Kara's Overnight Baked Oatmeal

If Dan ever becomes a professor, Kara will be my inspiration. She is Dan's advisor's wife, and no one can host like Kara. She is gracious, kind, always smiling, incredibly interesting, an unbelievable mom, hosts parties with ease, and so much more – simply amazing!

Dan was out visiting Kara's family after they left Champaign a couple of years ago and went on a several-hour bike ride with his advisor. When they made it back home Kara had a delicious brunch prepared, including this Overnight Baked Oatmeal. He loved it so much that he asked her to email it to me. It's really unbeatable and it feeds a crowd with minimal work. Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 3 cups old fashioned rolled oats
• 4 1/2 cups boiling water
• 1/2 cup oil 
• Kara often reduces the oil and adds applesauce to fill its place
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp or less salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup rasins, chopped apples, nuts - all optional

Preparation

Combine oats and boiling water. Let stand until water is absorbed.

Add the remaining ingredients to the oatmeal/water mixture and combine. Put in a greased 9"x12" baking dish and refrigerate overnight.

Bake at 350˚F for 30 minutes.

Serves 6-8 people.

Kara recommends serving with milk. :)

The New Baby Meal List

When I was pregnant with Eland I cooked up a storm. We had lived in Albuquerque for less than a year when Eland was due, so I knew I couldn't count on many meals from friends since we didn't have a whole lot of them yet. Here's the list of what I made, so that whenever the next time comes around, I'll remember.

None of these meals had garlic, onion, or dairy. I replaced onion with leeks whenever I felt it was appropriate. I've heard that avoiding garlic, onion, and possibly dairy makes for a less gassy baby. I'm not sure if that's true or not, but neither of my boys were colicky, so I'm sticking with it.

• Plum chicken - 4 gladware tubs
• Taco meat - 2 gladware tubs
• Cubed cooked chicken (for chicken salad or salads in general) - 1 gallon bag
• Cincinnati-style chili - 3 gladware tubs
• Italian beef - 2 gladware tubs
• BBQ meatloaf - 4 gladware tubs
• Chimichangas - 18
• Chicken basil sausages - 6 uncooked links
• 1 package of hotdog buns
• Stuffed green peppers - 3 gladware tubs with 2 peppers each
• Nectarine-blueberry crisp - 3 gladware tubs
• Chicken pot pie - 2 pie-sized baking dishes, 2 individual bakers
• Chicken noodle soup - 8 gladware tubs
• Gnocchi (uncooked) - 1 gallon bag
• Beef in red wine sauce - 2 gladware tubs
• Brownies - 2 gallon bags containing 1/2 pan each
• Zucchini bread - 1 loaf cut in half with halves frozen separately
• Date bread - 1 loaf

Yes, this is a lot of food, and ambitious, but it helped so much to have these meals along with a bunch of others from friends to last us until I had the energy to cook again. (Dan did cook a few meals a week, too.) Also, this doesn't include little-prep meals like pasta with sauce from a jar and that sort of thing.

Now I can go throw out the written list that's still on my refrigerator...

Yet to Try: Vegetarian Split-Pea Soup

This looks so good, and it's dairy-free! http://www.girlsgonechild.net/2011/02/eat-well-meat-free-your-split-pea.html

I have my own split-pea soup which I plan on making tomorrow and will hopefully post about, but I do use ham in it. The above recipe looks fantastic.