Breakfast Ahead

If you are the kind of person that likes the "instant breakfast" routine, then you will want to try this recipe.  I confess, I spend a lot of my mornings in the kitchen pouring a bowl of dry cereal or toasting up some bread.  So this dish is perfect!  It took some prep time on the weekend, but it was definitely worth it.  Thank you Columbus Dispatch recipe page!

You will need:
-2 tbs butter
-3 cups milk
-1/2 cup brown sugar (you could probably get by on 1/4 or 1/3 cup)
- 1 tsp cinnamon
-1/2 tsp ground ginger
-1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
-1 medium apple peeled, cored, chopped
-1 1/2 cups oats
-1/3 cup dried cherries
-1/3 cup toasted chopped walnuts
-1/2 tsp vanilla
-pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350.  Lightly coat a 2-quart baking dish with cooking spray.  Combine butter, milk, brown sugar and spices in a heavy medium saucepan.  Bring to a simmer.  Stir in oats, apple, cherries, walnuts, vanilla and salt.  Pour mixture into prepared dish. 

Bake 30 minutes or until thick and bubbly around the edges.

This morning I scooped up two servings of this for Mr. PT and I, zapped it in the microwave with some 1% milk and enjoyed the wee hours of the morning.  I have to tell you, it was SO good.  No more individually wrapped bags of oatmeal for this lady!

Combine with 30 minutes of calisthenics...find an abandoned jungle gym and playground and do 10 minutes of cardio (run, shuffle, high-knees, grapevine, etc), 10 minutes of arms and abs (push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups, resistance bands, etc) and 10 minutes of legs (squats, forward, backward, and side lunges, etc).  It will be the quickest 30 minutes you'll ever spend!