Baked Blueberry Oatmeal (Vegan)

 

Back when I was in the throws of the holidays and it was right after we had moved so everything was insane, I remember saying to myself (more than once), "I can't wait for the holidays to be over, things will calm down and I can get some stuff done around here."

Hahahaha!! Bwa-hahahaha!!

Oh. My. Wow. I think life will never calm down around here, we will just go from one crazy, completely consuming thing to another. And yet I'm sure I would complain if life was boring, right?

The most imminent craziness is my oldest is graduating high school in 3 1/2 weeks. I have no idea how it happened. It's been, what, a month since she was born? And a bit of long-term craziness is we've made some changes to our diet. We had to finally get serious about my husband's diabetes (he's very fit, but has been betrayed by his genetics), I started Weight Watchers again (the old program, though, because I hate the new program) to lose the weight I gained over the last couple of years of moving and house-building and moving again, and my oldest has decided that she wants to "be able to win the Hunger Games and lift a hippo" and is working out and lifting like a mad woman.

The changes in our diet have thrown me a bit for a loop and I'm still trying to figure it all out. This recipe is something I tried as a way to meet all of our needs (my two little girls won't touch it...pffft!).  My husband can eat a little, my daughter feels good about eating it, and it's only 3 WW points (old program) for me. It's dairy, egg, flour, and added-sweetener-free. And it's even tasty! Yes, I was surprised, as well.

I think I found the original recipe on Pinterest, but I didn't pin it, I just wrote it down, so I can't link back to it. Oops. But I've also seen lots of variations of this same thing, so maybe it's like pancakes or potato salad, and there are a million ways and recipes. I'm pretty sure the only thing I changed was to substitute frozen blueberries for the raisins called for (blueberries are so much nicer).

I should also say the original recipe was half this recipe and was made in an 8x8 pan. I did that at first, and then doubled it the second time and used a 9x13. I cut the pieces, wrapped them in plastic and put them in the freezer.

Baked Blueberry Oatmeal (Vegan)

printable recipe

5-6 medium over-ripe bananas, mashed

2/3 cup unsweetened applesauce

4 cups old fashioned rolled oats

1/2 cup almond milk (I used unsweetened)

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

2 cups frozen blueberries

Maple syrup for serving, optional (add 1 WW point (old program) for 1 TBL syrup)

1. Heat your oven to 350, and spray a 9x13 pan with non-stick spray.

2. Combine bananas, applesauce, oats, almond milk, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt in a large bowl and mix well. Add the blueberries and gently fold them in.

3. Transfer the mixture to the prepared pan and bake for 30-35 minutes or until the top is lightly browned in places and the oatmeal is firm when touched.

4. Cool to warm before cutting into squares. Serve with a drizzle of maple syrup if you want a bit of extra sweetness.

Makes 12 squares.