If you are looking for the most perfect winter breakfast, or a cozy after school snack, this is the treat for you. It is something between the texture of regular stovetop oatmeal, and a muffin. But it's weird, you pour milk over it, so really it's unlike anything I've had before.
*This recipe can easily be modified to be gluten and dairy free by using gluten free oats, your favorite milk alternative like almond milk, and dairy free butter or margarine.
Ingredients:
3 cups of quick-cooking oats
3/4 cup of brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 large eggs
1 cup of milk
1/2 cup of butter, melted.
1 1/2 cups of frozen berries. (My favorite combo is blueberries and raspberries)
It also tastes amazing with peeled and chopped Macintosh apples.
1/4- 1/2 cup of hemp hearts for up the nutrition component.
Depending on your mood you could add chocolate chips, pecans, walnuts,... the list goes on!
Lets get started!
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
In one bowl mix the first 5 ingredients.
In a separate bowl mix the last ingredients.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredient bowl and mix together.
Pour into a 9" square greased pan.
Flatten the top just enough so it all bakes evenly.
Bake for 40-45 minutes. The oatmeal on the edges of the pan will be golden brown.
Serve in a bowl with milk poured over top.
And then tell me how much you love it!
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I couldn't have a blog on my website without a few solid breakfast options, because, HELLOOOO BRUNCH IS THE BEST MEAL OF THE DAY!
This is my favourite go-to for hosting brunch and so far it seems to be a crowd pleaser! I love it because a) it brings back warm feelings of women's breakfasts at church in good company b) you make it the night before so in the morning all you have to do is put it in the oven, and c) like I said before, I've yet to meet anyone who didn't like it.
Ingredients:
1 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 melted butter
5 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
12 slices french bread (white texas toast is my favourite)
1 1/2 cups of berries (I love a mix of raspberry and blueberry best)
1. Mix together 1st 3 ingredients.
2. In a separate bowl, beat or whisk together eggs, milk, vanilla, and salt.
3. In a 9 x 13 pan layer the following:
-1/3 brown sugar mix
- 6 pieces bread
- 1/3 brown sugar mix
- berries
-6 pieces bread
-1/3 brown sugar mix
4. Pour the egg mixture over the top of the entire pan, trying to ensure everything gets a damp.
5. Let sit on the counter for 2 hours or put in the fridge over night.
6. Press down lightly before putting in oven
7. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.
Serve with fresh whipping cream, breakfast sausages or bacon, and hot coffee! YUM!
Let me know if you try it out and how it turns out for you :)
Some things you will want to look for:
Does the fabric stretch or does it hold it's shape well when in the hoop?
Am I picking a color or pattern of fabric that will allow the thread to be shown up easily?
Is this fabric within my budget?
Is this a scrap of fabric that would otherwise be thrown in the garbage so I might as well embroider on it and see what beauty I can make from it?
Is the fabric sturdy? Will it hold stitches well or is it likely to pull in weird places when a needle and thread is pulled through?
Is the weave (the thread grid) of the fabric one that will allow me to stitch for the most part where I want to?
The first fabric I talk about is one of my all time favorites, it's Robert Kaufman's yarn dyed Essex Linen, and is 55% linen, 45% cotton. As a garment sewist as well, this fabric is perfect to have in the house for lots of types of projects, and that's probably why when I stock it, I buy a lot at a time. I purchase it online from Canadian Fabric stores like Blackbird Fabrics or Needlework Hamilton. When I use this fabric I put it through the washer, and then the dryer before cutting to place in hoops- because it gives the fabric a really lovely texture. This fabric is fantastic for getting started because the weave is loose enough for the needle and thread to glide through easily, but it is firm enough to hold it's shape.
The second fabric is a 100% cream cotton I buy from Michaels. I double layer it in order to prevent seeing through to the knots or trimmings from the front side. Where this fabric shines is, due to the tighter weave, it can make more intricate projects look even more detailed since you can be more precise with how many stitches you can have.
I do also love using my clothing fabric scraps to embroider on. Sewing and embroidery actually make an excellent pair, (especially when you love to sew linen garments for yourself anyways), because when you invest in a beautiful fabric for yourself, if you're like me, you just cant throw those little scraps away. There is nothing like finishing your sewing project, and then picking up the scraps, and turning them into beautiful embroidery collections!
So that's a little bit about my process, enough to get you started anyways! Let me know if you have any questions below.
]]>At age 9 she wrote "You are very creative- saving all sorts of pieces of scraps and come through with great gifts and trinkets. You are so wrapped up in your creations that you forget or don't see the mess you make."
I love this image of myself, and can relate to that girl. In many ways, I am still that 9 year old girl.
People sometimes ask me about how I find the motivation to be creative. And for me, it was never about finding motivation. The motivation was always abundant, it was the problem of finding the time, or making time stop long enough for me to explore and finish all the things I wanted to finish.
As a girl, I didn’t have the patience to sit at a sewing machine and figure out how to wind the dang bobbin, or concentrate long enough to knit anything other than a little square, so I was creative with wild hair styles, purple lip chap, and wearing bright colors. I thought about a career in hair styling, but I’d I did, I’d want to do fashion shows, or hair models, worried that the same repeat hair cuts would bore me.
As I grew up and followed my undergraduate degree plans for a professional career, creativity was put on the back burner and I didn't realize how much I missed it.
When I became a stay at home mom, this need to create grew with me, and I knew I had to equip myself with the necessary skills to create legitimate things, no longer paper outfits or basic rectangular scarves. I had to give attention to this passion and be a grown up about it. Not for anyone else, but for the very essence of myself that I felt was slipping away in the midst of cleaning spit up off the floor and understanding my ever changing physical body. I'll talk about my enneagram number in a future post and how that plays into those emotions, so stay tuned for that!
In Shauna Niequist' book "Present Over Perfect" one of her chapters talks about travelling back to our "essential selves" and I want to leave you with this little excerpt from it and encourage you to get your hands on a copy of this book asap because it's good for the soul!
"He doesn't tell the snow to thaw and become rain, or the rain to freeze itself into snow. He says, essentially: do your thing. Do the thing that you love to do, that you've been created to do. So many of us twist ourselves up in knots trying desperately to be something else, someone else, some endless list of qualities and capabilities that we think will make us loved or safe or happy. Thats an exhausting way to live.. God tells the rain to just pour down. He tells the snow to simply fall. What are the things that he's asking you to do, the things he made you to do, the things you do effortlessly and easily? .. Think about your adolescent self, your child self, the "you" you've always been. God imprinted a sacred, beautiful collection of passions and capacities right onto your heart: what do you love? What does your passion bubble over for? So much of adulthood is peeling off the layers of expectation and pressure, and protecting those precious things that lie beneath. ...
You were only meant, created, commanded to be who you are, weird and wonderful, imperfect and messy and lovely. "
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