Taste of Fall

I love dessert.

I love chocolate, ice cream, cookies, pies… you get the drift.  I’d probably eat an ice cream sundae for dinner multiple times a week if I thought I’d feel good physically after the fact.

However, most of the time my diet consists of whole grains, lots of fruits and veggies, nuts, low-fat dairy and some lean meats.  Very exciting;-)  I also like to incorporate healthy “treats”.

When I have the time, I’ll make something. like low-fat cookies, or brownies (Look for more recipes like that in the future:-)).  That way I am enjoying something that isn’t so processed.

So last night I decided to make myself a baked breakfast treat.  What better way to start the day than with a healthy baked good??

I made Pumpkin Banana Baked Oatmeal.  There are a ton of different baked oatmeal recipes around the web, so I just took bits and pieces of the different variations.

You Will Need:

2 cups of rolled oats

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

dash of salt

1/2 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)*

3/4 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk (skim milk or soy milk, etc. is fine as well)

1/2 cup egg replacement

1 large or 2 small ripe bananas, mashed

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Spray an 8×8 or 9×9 pan with non-stick spray.

Combine dry ingredients (oatmeal through salt).  Set aside.

Combine wet ingredients (everything else).

Add oatmeal mixture to wet ingredients and stir until combined.

Pour into baking pan and bake for 23-28 minutes, or until a knife comes out clean.

Serve warm.

I topped mine with some peanut butter for protein and healthy fats plus a drizzle of  sugar-free syrup.

Notes:

*You could use up to 1 cup of pumpkin in this recipe.  I happened to be using leftovers and that is what I had left.

This recipe truly tastes like fall.  The pumpkin pie spice gives it a great aroma.

Note that there is no added sugar in the recipe.  The baked oatmeal is sweetened only by bananas.  That way, you can sweeten it with toppings based on preference.

I think this would be great topped with some greek yogurt and blueberries or banana slices.  Maybe even some baked apples, or apple butter.  Yum!

What healthy “treats” do you enjoy?