Quick Baked Oatmeal

Baked oatmeal can be made in many ways - it's a great grab-and-go breakfast you can prepare in advance and either eat cold or warm in the microwave before heading out. There are many many ways to prepare it, and I'm sharing the basic technique here. Dress it up however you like with dried fruit, nuts, additional protein (up to 2 scoops of your favorite protein powder). Treat this recipe more as a foundation and the flavoring as more of a suggestion - you'll need to adjust any nutrition information for any changes you make to account for add-ins. I like this less-sweet version that uses only dried fruit for sweetness (the kids like to add a little maple syrup on theirs once it's served).

Ingredients:

• 2 cups (240g) oatmeal (quick or old-fashioned)

• 1 cup milk (I used Fairlife fat free milk for nutrition info since that's what I had in my test recipe, but any type of milk, or even water, would work to hydrate the oats)

• 1 large egg

• 1/4 cup (50g) raisins

• 1 tsp baking powder

• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

• 1/4 tsp cardamom

• a pinch of salt

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350*F if baking on the same day (you can mix ingredients ahead of time and refrigerate overnight if you like - in that case, place the cold dish in the cold oven to let it warm up with minimal thermal shock, and start your timer when your oven beeps to let you know it's up to temperature).

2. Line an 8" square baking dish with parchment, or grease/spray well.

3. Mix all ingredients in a large bowl, let it sit for a few minutes to soak up the liquid a little, and pour into the prepared pan.

4. Bake for 30-45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. If your edges are browning but the middle isn't setting up, you can take it out of the oven and finish it in the microwave in 2-minute bursts, checking between (ovens cook from the outside in, while microwaves cook from the inside out).

5. Serve hot or cut to store in an airtight container and refrigerate once cool.

Nutrition info based on 4 servings: 232.7 calories, 4.4g fat (0.9g saturated), 47.7mg cholesterol, 168.8mg sodium, 363.7mg potassium, 41g carbohydrates (4.9g fiber, 12.2g sugars), 9.8g protein

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