Quarantine Recipe Idea

This month in the Traveling Adjunct, I'm focusing on what many of us are doing right now - quarantine cooking!  Since we're all looking to stretch our groceries as far as possible these days, how about muffins made from leftover oatmeal? Ick, you may say? Hear me out. Nowadays, many of us are operating under the theory “use what you’ve got”. And, if you’re like me, you also hate to throw out anything, even leftover oatmeal. Whenever I cook oatmeal in my Crock-Pot and there’s always a bit left over. I knew there had to be a way to use it and I found a delish muffin recipe perfect for a lockdown treat or even when we’re able to take road trips again! Shout out to the Black Peppercorn for this awesome recipe!

 Leftover Oatmeal Muffins

Prep Time: 5 minutes Cook Time: 25 

minutes Total Time: 30 minutes

Servings: 12 large muffins

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups leftover oatmeal

2 eggs

3/4 cup oil

1/2 cup milk

2/3 cup brown sugar

2 1/4 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1 1/2 tbsp baking powder

1/2 cup raisins

3 tbsp oats

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350F.

2. Grease muffin tins or line them with muffin cups.

3. Whisk together the leftover oatmeal, eggs, oil, milk and brown sugar until smooth and there are no clumps of oatmeal.

4. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder and cinnamon.

5. Fold the flour mixture into the wet mixture until combined. Be careful not to over mix.

6. Stir in the raisins.

7. Spoon into prepared muffin cups. This recipe will make 12 large muffins. If you prefer smaller muffins, this recipe will make about 18.

8. Sprinkle some oats on top of the muffin batter in each cup.

9. Place on the middle rack of the oven and bake for 22-26 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

10. Cool the muffins before removing them from the muffin tin.

You can use any cooked oatmeal. I usually make a combination of steel cut and traditional rolled oats in a slow cooker. I've used cooked instant oats, too. I had all the ingredients! A minor victory these days. They were really easy to make, super moist, and keep for days. Try to use apples instead of raisins to change it up.

*Here’s how I make my slow cooker oatmeal. In my “baby” 2-quart Crock-Pot, I place ½ cup steel cut oats, ½ cup traditional or rolled oats, 3 cups water, ¼ cup brown sugar, 1 ½ tsp cinnamon. (I still follow the muffin recipes ingredients for brown sugar and cinnamon.) Depending on your cooker, it can take between 2-4 hours.  Instead of brown sugar, I’ve used ¼ cup of maple syrup or honey, depending on what I have. After the oatmeal is cooked, I toss in my preferred add ins. Just to be clear, the oatmeal in my Crock Pot has cinnamon and brown sugar (or maple syrup or honey). When I make these muffins, I don't change the amount of brown sugar or cinnamon called for in the recipe even though it's already in my leftover oatmeal.

Tina Vignali is an English as a Second Language adjunct at the Charles D. Worthington Atlantic City Campus. She writes a monthly travel-theme column for the CommuniCator. You can follow her trips around the block and journeys around the world in her travel blog Traveleidoscope.com.