Apple Crumble Baked Oats

I've been meaning to write this recipe post ever since I had it for breakfast on Thursday, and again on Friday. This morning I ate something different, but only because Liam offered to make French toast for me and I couldn't turn down the chance of someone else doing the cooking!

When I saw Maria's Apple Crumble Bars, I loved the sound of them, but I didn't need to make any more baked goods at the moment (muffins, cheesecake and brownies have all already been made this week!) so I turned the idea into breakfast instead...

Apple Crumble Baked Oats
(serves 1)

• 40g oats
• 90ml milk (the second day I made this with tinned coconut milk which worked even better)
• 15g agave
• cinnamon
• 25g sultanas
• brown demerara sugar, a sprinkle of

Apple layer:

• 1 apple, peeled and chopped
• 15g agave
• cinnamon (the second day I accidentally tipped loads of cinnamon into the apples, so missed it out of the oats - use however much you like)

1. Pre-heat the oven to 190C.
2. Place the apple, agave and cinnamon into a microwave-proof dish, loosely cover with clingfilm and microwave on medium for 3 minutes. Mash roughly with a fork - the apples don't need to be perfectly smooth.
3. Next, mix together all the oat ingredients.
4. Spray/grease a little baking dish (I used a silicone mini loaf pan)
5. Put half the oat mixture into the baking dish and spread out.
6. Cover the oat layer with the cooked apples, before putting the rest of the oat layer on top.
7. Finish off with a sprinkle of brown sugar and bake for 20 minutes.
8. To serve, I ran a knife around the edges, tipped onto one plate and then transferred back to another plate so that the crunchy brown sugar was still on top. A bit of a faff, but it worked!

Inside, there is a lovely hot apple layer running through the middle...

On Thursday, I topped the apple crumble oats with apple and blackberry yoghurt...

...and on Friday I topped it with spiced plum jam (that I found in Lidl - I haven't tried the strawberry rhubarb one yet)...

...but it would be equally delicious on its own. It has a subtle sweetness, and the slightly firmer texture of the oats goes wonderfully with the softer cooked apple. A delicious breakfast for the colder months ahead...I will be making this time and time again I'm sure!

What are your favourite cold weather breakfasts? I love porridge with all its toppings, but baked oats are rapidly becoming a favourite - I find the texture of them more interesting than regular porridge. They're great too as they're easy to prepare so I make them up while Toby is hovering around my legs, then he usually goes for his nap while my breakfast is baking, so that I can eat in peace! (alternatively he sits on my lap and shares mouthfuls, but that isn't quite so enjoyable for me!!) At the weekends, I often have things like French toast, pancakes and poached eggs on toast...I can't seem to find the enthusiasm for smoothies as much when the weather gets colder, so I'll have to think of a different way to get lots of fruit and veg into me!

Breakfast For Two

One of the things I love the most about the school holidays is the relaxed mornings. No rushing to get everyone dressed, breakfasted and out the house. We can take our time. We can make 'special' breakfasts that we can all enjoy.

In the Easter holidays I posted about daughter and I enjoying Carrot Cake Smoothies For Two, and these summer holidays have already got off to a good breakfast start as well.

Yesterday we shared baked oats.

Coconut Baked Oats
(serves 1-2)

• 50g oats
• 160ml coconut cream
• 1 medjool date, chopped
• 10g coconut
• few drops coconut extract (optional)
• splash of milk if necessary
• 1 chocolate Alpro pudding (as topping)

1. Mix all the ingredients except the Alpro pudding and divide between 2 mini loaf tins (I put about two thirds of the mix in mine, a third in daughter's)
2. Bake at 190C for 20 minutes.
3. Allow to cool slightly before turning out onto plates.
4. Top with a chocolate Alpro pudding, if desired. (This would of course also be great topped with coconut butter, melted chocolate, peanut butter etc!)

Before turning out:

Before topping:

And the finished product:

I loved how coconutty this was. Delicious. I think daughter agreed...

This morning we also had time to cook for breakfast. My Mum had stewed the plums I'd given her and loved them, so I decided to do the same with mine.

Mum's Stewed Plums

(serves 3-4)

• 425g plums, stoned and halved
• 115g brown sugar (roughly 25% of the weight of the stoned plums)
• 2 tbsp honey (my idea of a tbsp may have been a bit larger than Mum's!!)
• splash of water

Cook gently for 12-15 minutes until it looks something like this...

