Happy Pumpkin Oatmeal Day! OK, technically it’s National Oatmeal Day, but since National Pumpkin Day was on Monday, and I missed it (drat!), I decided to make this recipe for Baked Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal a two-fer. I started with my favorite baked steel-cut oatmeal recipe and tweaked it (why reinvent the wheel, I say). I added pumpkin and more milk, changed the nuts and dried fruit, and made the spices more pumpkin-worthy. This is morning #2 of it, and I say it’s delicioso!
The extra milk, the three eggs and the nuts give this breakfast dish a little protein bump. Whenever I have a new patient who mentions they eat oatmeal (cooked in water) with fruit for breakfast, I ask, “So, how do you feel afterwards?” The response is almost always, “I’m starving an hour later!” Yep, not enough protein.
I wanted to use pumpkin pie spice, but I didn’t have any, so I made my own. The “recipe” for that is included below. It makes roughly double the amount you’ll need for the oatmeal recipe.
Baked Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal
Serves 4-6
Ingredients:
- 3 eggs
- 1-3/4 cups milk of choice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- 2 tablespoons butter or coconut oil (melted and slightly cooled)
- 1-1/2 cups steel-cut oats
- 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
- Pinch of sea salt
- 1/2 cup pecans (or nuts of choice)
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries
- Additional butter or coconut oil for greasing the pan
Directions:
- The night before, grease an 8-by-8-inch square pan or a deep pie pan with butter or coconut oil.
- Whisk the eggs in a medium-size bowl. Add the liquid ingredients (milk, maple syrup, vanilla) and whisk just to combine. Add the dry ingredients (oats, spices, salt, pecans, dried cranberries) and whisk again to combine.
- Pour into the prepared pan, cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator to to soak overnight (about 8 to 12 hours).
- The next morning, remove the oatmeal mixture from the refrigerator and preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Bake for about 60 minutes until the top is golden brown and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean and dry.
- You can serve immediately if you want to scoop it out of the pan. If you prefer to cut it into squares or wedges, allow it to cool for 5 or 10 minutes, first. This also reheats quite well!
Pumpkin Pie Spice
Makes about 2 tablespoons
Ingredients:
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon allspice
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Directions:
- Mix all spices together in a small bowl. Store extra in an air-tight jar or container.
- Note: Some people find cloves too “assertive.” If this is true for you, you can cut the amount of cloves in half, if you want your spice a bit gentler!
Since it’s Oatmeal Day, I found it appropriate to call up the website of my favorite cartoonist so I could fall down laughing. Have you met The Oatmeal? If not, I highly recommend him…especially his cat comics.
