I dislike only posting twice a week. I was pretty happy with those few weeks back in August and early September when I was able to pump out three recipes each week. Now, I seem to be in a tiny rut.

One problem is that I eat the same baked oatmeal every morning. I have come to really enjoy this system as it allows me to sleep in a little later than I would if I had to cook my oatmeal on the stove every single day. Plus, it gives me a nice weekend project to look forward to. My roommates are always interested in what my “oatmeal of the week” will be, so that’s motivating as well. Unfortunately, that means I’m not trying out a new recipe every single morning.

The other problem is that I never have the right produce on hand. You can trust that I still have plenty of ideas for recipes; I just don’t have the produce to make them. I’m too cheap (or poor) to splurge on good stuff, and I keep coming home from the market with bananas and apples. There’s only so much you can do with bananas and apples!

This is mostly a planning issue. Still, the few times I have splurged on peaches and other pricier fruits have resulted in failed recipes, which is discouraging.

And finally, a lot of my ideas are incredibly ambitious at the moment (you’ll see what I mean when I post my next recipe later this week). I guess that’s why they’ve stayed on the list so long without being attempted. Eventually, one by one, I’ll attempt these fabulous ideas and share them with you. However, most of them are destined to be weekend projects, so it will take time to roll all of them out.

Until then, here’s a wonderful baked oatmeal recipe I enjoyed last week. I first made it without bananas, thinking it would have enough flavor from the blueberries alone. Unfortunately, it was a little dull and dry, so I tried it again using bananas, and WOW. What a difference it made! (Compare the picture above to the picture below to see what I mean. They’re blatantly different!)

I’m quickly learning that baked oatmeal is so much better when there’s banana involved. Always. (If you don’t want to use banana, perhaps you could try applesauce?)Also, I highly recommend using raw nuts for this recipe. The first time I baked it (without the banana), I also used pre-roasted nuts. After baking the oatmeal, the nuts became quite unpleasant. The brazil nuts were bitter, the cashews were sour, and the walnuts were gritty. Using raw nuts helps because then the nuts are only cooked once (instead of twice). However, the time I made this with banana and pre-roasted nuts worked out fairly well, probably because the bananas provided a little extra moisture (maybe?). Still, I recommend raw nuts.

For a big batch!

Ingredients (serves 4)

• 2 overripe bananas
• 3/4 cup milk of choice
• 1/2 cup water (or more milk)
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups rolled oats (I use Country Choice Organic)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 cup trail mix (raw nuts preferred)
• 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F and spray a 8×8 pan with non-stick spray.
2. In a medium-sized bowl, mash bananas. Then, add milk, water, and vanilla extract.
3. In another medium bowl, mix together dry ingredients: oats, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt. Once combined, add to the bowl of wet ingredients. Stir.
4. Add trail mix (I broke up some of the nuts first) and blueberries and fold in carefully.
5. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 25-30 minutes.

**You can also find hundreds of other oatmeal recipes (as well as tons of other meatless recipes) on my Pinterest account!  You can also like The Oatmeal Artist on Facebook. Thanks!