I served some of the plums on cinnamon raisin bagels with a blob of lemon yoghurt on top...

This was so delicious - the plums were sweet, but still with a slight tartness, yum!

Unfortunately daughter didn't agree...

but luckily baby was more than happy to eat her portion instead!

Ah well, you win some, you lose some!! Tomorrow daughter has requested that we make smoothies, and apparently as it's the "day of her party" I have to agree!! :-D

Did you get to choose special breakfasts when it was your birthday? I can't really remember what happened on mine - except that I was usually at school during exam period - but daughter is getting to choose breakfast tomorrow and has also, of course, chosen to have pasta bake on Monday - her actual birthday. I like getting her involved in choosing our meals anyway, so the fact that it's her birthday just makes it extra special in her eyes.

Right, off to decorate cakes!! I baked them last night and they turned out really well, so daughter and I are going to decorate them now whilst baby naps. I think lots of deep breaths are going to be needed on my part - I sometimes struggle with her helping me with baking as I want things to look how I imagine them...but they are her birthday cakes, so if she has fun helping to decorate them then (I guess!) that's more important than them looking perfect!! I'll show you photos of how they turn out tomorrow! :)

Chocolate Brownie Baked Oats

I woke up this morning with a horrible cold. Bleugh. Liam and the children have been ill for the last couple of days but I thought I'd avoided it, no such luck! Looking out of the window didn't help matters either - horrible grey compared to the lovely sunshine of the last few days! There was only one thing for it - a comforting chocolatey breakfast was needed to turn the day around and make the world seem like a better place!! :)

I decided on baked oats, a hug in a ramekin bowl if ever there was one. I also had fond memories of the lovely gooey chocolate-peanut butter-banana pudding I'd tried a while a go, from Jemma's recipe. Of course, being ill, I didn't actually check any recipes before making my baked oats, but luckily my memory was still working well enough for this to be a success!!

Chocolate Brownie Baked Oats
(inspired by Jemma and Katie)

• 2/3 of a banana (approx 65g)
• 2 medjool dates (approx 40g)
• 15g cocoa powder
• 25g nut butter (I used Cacao Brazilnut Bliss)
• 35g oats
• 55ml milk

Pre-heat oven to 190C.

First, put the banana, dates and cocoa powder in your food processor/blender...

and blitz until it's smooth, but still with a little texture to it (that makes no sense, I know!) I also added the nut butter to this and blitzed again quickly...

Add the blended mix to a bowl with the oats and milk...

and mix. The texture of this should be easily pour-able, but nowhere near as runny as normal porridge pre-cooking...

transfer the mix to an oven-safe dish...

and bake for 20 minutes at 190C. It should come out looking like this...

This was so decadent and delicious. When I next make it, I would probably add a little bit more cocoa powder as it wasn't quite chocolatey enough for me, but it was still amazing! The texture was so gooey and dense thanks to the dates, a lot like a chocolate brownie...

The perfect pick-me-up for mornings when you're not feeling so great! The kiddies liked this too - definitely a breakfast that resulted in them hovering around me hoping for bites!!

If you want a baked oats recipe that isn't quite so rich, earlier in the week I made a different variation...

Tropical Baked Oats

• 40g oats
• 60g coconut cream (about half a small tin, leftover from making a curry the night before)
• 50ml milk
• 20g agave nectar
• 20g dried mango, chopped
• 10g desiccated coconut

All mixed together and baked at 190C for 20 minutes...

topped with a coconut sauce made of 5g coconut flour and about 45ml milk (make the sauce just before eating, as the longer you leave it the more it absorbs the milk and thickens up, so then you need to add more milk again!)...

This was really refreshing. It had a soft flapjack texture, and was super creamy from the addition of the coconut cream. The taste was quite light though, the mango and coconut providing a tropical tang that cut through the richness of the oats!

Yum, between the smoothies I've been having recently and these baked oats, I've got breakfast sorted no matter what the weather/my mood is like!

Broken Laptop

My laptop died on Friday!! Just after I had transferred the day's photos from my camera to my computer, grrr!! I have tried to write a post today on Liam's Mac, but I am not getting to grips with it at all - every time I try to add a photo it puts it right at the top of the post and then I have to drag it down, but for some reason it will only let me do that with one photo...after that they all get stuck at the top! :( I'm hoping the laptop problem is just a problem with the charger so (for the 4th time since having this laptop!) I have ordered a new charger and it's already been dispatched so fingers crossed it gets here soon!!

