busy girl breakfast: baked oatmeal to go

Quick post for one of the smartest lulus I know, Tricia.  Tricia's a busy young mom and needs breakfast on the go.  I'm a kind of busy older mom with no one to feed breakfast every day other than myself and my cat, but he's super easy.  Besides, he wakes me up every morning around 5:40 and for some unknown reason I get up, go downstairs and feed him and then sleepily climb back upstairs and go back to bed for a little bit.  I trained my kids better than my cat.  Sad state of affairs.

Anyway, here's a breakfast you can make on Sunday night and enjoy all work week.  The brilliant blogger I adapted the recipe from actually bakes her baked oatmeal in 4 or 8 oz mason jars, puts on the rings and lids and keeps them in the fridge so they are ready to throw in her bag every morning.  I usually make mine in a loaf pan and slice it, reheat it and serve it with some yogurt and maybe some fresh fruit.  You don't really need to reheat it, it's pretty tasty cold.  I have posted baked oatmeal before, but this version is vegan without the eggs and milk.  You'll never miss them.  Go ahead and customize with your favorite spices, fruits and nuts.  I'm pretty stable on my choices:  cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, banana and walnuts because I go day to day on raisins and other dried fruit.

Baked Oatmeal To Go

1 cup rolled oats
2 T chia seed or ground flax
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
pinch of fine salt (one or two turns of the Costco sea salt)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 C almond milk (I use unsweetened vanilla almond milk and skip the vanilla extract)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (see above)
2 T pure maple syrup
one sliced or diced banana (apple, peach, fresh or dried blueberries or raisins would be good)
1/3 C chopped walnuts or pecans (or sunflower seeds if you're nut-free)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray 6 little mason jars or one 9x5x2 loaf pan with cooking spray.
In a large bowl, mix together the oats, chia seed/flax, cinnamon, nutmeg, slat and baking powder.  Stir in the almond milk, vanilla and maple syrup and combine well moistening the oats thoroughly (almond milk is mostly absorbed).  Fold in the fruit and nuts of your choice.  Divide into mason jars (about 1/3 cup per jar) or pour into loaf pan.  Pour any leftover milk from mixing bowl into jars or loaf pan.  Bake for 20-25 minutes until slightly firm and golden brown on top.  Cool completely.  Place lids on jars or slice loaf and put in a storage container.  Refrigerate until ready to eat or take with you as you fly out the door.

first time I made this:  one mason jar and one 6-inch cake pan,
now I use a loaf pan for easy slices

ready for the fridge

Comments

Popular Posts