Today is pi day…3.14. Since I am a food blogger, I am going to join the masses of others who turn this mathematics focused day into something food related. Pie day.

Pie is much more fun than the actual math related pi, don’t you think? In all honesty, math is not my strong suit. In fact, when I was choosing my major in college, I based it solely on which track had the fewest math classes. Math and I are not compatible.

Sure, my mom always told me “you’ll need to use math all throughout your life” and I was sure she was right, but I also had a lot of confidence in technology and knew that there would be tools out there forever to be my math crutch. What no one warned me about though is that I’d have a math genius for a son…and no one told me how humiliating it might be one day when he needs help with his elementary school homework and I can’t help him because I am pretty much math clueless.

So, as stereotypical as it may be, Jacob and my husband take care of math homework duty. I bake cookies and cakes and delicious breakfast dishes that takes their mind off the fact that mom is not quite so smart when it comes to anything math.

I’m celebrating pi day with a different kind of pie. It’s baked in a pie dish, doesn’t have a crust, and is served for breakfast so it isn’t your traditional kind of pie. However, this baked oatmeal breakfast pie with cinnamon and sugar is the perfect way to start a great day like pi day…even if you don’t love math, you’ll love this special pi pie.

Recipe: Baked Breakfast Oatmeal Pie

• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 Tablespoon baking powder
• 3 cups Quaker instant oats
• 2 Tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350•
2. Mix together pumpkin and sugar. Add the eggs, milk, salt, baking powder and oatmeal and mix until well blended.
3. Pour into a lightly sprayed glass pie dish.
4. Sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon.
5. Bake for 35 minutes or until firm. Serve hot.

Note – this dish can be assembled ahead of time, refrigerated over night, and baked in the oven the next morning.

The post Mathematics {Recipe: Breakfast Oatmeal Pie} appeared first on Dine and Dish.

February is the month for love, and with Quaker that means starting with our hearts… as in heart healthy. February is American Heart Month and Quaker is celebrating by donating $1.00 to the American Heart Association for each current Facebook fan and every new person who “likes” the Quaker Facebook Page during the month of February (up to $250,000). The money donated by Quaker will benefit the AHA’s new program My Heart. My Life., which helps bring healthy cooking curriculum to after-school organizations across the country –> and you know I love that! Stop what you are doing right now and take two seconds to go and “like” Quaker on Facebook. Then come right back here… I’ve teamed up with Quaker for a heart healthy giveaway worth approximately $250!

How are you keeping your heart healthy?

Diet and exercise are integral to heart health and starting your morning off with a great heart healthy breakfast, like a bowl of hot Quaker oatmeal, can help your heart to keep on pumping for a long time to come. More importantly, when we set an example for our children about the importance of a healthy breakfast each morning (like my mom did for me when I was growing up) we help them to start taking care of their heart at an early age.

How about a heart healthy giveaway? My friends at Quaker want to share an Amazing Heart Kit with one lucky Dine & Dish reader! Included in this giveaway:

Quaker oatmeal bowl and products, a yoga mat, Dr. Nieca Goldberg’sComplete Guide to Women’s Health, Quaker Oats heart-healthy recipes and a heart rate monitor. (ARV: $250).

Isn’t that a great giveaway? Enter to win by leaving a comment on this post letting me know what actions you are taking to keep your heart healthy.

Wait – you can do a couple more things to win too!

1. Hopefully you’ve done this already, but make sure you head over to the Quaker Facebook page and give them a thumbs up. Once you have “liked” them, come back over to this post and leave a separate comment letting me know you’ve done that. If you already “like” Quaker on Facebook, that’s great. Just leave a comment here letting me know.
2. Follow @QuakerOats on Twitter. Once you have done that, leave a separate comment on this post letting me know.
3. Tweet the following “Do you care for your heart? Like Quaker’s Facebook page & they’ll donate $1 to the AHA! Visit http://on.fb.me/g46BCc #Quaker” Come back here and live a comment on this post with a link to your tweet!

Entries will be accepted until noon CST on Friday, February 11th. I will then use Random.org to select the lucky comment number!

Please note, this is a sponsored post. The giveaway items are being provided by the lovely people at Quaker. All opinions are my own.

Curious about the muffins in these pictures? You should be! They are delicious Applesauce Oatmeal Streusel Muffins from the Quaker website. Just another great way to incorporate Quaker Oats into a great breakfast for your family.

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Quaker Amazing Heart Giveaway {Recipe: Applesauce Oatmeal Muffins}

These yummy muffins are another great way to incorporate healthy Quaker Oats into a great breakfast for your family.

