My daughter woke up today asking for the banana bread baked oatmeal and with this beautiful and awesome damp Saturday morning, the weather was perfect for something warm and yummy. I had strawberries, banana, vanilla and chocolate and my mind started working at creating this delicious Napolitano Baked Oatmeal, I gave it that name as suggested by my good friend Autumn. Here’s the recipe:
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup fresh strawberries sliced
2 medium ripe bananas (1 sliced 1 mashed)
2 tsp. cinnamon (divided)
1 tsp. honey
2 tbsp. coconut palm sugar (or stevia or Truvia)
2 cups rolled oats
1 tablespoons unsweetened chocolate powder (for glazing)
2 tablespoons chia seeds (optional.. I added them because they are super delicious and good for you)
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1 egg (beaten)
1 cup almond milk or coconut milk (We like the So Delicious brand)
2 tsp vanilla
Instructions:
Preheat oven at 375 degrees. Spray a pyrex with a bit of olive oil and sprinkle with oat flour (you can blend abut 1/4 cup of dry oats to the consistency of four and use a tablespoon of that if you wish). Set aside. Place a layer of banana slices and halft the strawberry slices on the pyrex. Sprinkle with 1 tsp cinnamon and the tsp. of honey. Bake covered with aluminum foil for about 15 minutes until the bananas are soft.
Take out of the oven and set aside.
In the meantime, mix all the dry ingredients together: Oats, baking powder, chocolate powder, chia seeds, salt and tsp. cinnamon.
In a separate bowl, mix the wet ingredients, mashed banana, vanilla, coconut milk. Add to the dry ingredients and mix well. Place layer of oats to the pyrex with the strawberry bananas and spread evenly.
Bake for about 20 minutes. When ready, take out of the oven, layer with the rest of the strawberries and sprinkle with the coconut sugar and broil for about 3 – 4 minutes.
Let cool and serve warm. You can serve it with a side of Nonfat, plain Greek yogurt sprinkled with a bit of cinnamon. Delicious! Be creative with this recipe too, add almonds or walnuts to give it a bit of a crunch.