baked oatmeal

This Big Batch Baked Oatmeal recipe looks great! The original post has a ton of information about substitutions, reasons for each ingredient, etc., but the nuts and bolts are:

Ingredients

Wet Ingredients

2 cups plain Greek Yogurt 1/4 cup olive oil 4 large eggs 2 teaspoons vanilla 4 cups milk

Dry Ingredients

6 cups old fashioned rolled oats 1 teaspoon salt 4 teaspoons baking powder 2 teaspoons cinnamon

Optional toppings

chocolate chips pecans shredded coconut blueberries

Steps

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9 x 13 baking pan with olive oil or cooking spray.
2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the yogurt, olive oil, eggs and vanilla until well combined. Whisk in the milk.
3. Pour oats evenly over the milk mixture but do not stir. This will create a “bed” for the rest of your dry ingredients.
4. Sprinkle salt, baking powder and cinnamon evenly over the top of the oats. Stir until well combined.
5. Pour mixture into prepared pan, spreading oats evenly. At this point, you can bake it plain and add your favorite toppings later or sprinkle fruit, nuts, chocolate or other toppings right on top before baking.
6. Bake for 40-45 minutes until firm to the touch, lightly golden on top and a little golden brown around the edges. Allow to cool for 5 or 10 minutes before cutting.
7. Cut into 12 squares and serve. Store leftovers in refrigerator and reheat in microwave.

Notes

• This is baked oatmeal, so even though it might look like a muffiny cake, the texture is much more moist. It’s not wet like a bowl of oatmeal, but you wouldn’t mistake it for cake.
• There is NO added sugar in this recipe. We like to add toppings and sweeteners to our own individual bowls. If you’d like to add sugar or other sweetener, use the chart in the blog post as a guide for how much to add to the recipe. Just add it along with the salt, baking powder and cinnamon.
• Old fashioned oats are best for this recipe. I’ve never made it with quick oats, but you can experiment. I think they might absorb more liquid, so you might have to reduce the quantity of oats.
• I love adding the vanilla almond milk. It’s great because I don’t have to measure. I just use the whole 4 cup carton. Between that and the vanilla extract and cinnamon, it just smells amazing while it’s baking. However, you can use any kind of milk you like. You can even substitute water.
• Sprinkling the salt, baking powder and spices evenly over the dry oats helps with getting them evenly incorporated in this one bowl recipe. If you add the cinnamon directly into the liquid, for instance, it’s more likely to clump.
• This recipe is infinitely adaptable. Add all kinds of toppings before baking or after baking. Eat the oatmeal with a fork or break it up and pour milk over it in a bowl and eat with a spoon.
• I give lots of ideas for substitutions for the milk, oil and yogurt in the post. Check out the post for lots of adaptable ideas!