Baked oatmeal to go! Pumpkin spice style and kid approved for a busy fall day!
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Whew has this first month of school flown by!
We are definitely in the school swing and the big girls are loving being back in the classroom. My 3 year old has surprisingly adjusted to solo mornings with momma too! (Though perhaps not surprisingly since she is that go with the flow 3rd born!)
Since our mornings are quite early, sometimes my toddler isn’t quite out of bed before it is to head out the door for school drop off.
Since our mornings are quite early, sometimes my toddler isn’t quite out of bed before it is to head out the door for school drop off.And sometimes toys are way more interesting than breakfast right when she gets up! Having a portable breakfast has been important for some of our school days. We have been keeping protein banana muffins, healthy apple breakfast cookies, and baked oatmeal cups on hand in the freezer for those slower toddler mornings, and they have been working out great, both for my busy toddler, and for my growing school aged girls.
These pumpkin spice baked oatmeal cups have also been a fun seasonal breakfast for my older girls getting excited for all things pumpkin, Halloween, and Thanksgiving!
The baked oatmeal cups freeze up great and make 2 dozen at a time. We made some for breakfast this week, and I’m freezing half of them to save for a nourishing, but fun pumpkin breakfast on Halloween morning.
Start their day out nutrient dense so they are ready for a full morning of playing and learning!
Start their day out nutrient dense so they are ready for a full morning of playing and learning!Round out your baked oatmeal cup breakfast with fried eggs (or hard boiled eggs if you are needing portable and on the go!), and raw milk or coconut milk. You could have a baked oatmeal cup with a cup of whole yogurt or some sausage if you can’t have eggs.
Pumpkin Spice Baked Oatmeal Cups
Ingredients
- 5 cups oats
Not quick oats! If you are gluten free be sure your oats say gluten free or there might be trace amounts of gluten there - Juice of 1 lemon
- 2 cups walnuts & pecans chopped fine (I use the food processor to chop them fast! I use soaked/dehydrated "crispy" nuts for best digestion. IF YOU ARE NUT FREE you can use pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, or even shredded coconut.)
- 1 - 15 oz can pumpkin
- 2 eggs I think flax eggs will work here if you are egg free
- 1/3 cup avocado oil or melted butter or coconut oil
- 2/3 cup pure maple syrup This sounds like a lot but remember this makes 2 dozen - I think they are on the mildly sweet side so if you have kids used to sweeter things you could add a bit more - taste the mixture for yourself!
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 tsp cinnamon
- 2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp cloves
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1 tsp sea salt
- alternative to the individual cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg, you could use your favorite pumpkin pie spice bend - say maybe 1-2 TB of pumpkin pie spice
Instructions
- The night before you want to make the baked oatmeal cups, put the oats and lemon juice in a medium mixing bowl and cover with water. Cover the bowl with a towel and let it soak overnight 8-10 hours. This soaking process breaks down the phytic acid in the oats making the grain more digestible.
- After the oats are done soaking, pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees, and put the oats in a strainer to drain off any excess water while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
- Put the remainder of the ingredients into the medium mixing bowl, add the drained oats, and combine with a wooden spoon.
- Scoop the oat batter into a muffin tin (I line mine with silicone muffin cups but I think greasing them with butter would be fine), and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. The recipe makes 24 baked oatmeal cups.
Oh these sound so good! Perfect for busy school mornings. My youngest would love these!
Hi Renee,
My children unfortunately have allergies to eggs and nuts. I’m thinking of using a chia egg, gelatin egg or banana as an egg replacement. What do you think will work best? Thank you so much for the feedback. Can’t wait to try the recipe!
Hi Julie! I definitely think a chia or gelatin egg would work great – even the banana really. The egg is for binding not for rising in this case so any of those would work! Keep us posted how they turn out as I’m sure there may be some egg free friends hoping to make them too!
These look so yummy!
Do you heat these up before serving? Thanks!
Hi Breanna! If I am pulling them out of the freezer for breakfast I do tend to warm them up quick in the oven but they taste just fine thawed out too!
Hi Renee!! These look so good, but we are pretty much grain-free at my house right now. We do eat quinoa, though. Do you think these might work with precooked quinoa in place of the oats?
Thank you 🙂
Hi Meg! I haven’t baked with quinoa very often, but I definitely think it would be worth a try!
Hi Renee! Sending update on our egg free experience. I ended up using a chia egg and they turned out great. I wasn’t expecting the consistency which was a very crunchy outside and a custardy oatmeal inside. I thought they were delicious and ended up eating the majority of them. Unfortunately my children never really took to them. I guess they’re pickier than I thought. sigh…
Hi Julie! That is a bummer on the kiddos – though maybe they wouldn’t be as custardy inside if cooked longer? I wonder if the chia egg makes them need a longer cook time – ours are cakey-er and maybe the kids will like that better? You could also play with the seasoning if it is too strong and just do a little more sweetener 😉
just made these today! Yum! I did 12 in silicone muffin tin and rest in a 13×9 for roughly 40 mins. I set timer for 30 and didnt hear it go off. So good!
So glad you enjoyed them Lisa!