Baked Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal

Well, you get the idea. So when I saw this pin for Baked Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal by Paula of bell’ alimento, I thought this would be a great way to kick off autumn cooking.

And if I can interrupt myself and say how unbelievably happy I am that Starbucks has released the Pumpkin Spice Latte early this year? I know I’m not the only person who did a little happy dance when they walked into their Starbucks.

Now that I’ve had my coffee, let’s get back to the task at hand.  I’d been intrigued by the baked oatmeal recipes I had seen on Pinterest. Paula made this sound simply amazing, and being a vegetarian recipe seemed like a healthy bonus. I’m not a vegetarian, but it can be part of a very healthy lifestyle, and we’re trying to have a healthier diet and  lifestyle.

The dry ingredients are rolled oats (old fashioned), brown sugar, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder and salt.

Mix to combine. I like using a whisk to break up the packed brown sugar.

In a separate bowl, mix the milk, pumpkin, applesauce, egg and vanilla.

The egg was supposed to be beaten, so I started whisking the egg, then incorporated the rest.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.

Combine well.

Pour into a prepared pan.

Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes or until set. Mine was done at 32 minutes. (Sorry for the fuzzy picture, but this smelled so amazing and I could hardly wait to take the picture before digging in.)

Breakfast is served! I didn’t have the walnuts on hand to garnish, but this was absolutely incredible without them.

This had a texture that was slightly crispy on the edges, but creamy in the middle. Dessert for breakfast! As a side benefit, the house smelled like Christmas the whole morning. And this is a healthy breakfast!

Now for the Pintesting results.

Overall Rating: 5 Pins

Accuracy: The recipe was well written and easy to follow. It was delicious with a wonderful texture, and it made the house smell amazing. We didn’t have the chopped walnuts, but will make sure to add them the next time – and we will DEFINITELY be making this again. 5 Pins

Difficulty: This was very simple. Mix the dry ingredients. Mix the wet ingredients. Mix it all together, then bake. This would be a great recipe to get the kids involved. 5 Pins

Time: The preparation took about 10 minutes, and the bake time was about half an hour. Paula suggested making it the night before and baking in the morning. I’ll try this the next time, too. 4 Pins

Cost: We had everything we needed on hand. The most expensive ingredient would be the can of pumpkin at about $2-$3. The pan yields 6-8 servings, which means 3-4 breakfasts for my home. 5 Pins

Practicality: This is a healthy, delicious, and simple recipe that can be made ahead of time and makes enough for up to 8 servings. 5 Pins

Mini Cinnamon Rolls with Maple Icing

It seems that making dishes into tiny versions of themselves is very vogue now. Shot glass desserts, sliders and tapas are all the rage. Kristin, of Iowa Girl Eats, has brought her shrink-ray gun to the cinnamon roll and given us the mini version. They’re bite-sized and easy to pop into your mouth. This pin was on the Repinly.com top 5 list of the Food and Drink category for much of February, so I decided to give it a Test.

The ingredients are found in most kitchens. I had a little bottle of real maple syrup from the Cracker Barrel, so I thought this would be the perfect way to use it.

Here’s my “secret ingredient” time saving find – Pilsbury makes a Crescent Seamless Dough Sheet. It’s the same price as the regular crescent rolls, but saves the time of pinching the seams together, as Kristin’s recipe directs.

I rolled out the dough just a bit,

and cut it into two halves.

The recipe didn’t specify whether the butter was to be melted or softened when brushed onto the dough, so I did one half with softened butter

and the other half with melted butter.

Both halves got sprinkled with cinnamon,

and then sprinkled with brown sugar. There wasn’t a noticeable difference by the time the brown sugar was sprinkled onto the pastry.

Each half was rolled into a log.

Each log was cut into 8 pieces. I used a pizza cutter to make quick work of the cutting. It worked, but compressed the dough a bit.

The pieces were placed in the mini muffin tins, cut sides up,

then baked at 350 for 11 minutes.

While the cinnamon rolls were baking I made the Maple Icing.

Whisk the ingredients until smooth, and stir periodically to keep a crust from forming on top.

The mini cinnamon rolls are out of the oven and look like little rosettes.

Plated and glazed, they took about 5 minutes to disappear. They were wonderful paired with a cup of Starbucks Sumatra coffee.

Overall Rating: 5 Pins

Accuracy: The recipe didn’t specify whether the butter should be softened or melted when brushed onto the pastry, but there was no difference in taste or performance. The little pastries had nice flakey texture from the crescent roll dough, and the cinnamon sugar taste was like their super-sized cousins that you can get at the mall. I really liked extra layer of flavor that the maple icing gave.  5 Pins

Difficulty: I admit that I might have “cheated” a bit in using the dough sheet rather than the regular crescent roll dough. However, the time saved was maybe about 3 minutes. Kristen says “they’re really easy”, and she’s right. 5 Pins

Time: The prep took 10 minutes, and the bake time was 11 minutes. Total time was less than half an hour – 5 Pins.

Cost: If you don’t have real maple syrup, that would be the most expensive ingredient at roughly $8.00 for a smaller bottle. I imagine maple flavored breakfast syrup would work if you don’t want to spend that much. The crescent dough is roughly $2.50 or less if on sale. 5 Pins.

Practicality: These are wonderful as a weekend breakfast or brunch treat.  5 Pins