This is the recipe that made me fall in love with baked oatmeal. Filled with tart cherries and pepitas, it's nutrient-dense (and dairy-free!) Thank you to the Cherry Marketing Institute for helping me to share this recipe with you.
Whenever someone tells me that they skipped breakfast that day, I start to twitch a little. First of all, skipping any meal (or snacks, for that matter) is just not in my wheelhouse. That’s the price of just loving food SO MUCH. But if I even considered skipping breakfast, my family would stage an intervention, primarily out of self-preservation. They know what Mum is like when she is hungry. Cra-a-a-b-b-y!
Despite my mood…um…issues linked to missing breakfast, it’s also been shown that regularly eating a nutritious breakfast can lead to great improvements in weight control, energy and overall performance.
Do you know the saying “Eat the rainbow”? It refers to eating fruits and vegetables with a range of colors to provide your body with a wide array of nutrients. Well, I don’t know about you, but my breakfast tends to look decidedly brown before I dress it up. Brown cereal, brown oatmeal, brown toast…blah.
It’s easier than you think to take your breakfast from blah to nutrient-packed, simply by tossing in a few ingredients, such as raw or toasted nuts and dried tart cherries. Tart cherries contain and Vitamin A and anthocyanins, which are antioxidants that have been linked to a number of health benefits, such as decreasing inflammation, soothing arthritis symptoms and easing exercise-related muscle pain.
Now let’s back up to the “oatmeal” part of my breakfast routine for a moment. In the spirit of complete honesty, I have never been able to convince myself to enjoy oatmeal. That always bums me out because oatmeal is such a fantastic, heart-healthy breakfast.
Well, miracles do happen and I am here to tell you that I absolutely LOVE this baked oatmeal. Once it came out of the oven, I couldn’t leave it alone. The texture was dense, not mushy or runny (my previous oatmeal pet peeves) and the flavor was fantastic. Between the tart dried cherries that plumped up while baking and the caramelized edges of the oatmeal, I was in heaven.
The beauty of this recipe is that you can make it on the weekend, then heat up pieces for breakfast during the week. Just store it in the fridge to keep it fresh.
Tart cherries can be found in well-stocked grocery stores, as well as healthy food stores, such as Whole Foods. We always have tart cherries available in at least two forms in our house. My husband tops his cereal with dried tart cherries every morning and I snack on a mixture of handful of dried cherries and raw almonds to hold me over from lunch to dinner. As I mentioned in this post about running a half-marathon, my husband and I drink tart cherry juice two times each day to help with recovery from our long runs, and our kids love it when we add the tart cherry concentrate to smoothies.
For more information on tart cherries and recipe inspiration, be sure to visit the Cherry Marketing Institute site, and follow Choose Cherries on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.
Other healthy breakfast recipes:
Cookin' Canuck's Skinny Southwestern Crustless Quiche {Vegetarian}
Cookin' Canuck's Whole Wheat Carrot Muffins
The Vegetarian Food Lab's Mexican-Style Avocado Toast
Foxes Love Lemons' Make-Ahead Breakfast Muffins
Spicy Southern Kitchen's Whole Wheat Pancakes
Baked Steel Cut Oatmeal with Tart Cherries & Pepitas
Ingredients
- ¾ cup steel cut oats
- ⅓ cup pepitas
- 2 tablespoons ground flax seed
- 1 teaspoons baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- 2 cups unsweetened almond-coconut milk
- ⅓ cup pure maple syrup
- 2 tablespoons melted coconut oil slightly cooled
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup dried tart cherries
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly coat an 8x8 baking pan with cooking spray.
- In a large bowl, stir together the steel cut oats, pepitas, ground flax seed, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the almond-coconut milk, maple syrup, coconut oil, egg and vanilla extract.
- Stir the almond-coconut milk mixture into the oat mixture. Stir to combine.
- Add the dried tart cherries and stir again.
- Transfer the mixture to the prepared baking pan. Bake until the oatmeal is set and golden brown, 55 to 60 minutes.
- Let the mixture cool for 10 minutes. Cut into 9 squares. Serve with additional almond-coconut milk, if desired.
Notes
Nutrition
Disclosure: As an ambassador for The Cherry Marketing Institute, I was compensated for this post. All opinions are my own.
Alida
Oh - thank you for this recipe! What a perfect healthy breakfast to make for my family. We love pepitas and dried cherries - I can't wait to try this!
Liz @ The Lemon Bowl
My son loves dried cherries and we use it all the time in granola but now I want to make your baked oatmeal!!! Looks so good!
Emily Bites
Baked oatmeal is my favorite breakfast! I haven't tried it with steel cut oats yet, so this looks like a great place to start!
