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Healthy Waists, Healthy Wallets: Baked Berry Oatmeal
Congratulations! You made it to the second week of school!
In our house, the first week was pretty easy. We were all excited for the new year, and we were on our best behavior. We would go to bed early. We would make sure that homework and clothes were ready to go and lunches were packed. We would get up on time and have a healthy breakfast.
And then the second week of school would hit. Bedtimes would stretch later and later, and there was always a scramble to get up, get dressed, make lunch, and eat breakfast. In fact, as my children got older, they often skipped breakfast.
Until I discovered baked oatmeal. They both liked the sweet-but-not-too-sweet flavor, and I would pack it full of good things like seeds, nuts, and fruit. It was easy to make on the weekend and have ready to grab on the way out the door. Or, if they were up early enough, they would heat it up and eat it with more fruit and a little bit of vanilla yogurt. Yum!
Baked Berry Oatmeal
Ingredients
2 cups old-fashioned oats
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking powder
¾ to 1 teaspoon kosher salt
½ cup chopped and or seeds (we particularly like a mixture of slivered almonds, pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, and hemp hearts)
½ cup unsweetened coconut flakes
1 ½ cups (more or less) milk of your choice – make sure it’s at room temperature!
¼ cup honey or maple syrup
3 tablespoons melted butter or coconut oil, divided use
2 large eggs
Splash vanilla extract
10 ounces frozen berries (you can used dried fruits in this, but dried fruits are expensive!)
¼ cup coconut palm sugar or raw sugar
Directions
Preheat the oven to 375°. Grease a 9×9 baking dish and set aside.
In a large bowl, mix together the oats, spices, baking powder, salt, nuts and/or seeds, and unsweetened coconut flakes. In another bowl, whisk together the room temperature milk, honey or maple syrup, melted butter or coconut oil, eggs, and vanilla extract. Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and fold to incorporate.
Spread the fruit over the bottom of the baking dish and top with the oat mixture, spreading it evenly in the dish. Top with the coconut palm or raw sugar and bake for approximately 45 minutes or until the top is golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
You can serve this cold, warm, or room temperature. It’s great as a grab-and-go breakfast, but it’s even better with more fruit and some vanilla yogurt! I would make two pans of this at the beginning of each week, and it made enough for two teens and their mother to have breakfasts on school mornings, with some left over for afterschool snacks.
GREAT