poured over top (I used cold milk and sliced bananas, like Tidy Mom suggests).

As you can see, I altered nearly everything in this recipe. It wasn’t very sweet when it came out, and my son complained about it, but he ate up a whole big bowl full. If I was making it for breakfast, I wouldn’t want it to be super sweet anyway, and with bananas and milk, it was just sweet enough. I also added an extra egg, since we have our own and I like to use them whenever I can. I don’t use baking powder, so I used ¼ tsp. baking soda instead. And I left out the salt, since I’m very sensitive to the taste of salt in baked goods.

The outcome was pretty tasty, but I don’t know if I’ll make it again, and not in the summer, for sure. It’s heavy and wintery with the peanut butter. I might try the blueberry one this summer, though. It was super easy and only required one bowl and one pan.

Recipe: 3 out of 4 spoons.

Product: 3 out of 4 spoons.