Cranberry Orange Pecan Oatmeal Recipe

Today was baked oatmeal day, not just any baked oatmeal, but the best baked oatmeal I've made yet. Today's version I am calling Cranberry Orange Pecan.

Ingredients for Cranberry Orange Pecan Baked Oatmeal

Original baked oatmeal ingredients plus

1/3 - 1/2 cup dried cranberries

1/3 cup chopped pecans

the zest of one orange

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp. ground flax

Breakfast was vanilla yogurt with the baked oatmeal crumbled on top and a few extra dried cranberries and pecans. I am thinking of cutting back on the brown sugar though. I think the fruit helps sweeten it naturally. I really missed the Greek yogurt. I loved that it was not so sweet, but this was an awesome breakfast. 

I felt so much better today and it wasn't even sunny. In fact, it was a dreary cloudy day. I also got a little more done in my living room to prepare for the tree. I'm also getting ready for the grand babies to come over this weekend. 

For lunch today, I did a repeat of the broccoli pasta salad and afterwards I had half of one of the peanut covered Dunkin donuts. The rest went in the freezer.  Confession: I wanted the whole thing, but I am glad I didn't because it was a lot sweeter than I remembered and I was perfectly satisfied with just half, actually less than half, because it broke unevenly and I took the smaller piece. 

I do notice now that a little while after eating sweets, I feel kind of lazy or sleepy. I really didn't make the connection before. I sort of expected it from the oatmeal, but it really didn't bother me, maybe because of the oatmeal, I'm not sure. I still think I will cut out part of the sugar. I found a site online that has sugar free recipes, that doesn't use artificial sweeteners as substitutes. The recipes use natural sweeteners, like date sugar, fruit and unsweetened fruit juice. There's one recipe for Sugar Free Carrot Cake with Cashew Frosting that I would like to try. It looked pretty good. 

After looking at some of those recipes, I was starting to get hungry. I went for Penne pasta and vegetables  in alfredo sauce and green beans. I call them squeaky beans. I like to cook them until they are slightly under done and they kind of squeak when you bite them. Does that make sense? Oh, well, their very good. The pasta was yummy also; it had peas, with red and yellow bell pepper. I nearly ate it all. It was Birds Eye brand and great for a quick meal. 

Personally though, I like more veggies, less pasta. Maybe I can recreate it with more veggie next time. I'm putting that on my to do list.

Hey, have you gotten your Christmas tree up yet or are you like me, having trouble gettin' into the spirit of things? Try some baked oatmeal, the cranberry orange version is really Christmasy.