Healthy Baked Oatmeal

May 23, 2019
4.89 from 9 votes
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This Healthy Baked Oatmeal recipe is made with coconut oil and applesauce to lighten it up. It’s a quick and easy breakfast loaded with chocolate chips that can be made ahead and can serve a crowd!

If you love healthy oatmeal recipes, then you’ve got to try my Energy Balls and my Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Bars!

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Easy Baked Chocolate Chip Oatmeal

Don’t you love healthy recipes that include chocolate? (Clearly, I do!) And nothing goes together like soft oatmeal and chocolate chips.

That’s why this Healthy Baked Oatmeal recipe is the perfect breakfast on the go. I like making this in the beginning of the week, portioning it out into squares, and reheating in the morning to serve warm with almond milk and a scoop of peanut butter. You can also top it with bananas, yogurt, or your favorite berries.

The baked oatmeal comes out crisp along the edges and top, but soft and gooey on the inside. It’s almost like a giant oatmeal chocolate chip cookie, but one that’s made with healthy, wholesome ingredients and should be served at breakfast time! This recipe yields about nine large squares of oatmeal, making it the perfect recipe for meal-prepping or serving the whole family on the weekends.

Baked Oatmeal Ingredients

Old-Fashioned Oats: Don’t use the instant or steel-cut variety! Instant will turn to mush, and the steel-cut won’t cook through completely.
Brown Sugar: I prefer using light brown sugar in this baked oatmeal recipe, but dark will work, too, if it’s what you have on-hand.
Baking Powder: To help it rise a little and not turn out completely flat
Salt: You always need salt in a sweet dish like this to balance everything out. I prefer kosher, but you can use table salt or sea salt. Just be careful because a little bit goes a long way!
Cinnamon, Nutmeg, and Cloves: These spices give this oatmeal mega breakfast vibes and also work beautifully with the old-fashioned oats and the chocolate. (Think “oatmeal raisin cookie,” but with chocolate chips instead of raisins and baked to thick, fluffy perfection.
Eggs: You’ll need two large eggs to help this baked oatmeal recipe rise and to hold everything together.
Vanilla: As always, opt for pure vanilla extract over the imitation stuff.
Milk: I prefer using almond milk for this recipe as it’s typically easier on the stomach and can feed a lot of people without worrying about the dairy, but you can use any milk you like.
Coconut Oil: This keeps the oatmeal from drying out without making it too wet while offering some subtle coconut flavor that works so well with the spices, chocolate, and oats.
Applesauce: This is one of the ways I lightened up this baked oatmeal recipe — by using apple sauce in place of granulated sugar and heavy oils!
Chocolate Chips: I like semisweet, but dark chocolate or milk chocolate would also work.

How To Make Baked Chocolate Chip Oatmeal

Combine the dry ingredients — oats, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves — in a medium-sized bowl. Set aside.

In a large bowl, mix together the wet ingredients — eggs, vanilla, almond milk, coconut oil and apple sauce.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients until just combined. (Don’t over-mix!) And gently fold in the chocolate chips.

Pour into the prepared pan, and bake at 350 F for 30-40 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and is set.

Remove from the oven, and allow it to cool before slicing into nine portions.

Serve with warm milk, peanut butter, and fresh berries. Enjoy!

How Can I Make Baked Oatmeal Healthy?

I lightened up this Healthy Baked Oatmeal recipe by substituting coconut oil and apple sauce in place of the butter. I also substituted almond milk in place of full fat milk and reduced the sugar.
To amp up the health benefits even more, you can add flax seeds, chia seeds or hemp seeds to the oatmeal.
You can also substitute the chocolate chips for fresh or dried fruit. (Or include those in addition to the chocolate!) Blueberries or strawberries would be awesome in this!
Drizzle with melted peanut butter, chocolate, or Nutella before serving.

Storage, Freezing, and Reheating Instructions

Store in an airtight container or plastic at room temperature for up to 4 days.
Freeze by the square for up to 3 months in an airtight, freezer-safe container or plastic bag. Wrap each slice generously in plastic wrap to make grabbing one whenever needed easy.
Reheat in the microwave until warmed through, about 1-4 minutes depending on whether it’s at room temperature or frozen.

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