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 22 minutes minutes

Total Time 37 minutes minutes

Author Dine & Dish

Ingredients

• Topping:
• 1/4 cup Quaker® Oats quick or old fashioned, uncooked
• 1 tablespoon firmly packed brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon margarine or butter melted
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• Muffins:
• 1-1/2 cups Quaker® Oats quick or old fashioned, uncooked
• 1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1/2 cup fat-free milk
• 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 egg white lightly beaten

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 375°F.
• For topping, combine the first four ingredients -- oats, brown sugar, butter and cinnamon -- in small bowl; mix well. Set aside.
• For muffins, combine oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon in large bowl; mix well. In medium bowl, combine applesauce, milk, sugar, oil and egg white; blend well. Add to dry ingredients all at once; stir just until dry ingredients are moistened. (Do not overmix.)
• Fill muffin cups almost full. Sprinkle with reserved topping, patting gently.
• Bake 20 to 22 minutes or until deep golden brown. Cool muffins in pan on wire rack 5 minutes. Remove from pan. Serve warm.

The post Quaker Amazing Heart Giveaway {Recipe: Applesauce Oatmeal Muffins} appeared first on Dine and Dish.

Ever since I came into contact with the folks from the Quaker Chewy Afterschool Rocks program and the After School Alliance, I’ve been trying to think of ways to be more involved with my kids when they get back home from school. I took some time to search through the afterschool toolkit for parents and teachers and came across so many ideas to make afterschool time special. The ideas that I loved the most, though, revolved around cooking. I’ve said time and time again how I think cooking with your kids is teaching them such a vital, lifelong skill and builds strong bonds within the family as well.

Life is crazy around the holidays, and I know how having your kids help you in the kitchen is not always the quickest or easiest route to getting things done, but when time is tight and you want to engage your kids and get some of your holiday baking done at the same time, look to afterschool time to do both.

I needed to make some cookies for a Thanksgiving teacher event, so I decided it would be the perfect project to have my kids help me with.

We got busy in the kitchen. Thankfully this recipe for Quaker’s Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies required two sticks of butter because unwrapping the sticks of butter seems to always be something the girls bicker about when one or the other gets to do it. Who knew opening butter could be so fun? Look at how intense these gals are at getting their task done!

And of course, their next favorite part… adding the sugar. By the way, thank you sooooo much, Auntie Sandie, for teaching them about eating sugar balls!

It is usually after the sugar is all in and the chance of yummy tastes is gone that my sugar lovers lose interest.

Thank goodness Jacob likes to stick around for the rest of the dirty work. He’s pretty darn good at dumping ingredients in and now that he’s in 3rd grade, he can do most of a fairly straightforward recipe without a lot of instruction from me.

Word got out that the dough was ready. Funny how suddenly everyone flocks to the kitchen for a taste when they hear that!

The cookies are in the oven now, so what to do with all that time we have to spend waiting? Well, Leah seemed to have a pretty grand old time with the Quaker Oats container.

And the 15 minutes the cookies took to bake was the perfect amount of time to get homework done for the night!

The cookies are done and now, we have accomplished several goals. We’ve spent some quality afterschool time together in the kitchen. We’ve made a delicious afterschool snack and my Thanksgiving cookies for the school staff are made.

(That is, if the cookies last long enough. These are some darn good cookies… I have to say I’ve been guilty of sneaking a bite here and there!)

Recipe: Quaker Great Pumpkin Cookies (from the Quaker Oats Website)

• 2  cups all-purpose flour
• 1-1/3  cups Quaker® Oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)
• 1  teaspoon baking soda
• 1  teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2  teaspoon salt
• 1/2  pound (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
• 1  cup granulated sugar
• 1  cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1  cup LIBBY’S® 100% Pure Pumpkin
• 1  large egg
• 1  teaspoon vanilla
• 3/4  cup chopped walnuts (we omitted)
• 3/4  cup raisins (we omitted)
• Decorating icings, semi-sweet chocolate chips, candies, raisins or nuts (optional)

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease baking sheets.

In medium bowl, combine flour, oats, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well. In large bowl, beat butter and sugars with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add pumpkin, egg and vanilla; mix well. Add flour mixture; mix well. Stir in nuts and raisins (we omitted). Drop 1/4 cup dough onto prepared baking sheet; spread into 3-inch circle or oval. Repeat with remaining dough.

Bake 14 to 16 minutes or until cookies are firm and lightly browned. Cool 2 minutes on baking sheets; remove to wire racks. Cool completely. Decorate as desired with icing, chips, candies, raisins or nuts. Makes 20 large cookies.

I have been compensated by Quaker Chewy to be a partner with this great program, however, any opinions stated within this post are my own.

The post Afterschool Cooking {Recipe – Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies} appeared first on Dine and Dish.