Spicy, sweet, woodsy cinnamon and juicy, luscious bursts of cherry blend with nutritious oats in this easy, tasty cinnamon cherry baked oatmeal recipe.
A couple months ago, I was invited over to a friend’s house for a freezer meal party. If you’re unfamiliar with what a freezer meal party is, it’s when a bunch of people get together and make multiples of several different dishes that are good for freezing. Then, each family takes one of each item and voila–you have several freezer meals.
Well, among the items prepared during this freezer meal party was a super yummy baked oatmeal with cherries in it. When I pulled this oatmeal from the freezer and baked it for my kids, I only enjoyed one or two bites of it as it had off plan ingredients (brown sugar, regular milk, etc.). But the few bites I did have were yummy.
So I decided to create a similar recipe that is totally on plan. And here it be! Now this recipe isn’t identical to that off-plan one, but it is close. The one I got from the freezer meal party had lots of cherries in it which I thought were super good. It also had a strongish cinnamon flavor which was awesome.
Cinnamon Cherry Baked Oatmeal
This tasty cinnamon cherry baked oatmeal recipe is really good warm. It’s probably at its very best fresh from the oven, but it’s also good reheated. You can reheat it in the microwave (the easiest, albeit least healthy, method), in a toaster oven, or in the regular oven.
That said, it also tastes pretty good cold (straight from the fridge). You can even treat it like a breakfast cereal by splashing some almond milk on and around it.
This cinnamon cherry baked oatmeal is great on its own as a Carbalicious (Trim Healthy Mama E) breakfast meal, but of course you can always add some non-starchy veggies on the side to enjoy with it as well.
Since this recipe yields 8 servings, I like to make a batch all to myself. So I’ll have one serving a day for breakfast for 8 days (not necessarily consecutive–it lasts a decent while).
Oh, and, yes, you CAN freeze it! Just make it according to the directions then, before baking, wrap it up in plastic wrap and freeze for up to probably 4 to 6 months. When you’re ready to make it, pull it from the freezer, let it thaw in the fridge, then bake per the directions (you might need to add 5ish minutes since it’ll be cold at this point).
Cinnamon Cherry Baked Oatmeal
Ingredients
- 1½ cups unsweetened almond or cashew milk
- ¾ cup
Lakanto Classic or equivalent sweetener (more or less to taste–you can also sprinkle more on top later before eating) - 2 egg whites
- 2 tablespoons butter, melted
- 2 tablespoons collagen
- 1 tablespoon unsulphured blackstrap molasses
- 2 teaspoon
ground cinnamon (more or less to taste–ceylon is the healthier kind) - 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoon maple extract
- 1 teaspoon mineral salt
- 3 cups slow cook (old fashioned) oats (certified gluten free if necessary)
- 2 cups frozen or fresh pitted cherries
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350° F.
- Lightly grease an 8×8 or 9×9 baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.
- Add all of the ingredients except the oats and cherries to the baking dish. Mix together thoroughly.
- Add the oats and cherries and stir until totally coated in the liquid mixture.
- Pop in the oven for 45 minutes.
- Allow to cool for 5 minutes. Serve as is or in a bowl with a splash of almond or cashew milk.
Perfect!