You ever have one of those weeks coming up where come 3pm on Sunday this nagging sense of dread just starts to build up knowing Monday is inching that much closer?
That would be this week for me.
And it’s stupid too because the reason for it all is a long weekend vacation (for my 30th birthday on Saturday which, now that I think about it might actually be adding to the whole dread thing) that I know will be fun. But all the preparation leading up to Friday morning just makes me completely want to stab my eyeballs out over the next 96 hours.
There’s to-do lists in my head, to-do lists written down on paper, to-do lists on my phone and probably about 20 things that haven’t even made it onto one of those lists yet. And none of it is stuff that I can easily ask Ulysses to help out with because he’ll just look at me like I have 5 heads when I explain that yes, cleaning the house is a necessity before we leave because otherwise I’ll be dreading a dirty house the entire 7 hour car trip home next Monday and that won’t be fun for either of us.
This is a glimpse into my psyche…it can get a little crazy up in here.
So, instead of having to waste precious brain power on what to eat for breakfast for the next few days, I took care of that with these baked steel cut oats. It’s got the flavors of this breakfast bake, but with the awesome chewy texture of steel cut oats. The cherries definitely funk up the color but don’t be scared, they do wonders for the taste. This is one of those things where if you invest a little bit of time on Sunday preparing (most of which is inactive), it’ll more than pay off for the rest of the week.
Then you can spend what time you would’ve been thinking about breakfast (which, if you’re like me is an embarrassingly long amount) figuring out what day and time you can fit in a manicure with the least chance of it being ruined before the trip even starts (highly unlikely).
- ¾ cup steel cut oats
- 3 cups milk (any combination will do, I used ½ coconut from carton & ½ almond milk)
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon almond extract
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¾ cup frozen cherries, chopped
- ¼ cup dried cherries
- ¼ cup sliced almonds
- ¼ cup unsweetened coconut flakes
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9×12 or similar sized baking pan.
- Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix together.
- Pour into baking pan and bake for about 50-60 minutes.
- Remove from oven and let cool to room temperature.
- Either eat warm immediately (oats will be a bit more liquidy) or, refrigerate overnight to set and serve in the morning either cold or warmed up with a bit of milk.
{ 43 comments… read them below or add one }
Ooh, this looks yummy! I’ll have to add some stuff to the grocery list!
Wow this looks so good…cherries, coconut, all baked up…YUM!
Yum! Your oatmeal bake looks good!! Just think, all the preparation your doing, you’ll probably have the best weekend!!! Don’t stress!!
This sounds so yummy, Gina! I’m all about to-do lists too and sometimes they get to be overwhelming! But then I remember to just breathe and take it one item at a time! …And I’m with you on the clean house before the trip. The littlest things like that stress me out and bring out the worst OCD in me :-X
Ohhh yum. This would be an awesome thing to make for brunch or something where you can make it ahead and all.
Also – yay on your 30th this weekend! I actually LOVED celebrating the big 3-0, had so much fun doing it up big on my birthday weekend, so I hope you have something SUPER fun planned. (and also, hoping this week goes by wicked fast for you so you can enjoy the party!
)
I always clean the house before I go away because the last thing I want to come home to is a stanky stale mess on top of the mess that will come from unpacking and settling back in. You’re in the right. Boys are just weird.
I love baked oats in every which way, ESPECIALLY since they keep for a few days and make life easy!
Love this idea!
I totally hear you on cleaning before a trip. My husband always thinks I’m nuts…until we come home to a sparking apartment and everyone is happy. Good luck getting through the busy week!
your recipes alwyas rock Gina…how am I not following you on Twitter? That’s going to change right now!
I’m also a checklist maniac!! At least I know someone else is addicted like me.
A big hint: Get a gel manicure. There is no drying time (aka – no chance to mess it up) and it lasts for weeks!
Where are you headed for your birthday?! I promise it’s not as scary an age as we all make it out to be. Great pictures btw
We’re headed to Niagra Falls actually. I said I wanted to go somewhere warm and he plans Niagra Falls, go figure
haha I’m hoping what you all say is true and that 30 ends up being a good year b/c I can’t say that I believe it yet 
looks awesome, and hope you can get to everything on your list during the week! I too have a lengthy list before leaving on wednesday for about a week, so hoping we can both chip away and keep sane.
Seriously Gina, I am in heart with your pictures. I really have to get mine to be less grainy. Even when I lower my ISO number they still aren’t as crisp! Yours are always beautiful. PS and so is your lighting.
And PPS – this recipe looks delicious. As per usual.
