Caramel Apple Baked Oatmeal

Disclaimer:  This is not a food blog.  I don't take pictures of what I cook.  So this is a plain, no pictures post.  

I've been wanting to try baked oatmeal for a while now.  I've had different fruits I wanted to make use of but never had the energy.  But decided today was the day although some of the ingredients were made before today.

A couple weeks ago I took the apples I bought at the orchard and made some into chunky applesauce and froze it.  I didn't even peel the apples.  I cut them up, filled the crockpot and let them cook.  Once cool I put them in jars and froze.

Last night I saw a post about making homemade caramel sauce  and I thought I'd give it a try.  Only I didn't have sweetened condensed milk in my pantry so I made my own which is what I usually do since I don't keep it on hand. 

So today ... finally ... I decided to make baked oatmeal for supper.  I'm trying to think of new ways to get food into Lilyana.  It's been a very frustrating battle.  So I had seen this receipe  a while back and knew I would go back to it when I finally did make the oatmeal.  Then I realized the recipe required yogurt.  I didn't have any in the house.  I almost waited until Dan came home to send him to the store.  Then I remembered the caramel sauce I made last night and hit upon caramel apple baked oatmeal.  So my adaptation of the above recipe is as follows.  This is what I did today ... next time will probably be different. 

• 3 cups old-fashioned oats
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup applesauce (I used the chunky applesauce I had made)
• 1/2 cup caramel sauce
• 1/2 cup nonfat milk
• 1/4 cup canola oil (I always use applesauce in place of oil in baked recipes)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups apples (in my case I used the chunky applesauce I had made)
• heavy cream, whipped or plain (I don't ever have this on hand, so I used more caramel sauce on the top of my portion)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°.
2. Grease a 9×13 inch baking pan.
3. In a large mixing bowl, combine the oats, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
4. In a second mixing bowl, whisk together the applesauce, caramel sauce, milk, oil (or more applesauce), vanilla, and eggs.
5. Pour the wet ingredients onto the dry, and add the apples.
6. Fold gently to combine.
7. Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan.
8. Bake for 45 minutes or until golden.
9. Serve with cream, whipped or not (or more caramel sauce).

Lilyana, of course, took one look at it and declared it yucky.  Sigh.  So I heated up a pancake for her.  I don't like oatmeal that you eat for breakfast but I liked this.  It wasn't overly sweet so you could possibly add more sugar if you desired more sweetness but it was good.  You can also mix it up the night before and bake the next day.  I'm thinking it would be a good one for guests.