I totally go in and out of the habit of planning our menu for the week. When I do it – I do it! Breakfast lunch and dinner – written out on some pretty paper, and I make it happen. But most of the time, I don’t make menu planning a priority and I’m kinda stuck every afternoon wondering what the heck we’re gonna have for dinner. Because we buy meat in bulk – ie, meat shares (½ cow, ¼ pig, 10 pastured chickens at once) we always have a good protein option in the fridge. We also have a CSA, so we often aren’t shopping for our recipes, we’re figuring out what to make with the food we have.
I actually wish I was an all the time recipe follower, and certainly wish I was a weekly menu planner. (To me this doesn’t even mean a meal PREPPER, like I’m just trying to get myself in the habit of actually planning out what we’ll eat and cook!). I have gotten better at cooking from recipe recipes, as I set a goal for myself a few years ago that I’d make one new recipe a week. And it’s been great and I almost always, always hold true to this. But the menu planning still doesn’t stick!
Any who, I am currently in a “I’m going to menu plan” mode, and this is how baked oatmeal was born! I have always seen recipes for it, and seen others post about it, but never taken a stab myself. All of the recipes didn’t quite do it for me, so I did what I often do – I came up with my own!
This baked oatmeal is super simple, super tasty. Hearty and filling, and depending on how many you’re feeding, you’ll likely have left overs. This is sure to be on my rotation of easy breakfasts to make or kindly ask my husband or Mom to make when our new babe is here :).
Banana Spice Baked Oatmeal
Ingredients
- 3 TBSP butter - coconut oil or fat of choice, melted
- 2 bananas - sliced
- 2 cups organic rolled oats
- 1/2 fine coconut flakes - optional
- 1 tsp Cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp Nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 cup milk of choice - I use canned coconut milk, but any will work
- 1 ½ cups water
- ¼ cup grade A dark amber maple syrup - see why this type in notes
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375.
- Grease bottom of a 8×8 baking dish with 1 TBSP of fat of choice. Place one layer of sliced bananas on the bottom of the dish.
- Mix together dry ingredients – oats, optional coconut flakes, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and baking soda. Once mixed well, pour into baking dish on top of the banana.
- Mix wet ingredients together – milk, water, maple syrup, melted fat, and vanilla extract. Pour the liquid mixture on top of the dry.
- Place a layer of sliced banana on top of the oatmeal/liquid mixture.
- Put oatmeal in preheated over and and bake for 35-40 minutes.
Notes
- Buy organic oats! There has been some information released recently on oats and the prevalence of most commercial oats containing glyphosate – from Roundup. We use this brand to avoid it as best we can.
- I actually meant to put an egg in this but totally forgot – and I’m glad I did because now it’s an egg free breakfast option for those needing to avoid eggs!
- Add frozen organic berries if you have them! I only buy fresh berries in season, but buy frozen blueberries all year (when the ones we’ve picked and frozen are gone). I’m sure they’d be really yummy added on top with the banana before you bake.
- Grade A dark amber maple syrup is best. It’s cheapest, most nutrient dense, and has a strong maple syrup flavor – so you don’t have to use too much!
If it seems a little dry – add yogurt, applesauce or a little milk of choice to moisten it up.
