Baked Oatmeal Oatmeal Bites

Baked Oatmeal 

I really love this, it was SO tasty and easy to throw together, there’s about a hundred different ways to make it different. Dried fruits, nuts, chocolate chips. 

All you do is dump it all in a bowl and mix it up. Then pour into a greased 8x8 pan. Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes. Alternatively you can fill about 15 cupcake liners 1/2-3/4 full and bake for the same time. I prefer the cupcake liner method.  I love these silicone liners. The colors are 😍. 

1 1/2 C Quick Oats 

3/4 C Milk (of your choice) 

1/2 C Brown Sugar 

1 Egg

1/4 C Butter Melted 

1/2 Cup Nut Butter melted ish. Enough that you can stir it in. 

1 1/2 tsp Vanilla 

1/2 tsp Salt 

1 tsp Baking Powder

That’s it! Let them cool a little bit and eat right away or completely cool and they are simple to cut, and easy to grab and go.  With the muffin version, I let cool then flash froze and tossed in a gallon bag for quick breakfast on the go. They thaw pretty quick! 

Once you make them you can see what consistency they start at and go from there with adding different stuff.

 I added chocolate chips to ours and made them muffin style the last time I made them. 

I want to use coconut and coconut milk on a batch too with some pecans maybe. 

Cranberry and dried apple is one of my favorite combos. 

Cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla protein, dried peaches or strawberry, some jam (maybe reduce the sugar a bit)  so many possibilities! 

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Breakfast Prep Rotation Schedule

Breakfast Schedules/Rotation. I love/hate them. We don’t do this is in the summer because everyone gets up and eats at different times and does their own thing. But during school, it’s something that feels like it makes our mornings run a little smoother. We had a couple years where our kids ate breakfast in class so this hasn’t been a thing at our house for a while!  I like it because I don’t have to answer questions about breakfast, there’s plenty of days where it’s not on me to make breakfast because I can prep most of it ahead of time.  It still leaves weekends for more elaborate breakfasts and special treats. I feel like it helps the budget too! 

Pancakes/Pancake Muffins~ I Make ahead = very little dishes for Monday morning 

Yogurt Bowls~ I can use these and make ahead from the big containers or buy the small containers if I find a deal. We add fruit and granola

Oatmeal~Instant Pot Oatmeal the night before and it’s done, or if I am slacking, we have instant oatmeal and I am not going to feel bad about it 

Egg Bites/Burritos ~Both made ahead and both very little clean up. Win/win 🙌🏻 

On Friday we have other options too, waffles, bagels, sausage etc

Do you do something like this too? Maybe it’s just 1 or 2 days a week where you don’t have to think about it? 

*May contain affiliated links* I participate in Amazon Associates Program occasionally. I won't recommend a product I wasn't myself interested in trying or have tried. I may receive monetary compensation for participating. This does not change the price for you.

Instant Pot Egg Bites Starbucks Dupe

I was super intimidated by these, glad I tried try em! And because this is a real life blog, they don’t LOOK perfect every time. But they taste just right and freeze/reheat super easily. 

The recipe I used was 

9 eggs

1 tsp baking powder
Little 1/2 1/2
Salt Pepper

Add ins varied
I did spinach, bacon, cheese, mushrooms

I just whipped em in a bowl although I’ve seen some people use a blender, and some people add cottage cheese and other things. There’s no right or wrong way. Try what you like!

I used bacon fat instead of spray in our molds and it worked fine
I struggle with filling them the right amount. I’m guessing about 1/2 way makes the right size.
Then pop the lids on the molds and set on rack in IP with about 1c water in bottom and steam setting for 8 minutes! I did quick release and popped them onto a tray to freeze.

See, some are really ugly 🤭

To reheat just cover with a paper towel in the microwave for about 45 seconds, depending on your microwave. Or let them thaw a little and use the toaster oven.  

*May contain affiliated links* I participate in Amazon Associates Program occasionally. I won't recommend a product I wasn't myself interested in trying or have tried. I may receive monetary compensation for participating. This does not change the price for you.

2020 Back to School Challenge

I can’t even believe I am typing this. But maybe I am just giving up on this Summer and am ready for our next chapter? I don’t know. It’s been rough here, as I am sure it is for many of you too. I am feeling defeated in some ways and others I am feeling a little motivated, so I am running with that tiny bit of motivation and knowing that I’m going to have to do a LOT of this unmotivated. 

School will be back in session before we know it, I mean, yes, time is going kind of slow when we feel stuck at home but it’s still going to be fast. I need as much of our normal as I can muster for these big changes. 

The changes will be different for every family, I’m not even sure what our changes are yet. I AM sure that mornings will still be chaotic so I am starting with ways to combat that. Breakfast is up first because it’s not going to kill our budget and it’s simple. A small chunk of time while we feel like there’s an excess of it, traded for hours worth of time in the mornings when it’s all a rush. 

Last week I made some french toast sticks and pancakes, like 50 of them because I already had the skillet on and the dishes dirty from making pancakes for breakfast. I did mix em up a little. I made traditional ones and also 

Strawberry protein (added a little vanilla protein and some of our fresh strawberries) 

Coconut Protein (powdered coconut oil and protein) 

Then just flash freeze them on a cookie sheet and transfer to gallon size bags.

I also made a few batches of the egg bites in the instant pot. If you haven’t tried it before, go for it! Easy and inexpensive, can mix em up with whatever you have in the fridge. They are portable and quick to reheat. I’ve added the molds to my Amazon store. 

Look how ugly these are 🥴

Some other things I’ve got on the plan to make for breakfasts in the next couple weeks are

More French toast sticks 

Breakfast sandwiches 

Breakfast burritos 

Mini Muffins 

My goal is to have 2 months worth of breakfasts for the kids before September 1st. Obviously we will need more than this because they are still eating breakfast everyday 🤣 The other aspect is sometimes I find a deal on waffles, kodiak cakes are a fave, and I will grab some of those, so I have a little reprieve, and bagels. 

If you have a bread outlet near you, go! It’s one of the ways we can really stretch the budget and stock up. Ours has bags of bagels, bread, English muffins and more for $1.10 each and often do B1G2F. So 3 loaves of bread (or whatever) for $1.10.

That’s what we use for Breakfast sandwiches and quick breakfasts. Texas Toast for French toast sticks, uncrustables at home. Lots of options if you stop their first. You never know what’s going to be there. 

I’ve got a big list of things I want to accomplish before school starts. Whatever that’s going to look like, I thrive when I have boxes to check and boxes that have been checked. Are you making goals for before school starts? Projects to finish before it starts raining again? Tell me about ‘em!

Disclaimer *this is our real life, I’m not staging pancakes for y’all. Just being real because I am not here to influence you, I just want to encourage you 😘 

There is laundry on our bed and we live here. Sometimes there’s a picture that looks good. I promise it’s just that picture. 

*May contain affiliated links* I participate in Amazon Associates Program occasionally. I won't recommend a product I wasn't myself interested in trying or have tried. I may receive monetary compensation for participating. This does not change the price for you.