Healthy Baked Oats with Berries

A healthy, easy, and family friendly one-bowl breakfast. This Baked Oats recipe is packed with plant based protein, sugar free, and great for babies & toddlers.

Mornings with children (especially toddlers and babies), can be a really busy time. And breakfasts, such as this one, help make those mornings easier. You can bake the oats the night before, then either serve them cold, or warm them back up for 10 minutes in the oven. My kids like it either way.

Some other ideas for make-ahead healthy breakfasts are oven baked hash browns or chocolate chip banana and lentil muffins.

How healthy are baked oats?

Oats are an highly nutritious food, packed with essential vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. They're also high in fiber and protein. All of which make them a great food to feed your family. Their versatility also makes them a very family friendly meal option - you can please everyone!

Our baked oats also have quinoa flakes and hemp seeds added to them. We've done this for additional nutrients, and the fact that quinoa and hemp are two of a few sources of plant based complete protein. A complete protein is one that contains all 9 essential amino acids. These are the ones that our bodies can't make, and therefore must obtain through food.

Because of how picky babies and toddlers (and kids of all ages for that matter) can be, we include extra ingredients like quinoa flakes and hemp seeds to recipes in order to provide our little ones with the best nutritional profile meals that we can.
We also add them to our Weetabix Medley, which was one of our sons favourite breakfasts when he was a toddler.

How to make baked oats without banana

Our recipe contains banana as a natural sweetener. However it would be very easy to swap this out for sugar, applesauce or a liquid sweetener such as maple syrup. A ¼ cup of one of these would be sufficient.

The banana does also help to bind the oats together, so if you eat eggs, you can swap the banana for 1 egg (whisked). Or for a vegan alternative you can make a flax-egg (1 tablespoon ground flaxseed + 2 tbsps water).

Jump to:

• How healthy are baked oats?
• How to make baked oats without banana
• What you'll need
• Ingredients
• How to make Vegan Baked Oats
• Substitutions & Variations
• Storage
• Recipe tip
• Frequently asked questions
• More family friendly breakfast ideas
• Recipe
• Comments

What you'll need

Ingredients

• Baking Powder - If you need this recipe to be gluten free, double check that your baking powder is, as it can sometimes contain gluten.
• Banana - The riper the banana, the sweeter it will be. Ideally you want you banana with brown spots, the more the better.
• Berries - We like blueberries and raspberries for this, but any berries will taste delicious.
• Hemp Seeds - Hemp seeds are a source of omega 3's which is essential for healthy brain function. These aren't essential to the recipe though, so if you want/need to leave them out then you can do. We get ours at our local health food store, but they are also easily available online. Just be sure to buy shelled hemp seeds.
• Oats - You can use rolled oats, or instant oats. It depends on what texture you want. We typically use rolled oats, but instant oats can be handy for feeding babies of weaning age as they are smaller and less chewy.
• Plant Milk - Any plant milk works in this recipe, so use what you typically have at home. Whether that's almond, soy, oat, coconut or pea.
• Quinoa Flakes - These are a brilliant way to add extra protein in to food for the kids (and yourself). Quinoa is one of the few plant based sources of a complete protein. Meaning that it contains all 9 essential amino acids - the ones our bodies can't make itself, and must obtain through food.
• Raisins - A sweet way to boost the iron content of your breakfast!
• Vanilla Extract - You can use extract or paste. It's the same quantity for either.

Equipment

• Fork
• Ovenproof dish

How to make Vegan Baked Oats

Hint: You can lightly grease the sides of your oven proof dish with butter prior to baking to prevent the oats from sticking. I find that I don't usually need to do this, but it will depend on how non-stick your dish is.

Substitutions & Variations

The only limit is your imagination when it comes to toppings for baked oats. Below are a few examples of how to jazz them up:

• Nuts - roughly chop some of your favourite nuts and sprinkle them over the oats before baking. Pecans, hazelnuts and almonds would go really well with the berries. Alternatively spoon over a little nut butter of your choosing.
• Yoghurt - coconut, vanilla or berry yoghurt would taste great with this. We topped ours with coconut yoghurt, maple syrup and pumpkin seeds. There's also nothing stopping you serving it with a little ice cream as a tasty dessert.
• Mix up the fruit - ditch the berries and go tropical and add some sliced kiwi, mango and pineapple on top of the oats after baking them. Finish with coconut yoghurt and then spoon over some passion fruit.. Yum!

For dietary requirements see below:

• Gluten Free - Be sure to buy gluten free oats and use a plant milk other than oat.
• Nut Free - Our recipe is already nut free, but for nut free topping ideas you can drizzle over some sunflower seed butter and maple syrup, then sprinkle on some toasted sesame seeds.

Storage

Cover and store in the fridge for 2-3 days. We don't recommend freezing this.

Frequently asked questions

More family friendly breakfast ideas

Recipe