Mother's Day Breakfast Idea: Pumpkin Pie Baked Oats

This Sunday it is Mother's Day, so I thought that over the next couple of days I would post up a few ideas for Mother's Day meals. In my family we never really did the big gift thing for Mother's or Father's Day. Instead for my family, it was about showing your appreciation to your parents in other ways and making a meal was and still is one of them. When I was living at home, it quite often used to be breakfast, however, nowadays it can be quite tricky trying to get everyone together for that kind of time, so it usually brunch or lunch.

To complicate things further, Mother's Day has to be split over 2 family's now (Hungry Male's and mine). We usually have to figure out which family gets brunch/lunch time and which gets dinner. This year it is lunch at mine and Dinner at his since we do a Sunday night dinner with his family anyway. I think that I will also make both of our Mum's some sort of food gift, but I will have to update you on that later.

Today's recipe is one that I actually just made for myself to have an easy breakfast sitting in the fridge and I also had pumpkin that needed used up. After making it, I did think that it would make a really nice family breakfast and if you wanted to jazz it up to make it a little more special, some marscapone or a really nice yoghurt would be fantastic with it.

I do understand that for New Zealand tastes having pumpkin in a sweet dish is a strange thing to do, however, since I was a kid I have absolutely loved the American dish pumpkin pie. If you haven't tried a good pumpkin pie you need to get to your kitchen and make it right away! I think that in the USA it would be much easier to make pumpkin desserts as they are able to buy pureed pumpkin in a can. For this recipe I just had to steam and mash it up, but I suppose that makes the breakfast that much more special as you have put more effort into it.

Serves 4

Ingredients
1 cup pureed pumpkin
1 banana
1/3 cup dates, softened in boiling water for 10 minutes
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
2 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 cup rolled oats

1. In the bowl of a blender or food processor place the pumpkin, banana, dates, eggs, milk and cinnamon.
2. Blend until smooth.
3. Stir in the rolled oats until well combined and then place into a greased oven proof dish.
4. Bake at 180 degrees for around 25-30 minutes or until it is firm and starting to form a crust.
5. Serve warm with your choice of toppings (yoghurt and maple syrup are good).