Banana Baked Oatmeal

A sweet, delicious recipe that is sweetened almost entirely by bananas.

I like to top my baked oatmeal with fresh fruit, nuts, and granola.

Bananas. I never know how to feel about them. One day I'm rolling my eyes at them, the next I'm eagerly mashing them up for some new recipe. In this case, I did the latter. I have a sort of love-hate relationship with bananas: sometimes I like them, other times I don't. There's just something about that mushy fruit. Maybe it's the fact that eating them isn't too pleasant. Or when you're trying to peel one and the stringy inner peel part gets stuck on the banana(everyone who's ever eaten a banana can probably relate).

So, the other day I spotted two overripe bananas in the kitchen, and I started looking at a bunch of recipes. Then I mashed a couple of those together(no pun intended) and came up with this!

Another added bonus about this recipe is it is sweetened purely with bananas. No refined sugar, no expensive sweeteners, none of that.

Okay, I lied. I did put in about a teaspoon of maple syrup. But considering the circumstances, this recipe gets like 99% of its sweetness from bananas. But make sure your bananas are overripe, and have a little give when you press down on the outside, usually dotted with brown spots. Otherwise, you'll end up with a not-so-sweet breakfast.

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Banana Baked Oatmeal

Course: Breakfast

Author: Prachi Marfatia

Serves: 2-3

Ingredients:

2 overripe bananas

3/4 cup instant oats(or you can toast some rolled oats)

1 tsp

1/4-1/2 tsp grated nutmeg

2 chia/flax eggs(or 1 real egg)

1/2 tsp baking powder

Pinch of baking soda

1 tsp maple syrup(optional)

1 tsp vanilla extract(optional)

Pinch of salt

around 1/2 cup milk of choice

1 tbsp maple syrup, agave, or honey

Directions:

Start with one banana in a bowl and mash it up with a fork(or blend) until you get a puree. Preheat your oven to 350° Fahrenheit(180 Celsius) and grease a baking dish. Then, slice enough of the second banana that the slices cover a layer of the baking dish. Optionally, sprinkle some cinnamon, a tiny bit of lemon juice, and a tad of maple syrup on the banana slices at this stage.

If you have any leftover banana from the one you cut slices of, mash it in with the rest of the banana in a bowl. Add in everything else except the milk and mix it. Then add the milk and stir well until you get a smooth, liquid-like batter. Pour it into the banana-lined baking dish and bake for 20-30 minutes or until the oatmeal is firm and cooked all the way through.. Invert it onto a plate, cut out a piece, and enjoy!

(P.S: for best results, in every spoonful have a piece of the sliced banana top and some of the oatmeal. It tastes best that way.)

Note: You can also skip the banana slices and just mash it in with the rest of the oatmeal, but two things: first, you may have to reduce the milk by a little, and second, in my opinion it tastes the best with sliced bananas on top. Also, in either case, the finished result might look kinda weird(like the picture below), but I promise you it tastes SO GOOD!

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