Berry oatmeal casserole

My kids love oatmeal. The only problem is they like those little packets of oatmeal with all the artificial flavor and lots of sugar. I'm glad they like oatmeal but not so glad they like that junk. I'm not going to lie, I like it too. But we are cleaning up our diet around here and that's one of the things that needs to go. I have found many recipes online and especially on pinterest for different baked oatmeal. Nothing wrong with them but I made up my own recipe based off of a bunch of random recipes. So what you have here is a healthy, berry, bananay (not a word) oatmeal casserole. I used less sugar and milk than the others called for. I also pre soaked my oats and used almonds instead of chocolate chips or other nuts. Oh and I didn't add butter. I'm sure butter taste great in it but I decided not to use it.

Before I tell you the ingredient list you should know that you should soak your rolled oats 12 - 24 hours ahead of time. I'll let someone else explain why. Just click HERE.

 

As you can see from the picture above you will need

2 cups of soaked oats. Soak with 4 cups of warm water and preferably a tablespoon of lemon juice or yogurt.

Some nuts. I chose almonds and also soaked them overnight. Then I cut them up.

As you can see from the picture below you will need

------------

Brown Sugar 2TBS

Maple syrup 1TBS

Baking powder 1/2 tsp

Salt 1tsp

Cinnamon 1tsp

-------------

Ripe banana cut into slices.

Berries of choice. The blueberries are so good in it. About 1 cup

----------------

Milk 3/4 cup

Egg 1

Vanilla extract 1 tsp

 

 

Preheat your over to 375 degrees Fahrenheit

Drain your oats and almonds. Cut the almonds up.

In a mixing bowl add the oats, almonds, brown sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, salt, maple syrup and half the berries.

Have a helper mix that up for you.

flatten it into a 9x13" baking pan.

Having another helper lay the sliced bananas and the rest of the berries on top.

Mix together the egg, milk and vanilla. Double check to make sure your helper mixed the egg in well. Or like me you will see egg on top of your casserole.

Place it in the over for 35 minutes.

Do some school (so what my kids still has on her pj's for brunch and school!), read (if you have no kids at home), do some chores or drink your coffee while you wait. We chose to do school and I drank my coffee.

I recommend letting it sit about five minutes so it sets like a casserole but we couldn't wait any longer. We were already calling it brunch instead of breakfast.

It was good! We didn't want to waste it so we ate the rest of it at snack time.

I hope you enjoyed this post. This seems to be a recipe you can switch up without worrying too much, so just have fun with it.

 

Here is where I got most of my inspiration! You may just like her version better.

Give either a try, I'm sure you'll like it.