Here’s an easy and clean 4 ingredient baked oatmeal recipe. It uses real fruit instead of jelly so there is no added sugar, nor high fructose corn syrup that unfortunately is found in most store-bought jelly. It can be sliced into smaller pieces to be picked up by hand and travels well. Eat hot, or cold, for breakfast, or as a snack!
Now, this is really strange, but for some reason, baked grapes taste just like cherries. Everyone who ate this recipe was like “Wait, are there cherries in here?” Why, no, they are grapes, but I suppose I’ve magically made them taste like cherries. Obviously it is because I halved them, for sure that’s the reason. Perhaps I may take this hack and try to fashion a grape cherry pie of sorts. Wouldn’t that be a neat party trick haha. Grapes are so much easier to find and can be a much more reasonable price than cherries. Plus, then you don’t have to worry about the pits! Hmm, I may be on to something. Lol. I’ll have to think about it. Let me know if you have any ideas!
We actually have a cherry tree at home, but alas, it isn’t time for it to be blooming. Actually, most stuff isn’t ready. I was desperately hoping (even though I knew better) that the strawberries would be full bloom and ready for me to devour.
Well, I suppose they are full bloom, and there are a few little baby strawberries popping out, but nothing close to full size, or red by any means.
The rhubarb, on the other hand, is definitely ready so I think I’ll just have to use some of that while I’m home. Normally, I take a bunch, cut it up into approximately inch long pieces and take back with me to store in my freezer. Sadly, as you know, I’ve been trying to use up as many of my food stores as possible before my big move. My number one focus is the stuff in the freezer. Boo. So that means no rhubarb or other goodies to take back with me. Double BOO!
Aside from the rhubarb, the only other things that are ready to go are the herb plants. There are plenty of other plants though that are working hard to grow. Poor plants, though! The weather has been atrocious for them so I give them mad props for working through it. Unfortunately, some of them aren’t looking so hot. This is mainly because the cold temperatures and winds have knocked a lot of the blooms off :'(. So sad! So mean! Meanwhile it still wayyyyy to early for a lot of other plants to be blooming, so hopefully they will be saved and the weather much more appropriate.
My parents did a great job on the landscaping. I love coming home, especially in the spring and summer because everything is so green and then pops of color start appearing here and there. Somehow, they managed to plant various plants that bloom at all different times. So first, the cherry trees start and oh my they are so gorgeous, then other plants start going into full bloom.
When I came home, all the azaleas were hot pink and so pretty against all the green trees. If only everything stayed in full bloom for months! That would be just lovely. But, alas! The time frames can be so short, especially if the weather isn’t optimal.
It is fun to watch the yard start to come into it’s own though. One day there will just be green and the very next day, magically, a whole section of the yard will have burst into flowers literally overnight! Ugh, I’m going to miss all of this!
I am also going to miss making breakfast for everyone, too! I do know, though, that this baked oatmeal recipe has it’s own mind craziness since I still swear, as does everyone else who tried it, that it tastes like there are cherries in it. Therefore, if you try it out, I would love to know if you find the same thing to be true. Or, maybe, someone snuck a little bit of a crazy psychogenic mushroom that we found in the recipe 😉 . (Just kidding, stay tuned for a future post and you’ll understand what I’m talking about.)
Are there foods that you have aversions to?
Do you grow anything in your garden?
- 2 cups old-fashioned oatmeal ( get yours here)
- 1 cup grapes (or more! and I would try to use red grapes)
- 1 T cinnamon (at least)
- ~1/3 cup peanut butter (homemade, no sugar added peanut butter is best in order to make this truly a clean recipe!)
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease a 13x9 dish (if you want thicker oatmeal pieces, use a smaller dish)
- Cut your grapes in half and add them to a mixing bowl
- Add the rest of the ingredients to the mixing bowl except for the peanut butter and mix
- Add water, or liquid of choice until the oats are watery (you will likely need at least a cup or more)
- Pour oatmeal batter into the greased dish and place in the oven for at least 25 minutes*
- When cooked, spread peanut butter across the top, slice into pieces, serve and enjoy!
- If you add too much liquid, no worries! It will just need to cook a bit longer. The longer you cook the oats, the thicker and denser it will become.
- Don't forget you can adjust the serving size by changing the serving number in the recipe box to how many servings you can make. It works both ways for all my recipes. Therefore, if you want to make this a single serving, just replace the 6 with a 1 and the ingredient amounts will adjust themselves!
This is one of my favorites! The fact that you used grapes were so surprisingly good!
Just trying to use up ingredients that would have otherwise soon ended up in the trash, and you know how I hate to waste any food. I’m still in wonderment that they tasted just like cherries lol
One of my favorite flavor combos and oatmeal is like a hug in a mug so it’s like a big bear hug with this oatmeal!
Yeah I agree, I love to play around with pb and J flavor combos! Well, the J part mostly hehe ;). I love it-“hug in a mug” -so true. It’s such a comfort food for me.