a simple real food recipe :: soaked cran-apple almond baked oatmeal

Here is a great, warm, weekend breakfast for your family!Seriously…this is my back yard last week! When I know we are going to be buried in 2 feet of snow (no joke!), I try getting a nice warm breakfast ready for my family to start their day. We knew this was coming the night before, so I took a couple minutes to get my oats ready that night, and the next morning, had the baked oatmeal done by the time my husband had to leave in the snowy mess for work 😉 He just takes it with him in a to-go container!There are many baked oatmeal recipes you can google or search on pinterest. This is my take on many recipes I have tried fixed up to our taste. I don’t like a soupy goopy baked oatmeal, and I don’t like it dry either. I like a lot of almonds and eggs so it is filled with protein and not just oats. I like making a big of a batch in a 9×13 pan instead of a small 8×8 because it reheats in the oven later in the week so easy. It’s like making 2 to 3 breakfasts in one shot!Play around with the ingredients to your family’s taste – that is the magical thing about recipes! The base is always the same and pretty forgiving – you won’t mess it up, I promise! My husband prefers dried cranberries to raisins so that’s what we do – you could do dried apricots, raisins, or other dried fruit. Or maybe a quality chocolate chip?! Instead of the apple, try a couple bananas! Instead of almonds, do up walnuts or pecans! The possibilities are endless! Let me know what you come up with!

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a simple real food recipe :: soaked cran-apple almond baked oatmeal

 

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Author: Renee - www.theSIMPLEmoms.com

Ingredients

• 4 cups rolled oats (not quick oats)
• 1 ½ cups raw almonds coarsely chopped (I buzz them in the mini food processor quick)
• ¼ cup whole yogurt to soak (if you are dairy free use 3 TB lemon juice or apple cider vinegar to soak)
• Pinch of sea salt
• 1 cup whole milk (if you are dairy free use coconut milk)
• 6 pastured eggs
• 1 ½ TB cinnamon
• 1 tsp almond extract (or vanilla extract if you don’t have the almond)
• ¼ pure maple syrup (or honey if you don’t have the maple syrup)
• ¼ cup melted butter (if you are dairy free use melted coconut oil)
• 2 small apples, finely chopped (I buzz them in the mini food processor)
• 1 cup dried cranberries (or combo of whatever dried fruit you want)
• Drizzle whole yogurt, pure maple syrup, or raw honey over the top if desired!

Instructions

1. The night before you want to make the baked oatmeal, combine the oats, almonds, yogurt, and salt in a mixing bowl and fill with filtered water just to cover the oats. Set the bowl in a warm spot in your kitchen 8-12 hours. The yogurt and salt help break down the phytic acid in the oats and nuts making them more digestible, and making more of their nutrients available.
2. The next morning, dump the oat mixture in a strainer to drain out the extra liquid.
3. While the oats are draining in the sink, preheat your oven to 375, and with a hand mixer, blend up the rest of the ingredients in a mixing bowl, EXCEPT the apples and cranberries.
4. Add the apples, cranberries, and drained oats/nuts into the mixing bowl with the egg mixture and combine.
5. Pour the batter into a buttered 9x13 baking dish. Use coconut oil for the dish if you are dairy free.
6. Bake at 375 for 45-55 minutes. Let it rest 5-10 minutes before cutting.

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Kitchen Tips:

1. EVERYTHING can be done the night before! You can blend up the egg mixture in a bowl the night before and keep it in your fridge and even chop the apples. Just hit the apples with a little lemon juice to keep them from browning and keep in an air tight container. All you have to do in the morning is drain out your oats/nuts and add them and the fruit into the egg mixture!
2. Leftovers! I just keep the leftovers right in the pan and keep covered in the fridge. When I want to reheat, I just warm up the whole pan in the oven again!
3. Leftovers are great fried up in a pan with some butter too 😉
4. You can half the recipe and do it up in an 8×8 pan – just bake it more like 30ish minutes.
5. You can do up muffin cups if you prefer as well! Again just bake it more like 20-30 minutes.

YOUR TURN!

What are your baked oatmeal secret ingredients?! Let me know how you like it if you try it!

This post was shared at The Polikva Family’s Family Table Tuesday, and Real Food Forager’s Fat Tuesday!