Thanks! Do you edit the sharpness at all of your pics? I don’t edit much but I do dial up the sharpness and that helps immensely with the grainy thing. They never look this sharp straight out of the camera. Another reason I love shooting in RAW, b/c the sharpness can be tweaked so much better than when shooting in jpegs…
I’ve been on a huge baked oatmeal kick lately. Love this flavor combo Gina!
ugh! totally the weekend for me that the whole creeping feeling that the weekend is about to end…woah, that didn’t make much sense, you get it though. i swear this weekend flew. the in-laws were in town and we didn’t get much downtime cause we were playing tour guides. it was fun, but man, i seriously wish today was an off-day. why not day-after-easter day off?! anyway, I LOVE steel cut oats..the flavors you put in there are one of my top favorites too! yum
i love that it provides breakfast for a week, too..i hate thinking of items to bring for breakfast!
yum! what a perfect way to try steel cut oats!
Nice combo! I’ve never tried steel cut oats before because I love regular oats so much. I think I’ll give them a try though. PS- You’ve got quite the busy summer coming up
. EXCITING!
My Monday dread was significantly diminished this week as I no longer work at SL.
Mike turned 30 last Saturday and I asked if he was going to freak out and he said no. He did get quite drunk at his birthday celebration, though.
Hmm…that might be part of the issue for me too.
I have a baked oatmeal recipe flagged that I’ve been DYING to use and I think this may have just convinced me to do it. That looks delicious!
Definitely agree that you have to clean the house before vacation so it is clean when you come home. That way you aren’t depressed that your vacation is over AND because your house is dirty. This looks yummy! Going to try it with cranberries since I already have those in the freezer.
ooh, that sounds like a good substitution! I have tons of cranberries b/c I hoard them after Thanksgiving and stick them in the freezer. Let me know how that turns out.
I love steel cut oats and am always up for new recipes to try with it! I was on Spring Break last week and I did not prepare myself for this week at all. Sigh!
Mmm, yummy! I love the cherries! I’ll admit, I love baked oats after they’ve been refrigerated and they’ve “set” in the fridge. So good! Plus I’m a huuuuuuuge fan of having breakfast ready to go in the fridge in the morning
You wouldn’t think a meal that usually only takes 10 mins or so to put together would still be so convenient when it’s already ready, but it is!
Looks yummy! I love the colors in the pictures.
I could eat baked oatmeal every single day, I’m always looking for new flavors! This one looks great!
I can’t decide if I love the recipe or the dishware more. Gorgeous!
This looks so good! I love the combination of cherries and almonds. I’ve been wanting to try baked oatmeal for a long time, but I just never got around to it. Steel cut oats are my favorite, so I think I’ll start with this recipe.
Ahh your an Aries too! Aries rock!
And don’t worry about this week love, I’m sure it will all run smoothly and you will have a fab weekend!
Aries do rock!
I have the same thing goin on over here. LISTS everywhere!!! They never end.
Happy early birthday. 30 aint so bad…30′s are the new 20′s, haven’t you heard?
This is a great idea for bkfast b/c even though oatmeal is usually quick its never quick enough for me. This would be. Hmm…
I. Want. Now! Love baking my oats
I can so relate to that dread feeling! I was having it Sunday evening too. I hope you’ll be able to get everything on the list done. I think I’ll need to start making breakfast ahead of time too. Overnight oats every morning will start getting old soon. Definitely want some cherries right now.
New to your blog and I am so glad I found it! Your recipes are amazing! I’ve been getting bored of my plain oats, so I will definitely try this.
Thanks Leonor! Welcome
This recipe looks great and goes right along with my oatmeal kick, of late – not to mention fitting beautifully into my Weight Watchers lifestyle! One thing I noticed is that there is no sweetener (other than the fruit) – do you put something on it when you eat it to sweeten it up or is it not needed?? Thanks!
The extracts do a pretty good job of giving it a sweet flavor without needing sugar but if you want it a little sweeter I’d use a tablespoon or two of maple syrup.
Thanks for your response! I had already begun making it and chose to add 1/3c brown sugar. I was pleased with the results! I also left out the nuts and coconut (sorry, not a fan
) and used frozen raspberries b/c I had them on hand. It came out pretty well, but I’d like to make it again using the frozen cherries, the raspberries were a little too tart. I also think I’ll make it in a 7×11 pan so that the pieces are a little thicker. This is the first time I’ve had baked STEEL-CUT oats, and I really liked the texture they provided. Thanks so much!!
Brown sugar sounds good too
It’s probably a good thing you went that route since you used raspberries. Imagine the tartness if you hadn’t!? Glad you liked it. I think it’s a pretty basic recipe to tweak so have fun playing around 
Thanks so much for sharing this recipe! I’m the wife of a deployed soldier, and I’m running my way through his deployment (while also working a crazy-wonderful-busy job in a branding agency). A coworker and runner recommended steel cut oats to me for healthy energy through long work days and intense training runs. I tried them for the first time last night using your recipe, and I loved them. Thanks so much for sharing!!
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