Baked Apple Oatmeal
Oct 05, 2011, Updated Oct 03, 2017
I blog about clean eating recipes, and the comments I get most often are about how busy people are and how they just don’t have time to eat healthfully.
Well, I’m no stranger to a busy day. In fact, most mornings around here are very busy, and getting into the kitchen to cook often just does not become a reality. So I try to find quick and easy options that will still give my family and I the nutrition we all need.
Oats are such a fabulously nutritious way to start the morning! The prep time is very minimal. The recipe below only involves grating an apple and tossing everything in a baking dish and then into the oven. If I take ten minutes (tops) to get this in the oven before I start getting ready in the morning, by the time we’re ready for something to eat, it’s ready! And the great part is my family gets a nice, warm, healthy start to their day.
Another way to get your morning bowl of oaty goodness is to get a small, one-quart crock pot and a plug-in timer. The night before assemble your oats, any flavorings like apple or cinnamon included, and set your timer to turn on the crock pot about four hours before you get up. (Times will vary slightly from crock pot to crock pot) Then when you wake in the morning, you’ve got a warm, comforting bowl of oats waiting to greet you!
Or you could make thermos oatmeal. While this will only work with quick oats, it’s definitely healthier than many other breakfast options. Simply put some unsweetened quick oats into a thermos with hot water and your favorite additions. By the time you get to work, you’ve got a steaming thermos of oats!
Oh, and don’t think for a second that oats will get boring. I’m currently working on a project for creating 365 ways to make/flavor/top your oats. I call it The Oatmeal Project.
So there you have it! No more excuses for skipping breakfast, or even worse, getting breakfast handed to you through a little window. Get into the kitchen and make some oats!
Baked Apple Oatmeal
Ingredients
- 1 cup Steel Cut Oats
- 4 cups Water
- 1 large Apple, grated
- 1 tsp. grated or ground Cinnamon
- 2 Tbsp. Chia Seeds - Optional
- 1/2 cup Raisins or Dried Cranberries, unsweetened or fruit juice sweetened - Optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Combine all ingredients in a large, oven-proof baking dish.
- Place in the oven and bake for 1 hour.
- Remove from oven and stir in anything else you'd like to add!
Nutrition
Tiffany McCauley publishes The Gracious Pantry, a clean eating food blog where she has published over 1000 clean-eating recipes. She is the author of several cookbooks: Clean Eating Freezer Meals, Skinny Ms. Slow Cooker, and Skinny Ms. Superfoods. She is also the founder of National Clean Eating Day, which occurs on October 1st each year.
I make oatmeal in my stainless steel rice cooker every day. I have the dry ingredients (Example: GF rolled oatmeal, cinnamon, flax seed meal, walnuts, prunes) measured out in jars in the refrigerator ready to go. First thing in the morning I plug in the cooker, add water and the contents of one jar, and push the button to cook. By the time I check my email, brush and floss my teeth, and drink my morning Kombucha Tea it is ready. Since my husband gets up later than I do, his portion stays warm in the rice cooker until he gets up to eat. When travelling by car on a trip, I’ve taken my rice cooker with me to fix breakfast in the mornings in our hotel.
I have made steel cut oats in a crockpot overnight. I use a bowl that fits inside my 4qt pot. I put the oats and water and other ingredients like cinnamon, raisins, dried cranberries in the bowl. I put the bowl in the crockpot and pour in enough water to come up to about 3/4 of the bowl. Then I turn the crockpot on low when I go to bed and the oatmeal is ready in the morning.
I will have to try your recipe using this method.
Michelle – Hope you enjoy them!
LucM – Glad you enjoyed it!
Super easy and super yummy! Sprinkled with raw sugar at the end. A definite keeper.
Jaimie – It should be fine for up to 3 days. You can reheat in the microwave. Enjoy!
Is this something that is still good as leftovers?
Great idea to get a wall timer for the crock pot! I’m totally going to do that! Steel cut oats rule.