Breakfast

Out of all the types of food, breakfast food makes me the happiest! :-)
There's something wonderful about filling your tummy, as well as your family's tummies, with warm, yummy breakfast goodness.
My favorites are biscuits with gravy, waffles, pancakes, and scrambled eggs with cheese. Fried potatoes or hashbrowns are also extremely scrumptious. I prefer all of these made in my own kitchen. However, when my family goes out to eat, breakfast food is still my preference; making Bob Ev*n's and Cr*cker Barrel two of my favorite places to eat.
However, there is one area of breakfast foods that I've never been particularly fond of.... hot cereals.
Neither cream of wheat nor oatmeal have ever been on my list of top choices. I recall eating cream of wheat as a child, with the need of a raisin in each bite, just in order to gag it down. I was never fortunate enough to even gag oatmeal down.
Turns out, my children are the same... none of them liking hot cereals.
Deciding it was time to fix this problem, I experimented a little with a baked oatmeal recipe.
Not only do I love it, but all my children (even the pickiest of my eaters) love it as well!
(nevermind that I add chocolate chips and tell them it's like eating a healthy cookie for breakfast :-) )

**A HUGE bonus to this recipe is that you can prepare it the night before. I prepare it in the baking pan and refrigerate it. Then, come morning, I just have to bake it!
Baked Oatmeal
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 cups old-fashioned oats
3 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup choc. chips (if making the whole thing with choc. chips... use only 1/4 cup if making 1/2 the pan with choc. chips)

Combine all ingredients except for the choc. chips. Make sure all ingredients are well combined, all oats moistened. *If you're making the entire tray of baked oatmeal with choc. chips, you may combine the choc. chips now. Spoon into and spread in a greased 9x9 baking dish. *If you're only making 1/2 of the tray with choc. chips, sprinkle 1/4 cup of choc. chips over 1/2 of the unbaked mixture.

Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees, 20 minutes, or until lightly browned. Serve warm with milk.

Enjoy!!

Thanks, Stef, for the link-up!