As I've already written it, I'll give you a brief, photo-less, re-cap of Friday...

I started off by making Jess' carrot cake breakfast bake...it was amazing! I'm so annoyed I lost the photos of it! I pretty much followed the recipe, except I used all flour instead of oat bran/flour mix, and all milk instead of coffee. I topped it with a coconut sauce (coconut flour, agave, milk) and a few walnuts. Delicious!

Liam, baby and I then went for a walk along the sea front. It was another beautiful day - sunny with a crisp chill in the air! We walked further along the sea front than baby & I had the previous day - I'll have to put some of the photos up if I ever get my laptop working again to retrieve them! We stopped for lunch at a cafe on a hill overlook the sea. We even ate outside! :) I had a huge jacket potato with cheese, coleslaw and salad. I was then 'persuaded' by Liam to have cake as he want to try the most amazing looking caramel shortbread! I had a piece of carrot cake which was huge and delicious - it had mashed banana in it as well as the usual ingredients, really tasty! Completely unnecessary though - I felt overly full and bloated for the rest of the day after that, unpleasantly so, and didn't eat again until evening when I just had a 9bar. The first time I'd had one, it was the nutty version I think, yum.

The rest of the weekend has also been good. Last night we went out to see Liam's cousin's band play which was good fun. I only had a few drinks but that combined with a later than usual bedtime (we normally go to bed at 10pm, but last night we were in the kitchen eating peanut butter on toast at 11pm!) and Sunday's early start has meant I've been super tired today! I didn't make the gym this morning as planned and have generally been eating lots of carbs and sugar - started well (when I was still planning to go to the gym) with a berry smoothie, but since then it has been baked sweet potato with maple syrup & goat's cheese, home-topped pizza (aka bought a base!) for dinner with peppers, mushrooms, mozzarella and more goat's cheese, plus things like fudge, chocolate covered dates, a 9bar and Brazil nuts dipped in peanut butter in between!!

My one "allowed" photo for today's post though? I think it'll have to be yesterday's breakfast...

having lost the photos of Friday's breakfast bake, I just had to do another version yesterday morning!! :) Based on Jess' Carrot Cake Breakfast Bake with my own twists...

ABC Baked Oats

• including Apple, Banana and Carrots
• topped with Apricots, Brazil nuts and Coconut sauce

The toppings weren't really necessary, but I'd warmed to the alphabet theme by then!
This is what I used (after much googling to convert cups to grams - there must be a simpler way?!)

• 25g oats
• 30g flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 30g sultanas
• 15g desiccated coconut
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 apple, diced (about 75g)
• Half a banana, mashed (about 75g)
• Most of a carrot, grated (about 50g)
• 2-3 tsp agave nectar
• 75ml milk

Toppings:

• 40g dried apricots, chopped
• 20g Brazil nuts, chopped
• Coconut sauce - 10g coconut flour, 5ml agave nectar, 50ml milk

I followed Jess' method of mixing the dry, mixing the wet, then combining, and baked in the oven at 200C for 30 minutes.

This was so tasty. I can't believe I'd never had baked oats until this weekend! Super filling (and unfortunately very calorific) though...perhaps I should try to keep it as a once a week or so treat rather than every day!! Both children liked it too, it has a bit too many "weird" combinations for Liam - but then he doesn't like carrot cake or apple cake so I'm hardly surprised! The apple chunks were really nice in it too, lovely and soft and comforting!

The rest of yesterday was also good. We went shopping in Waitrose where I picked up (among many other things!) some basil smoked tofu and some almond sesame smoked tofu, as well as some Total split pot yoghurts and a couple of big pots of Rachel's Greek yoghurt - coconut and ginger flavours. Looking forward to trying these soon, I've had the coconut one before but the ginger is a "special edition" version.

I then had 2 lunches (blush!) - a fried egg and cheese sandwich first, but as Liam didn't fancy that I also joined him in some cheese on toast, whoops!

Dinner was this Swede and Parsnip Bake with broccoli and feta cheese (meatballs for the others), a good way to use up veg that I was close to past it, but I should have made myself some lentil ragu as originally planned - it was a bit "all one flavour" without.

Sorry for the disjointed post, it's gone a bit back and forth between the days, especially hard going to read without any photos to break it up I think! Hopefully I'll be back on my regular laptop before too long - Liam's Mac may be much "better" than my laptop, but at least I know how to use mine!!

Hope everyone's had a great weekend, can't believe it's Monday again tomorrow already!