Lori @ RecipeGirl
Great idea to make this on the weekend and enjoy it on busy mornings!
Lauren @ Healthy Delicious
I've always loved cherries and I've been really into pepitas lately - this recipe looks like something I'd definitely enjoy
Rachel @ Baked by Rachel
This looks amazing! It would be such a great addition to weekend brunch 🙂
Kim Beaulieu
This is absolutely fabulous. I hate to admit I'm guilty of skipping breakfast. Not because I want to or forget, but my ibs rages in the morning so eating just seems to anger it even more. But this would probably calm it. Cherries seem to help mellow it out when it gets jumping. Plus this is just gorgeous so who could resist this.
Rudy
My local WF doesn't have tart cherries nor pepitas 🙁 What else can I use? I have walnuts and slice almonds in the pantry. Only have fresh blueberries and raspberries in the frig.
Nutmeg Nanny
I love making baked oatmeal. It's such a good way to eat breakfast but still be able to relax in the morning. I love the addition of tart cherries....yum!
Susan
I'm so with you about not loving oatmeal Dara! I want to, because I know it would be a great breakfast in the morning but I do love the sound of a baked oatmeal. I think I need to give it a try.
Carol at Wild Goose Tea
When my kids were younger and I got crabby, they would seriously suggest I needed a nap. And they were always right. BUT who had time. I love cherries and I eat oatmeal 4 mornings out of 7. So this is up country lane of good things to eat.
Ciel
I made it this morning vegan-style, just omitted the egg and it came out perfectly and delicious. Definitely a keeper
Lori @ Foxes Love Lemons
I'm guilty of skipping breakfast often, and I know I need to change my ways. I'm definitely in need to a recipe like this - make on the weekend, then just heat up when I need it. I always have dried cherries on hand, so I'll be giving this a try very soon!
Sommer @ASpicyPerspective
This sounds amazing! A filling and tasty breakfast ... win!
Rachel
Oooohh!! This looks fantastic! I usually cook my oatmeal on the stove and lately I've been doing dried cranberries and pepitas, but I think I will grab me some dried cherries now! And I'm with you on the mushy or runny oatmeal... yuck!
Heather | girlichef
I keep telling myself to try a baked oatmeal recipe - and I have yet to do so. I'm pretty sure this is exactly the place I need to start. Cherries are my favorite fruit...and pepitas can only make everything better. Sounds delicious!
Dara
The tart cherries and pepitas definitely won me over in this recipe. I hope you have a chance to try it, Heather!
Isabelle @ Crumb
I never, ever, ever skip breakfast. I get downright hangry if I don't have a bite to eat in the morning, and the rest of the day just goes downhill from there.
I keep meaning to try baked oatmeal as a make-ahead workday breakfast, but I never quite seem to get around to it. I love me some dried cherries, though, so this recipe is just the kick in the pants I need to finally make it!
Dara
I hear you, Isabelle. That's how my day would go without breakfast, too. This really does work well as a quick breakfast. Make it on the weekend and you'll have breakfast for a few days. Perfect!
Angela {Mind Over Batter}
There are two things I cannot skip: Coffee and breakfast - It's just not safe. It's not. I do love oatmeal and have been looking for ways to jazz it up. I'm giving this one a try this weekend. I can only imagine the aroma as it bakes.
Dara
LOL. I agree, Angela - it's not safe to skip either, particularly for those around us.
Susan
I can see why this would turn you on to oatmeal. I was never a fan of oatmeal until I discovered overnight oats, thanks to several of the food bloggers I follow. The one thing I would do differently with this oatmeal is to add some protein powder to it because I need significantly more protein to keep me going. This recipe is the perfect excuse to use the almond-coconut milk and steel cut oats I have (I can't remember now why I bought the almond-coconut milk…) Thanks for broadening my oatmeal horizons.
Dara
Susan, adding protein powder is a great idea! I'm the same way...more protein means that I'll stay full longer. Yes, the almond-coconut milk really adds great flavor and the steel cut oats have the texture I've been looking for. I hope you have a chance to try this!
Ciel
This sounds fabulous but I am a vegan. Is there a good egg substitute for this? Since there is already quite a bit of flax seed I hesitate to use more.
Dara
Ciel, I think a flax seed egg substitute would still be fine. However, if you'd like a different option, you could use a chia egg instead. Here are directions from Joy the Baker's site: "To replace one large egg, finely friend 1 tablespoon of chia seeds in a spice grinder. Place in a small bowl and stir in 3 tablespoons of water. Allow to sit for 30 minutes before using in a recipe. The mixture will thicken to a gel-like consistency. Just before incorporating into a recipe, stir in a food pinch of baking powder."