Oatmeal Cake Recipe Roundup

I discovered during my recent elimination diet that gluten free grains were contributing to my stomach issues. That means that for the most part I’m leaving grains like oats, rice, and corn out of the array of foods I consume on a daily basis, and experimenting with grain free flours like quinoa, buckwheat, coconut, and tapioca in my baking endeavors. I’m still indulging occasionally, like with the gluten free Mickey waffles I had last weekend in Florida or maybe a bit of rice when I go out for a good sushi dinner. But 90% of the time I’m on the grain free bandwagon, and that means saying goodbye to the baked oatmeal cakes that I featured on the blog throughout my first year of recipe sharing. I still make many of the flavors using quinoa flakes rather than oats, but I thought I’d throw a spotlight on them now since they won’t be making appearances in my WIAW posts anymore!

 

 

 

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First Week of June + Dinner at the Eveready Diner

Happy Saturday, everyone! Hope all of your weekends are off to a great start. While the week started off pretty gloomy with lots of rain here in the northeast, it’s been a beautiful past couple of days and June is shaping up nicely, so I’m checking in about life lately – running, studying, and start-of-summer eats, including a trip to the Eveready Diner.

 

Despite the rain, I managed to get some good runs in this week. I did 6 miles each on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday in Connecticut, on the roads near my house and the Rail Trail, and have a 4-mile race tomorrow in Central Park that I’ll add a mile to with jogging to the start. I was lucky on Monday that there was a lull in the storm in the morning – not so lucky later in the day when Sasha needed to go for a walk. We are both glad the sun has come out to play, though it looks like there might be a few storms in the coming week. A warm and dry puppy is always the happiest!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PB&J Baked Oatmeal Cake

I love peanut butter and jelly. And unlike most Americans, I’ve had to defend that love vociferously. When I was at university in Oxford, I remember one of the first weird looks I ever got for being a Yankee was when I was talking about how much I loved PB&J as a kid, and how even with a wheat allergy, I’d try to eat it on rice cakes or in oatmeal or simply spooned straight from the jar. At first, I thought the confusion was simple; in England, jelly is used most often to refer to the mint jelly eaten with lamb, or what we call Jell-O. They call fruit jam or preserves, well, jam or preserves – which we also use. But even that sounded a bit strange to my friends. After months, I coaxed a few into trying the combination on their morning toast, and they were hooked…but in the process I found myself in a position that would become all too familiar over the next few years, that of the explainer and defender of American food. I even wrote an article about it on my American Tongue blog at the student newspaper, Cherwell. Which was odd, considering I definitely did not eat the typical ‘American diet’ they’d heard horrors of! There are some things about American food I’ll never be able to explain, but PB&J is not one of them.

That said, this delicious little cake is a new twist on an old favorite – a peanut butter baked oatmeal cake with a smear of blueberry jam on top. Warm and comforting on this chilly winter morning, it’s a wonderful way to start the day. Try it paired with a mug of blueberry coffee and some fresh blueberries on the side, and see for yourself!

 

Ingredients:

1/2 cup gluten-free rolled oats

1-2 Tbsp peanut butter (I used Peanut Butter & Co Smooth Operator)

Peanut butter oatmeal cake with a delicious crust…

1/4 cup applesauce

1/4 cup milk of choice (I used So Delicious Vanilla Coconut Milk)

1 Tbsp Greek yogurt (I recommend using 2% or full fat for the creaminess)

1 Tbsp blueberry preserves (you can also use raspberry or your favorite flavor)

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp brown sugar

Pinch salt

For ramekin: 1 tsp butter (can substitute olive oil or cooking spray)

 

 

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

…topped with preserves for a PB&J treat!

2. Combine all dry ingredients in a small bowl, then add in wet ingredients and mix well.

3. Melt butter in 1-cup (8 ounce) ramekin to coat inner surface. (You can also use olive oil or cooking spray, but I found that butter worked really well in this recipe to give the cake a yummy buttery crust).

4. Bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes, then set oven to high broil for an additional 5 minutes.

5. Use a knife to carefully pry the edges of the cake from the ramekin (easy as long as it was greased well!) and flip upside down into a dish.

6. Top with blueberry preserves. Enjoy!

 

 

What’s your favorite way to enjoy PB&J? Did you ever find yourself trying to explain how awesome it is to people who have never heard of putting them together?

 

 

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