No-Bake Baked Oatmeal

Have you seen the Featured Recipes section on the right side of the blog? These are three of my favorite original LLE recipes. I’ll be changing them up periodically so keep your eyes peeled!

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Oatmeal.

A super food. A whole grain. A great breakfast food to keep your belly full. I just wish I loved it….again.

As I’ve explained before, oatmeal and I have a wonky relationship. I used to be a die-hard oatmeal eater. I ate a big bowl of oatmeal at least once a day, sometimes even twice. However, it was during my stint of restrictive eating and over-exercising when my love for oatmeal blossomed. As a result, I often associate oatmeal with that not-so-awesome time in my life.

I still enjoy oatmeal but I rarely ever crave it. I don’t even eat it enough for it to appear in my tag cloud (located on the right sidebar)! It’s fun to see which foods are the largest font size over there .

I love oats though (hello AllieBars?) so I am always thinking of ways to play around with them to create delicious breakfasts.

For example, I grind up oats to make my 3 Ingredient Oat Flour Crepes

…or cook them on the stove to make Oat Bran Danish Pancakes

…or bake ‘em up to make Quinoa Banana Bread Granola

Well this week it’s been all about No-Bake Baked Oatmeal.

I found myself craving oatmeal the other day. Not just any kind of oatmeal though….I really wanted to make some baked oatmeal. I like that it tastes fluffy like a muffin but it still has the nutty, chewy texture of oats.  However, turning on the oven for one serving of baked oatmeal would NOT fly in this house. Not to mention, it takes a little too long to make for this impatient stomach of mine. Thus, I’ve been making No-bake Baked Oatmeal, which take about 3 minutes to make.

The recipe is similar to oatmeal pancakes but not quite the same. I microwave the batter for 30-40 seconds (key part!!) to cook it a bit and then ‘bake’ it in a pan. That way it’s slightly soft on the inside and crispy on the outside.

I’ve made three different versions this week already. Could this be the recipe that brings oatmeal back into my life?

The first version was made with sweet potatoes and topped with banana soft serve. The warm oatmeal combined with the cold banana is superb. Try it for yourself!

No-Bake Baked Oatmeal

Ingredients:

• 2 egg whites
• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• dash of cinnamon
• splash of water or milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• add-ins of choice (banana, sweet potato/pumpkin, fruit chunks, chocolate chips, etc.)

Directions:

Combine egg whites and rolled oats in a small bowl and mix until evenly distributed. Stir in cinnamon, vanilla and desired mix-ins. Microwave for 30-40 seconds. Stir with a spoon to break up the chunks. Form a patty with the partly cooked ‘batter.’ Pan fry both sides on medium heat until golden brown. Top with fruit, yogurt, nuts, nut butter, maple syrup, etc.

*Makes 2 small servings or 1 large serving

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I also had a small serving plain topped with yogurt and blueberries

This morning, I mixed the blueberries into the batter.

Topped with banana soft serve and a side of sliced strawberries.

It could be that microwaving them prior to cooking makes no difference but that it takes less time to cook on the skillet. In which case these would just be glorified oatmeal pancakes. I like to think it makes the oats a little more oatmealy though. Perhaps I’ll have to try both methods side by side and compare the taste and texture. Or I could just whip up a batch of real baked oatmeal in the oven!

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I’ll be back later to fill you in on my recent workouts, other meals ‘n’ snax and updates on the job search.

Tagged as: Banana, Blueberries, Egg Whites, Oatmeal, Oats, Soft Serve, Strawberries, Sweet Potatoes, Yogurt