baked pumpkin oatmeal

A few of you asked me what time I go to bed each night because I did not include a bedtime in my day in the life of a fifth grade teacher post. Most nights I’ll stay up partying until about 2 a.m. and then hit the sack, ready to take on the world at 5 a.m. the next day.

Okay that’s totally a lie. I’m in bed every week night at 9 p.m., reading – yes, this includes Friday nights. I’ll let you know how Saturday goes today. Fridays have always been really hard for me to stay up and do anything fun. There is no time for napping, I’m zonked by the time I get home, and all I want to do is cuddle on the couch. Which is what I did.

Low and behold, I woke up this morning at 6:30 – perhaps due to the fact that the Husband’s alarm clock went off or perhaps due to the fact that I had already gotten a solid 9 hours of sleep. Whatever the case may be, I’m blaming it on the Husband. It just makes my life easier.

When I woke up this morning, I really wasn’t too hungry. I know, it’s quite shocking as most mornings my hunger is what wakes me up. I promised you all I would continue being faithful to my pumpkin oats, but today I wanted something that would heat me through my poor cold toes – actually, I wanted something to heat up the entire house (which is quite easy to do in 1000 sq. ft.).

I have never dabbled in the art of baked oatmeal, so I thought today would be the perfect time to attempt it.

Baked Pumpkin Oatmeal

You will need the following if you are a visual person (I’m trying to adhere to all learning styles here )

Or, if you like lists, pull out the following:

• 1/3 cup GF oats (or just regular oats)
• 1/3 cup almond milk
• 1 flax egg (1 tbsp flax + 3 tbsp warm water, mixed and set aside for 2-3 minutes)
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
• cinnamon + nutmeg to taste
• cooking spray of choice

The first thing you want to do is preheat your oven to 375 degrees. I did this for two reasons: 1) I wanted the oven to be ready by the time I was done mixing the batter and 2) I was cold.

The next thing you’ll want to do is mix everything together in a greased oven safe bowl. Seriously, you can’t mess that up. Unless you forget to grease your bowl – which I did. Then you have to grease another bowl and pour the batter into it. No worries, your oatmeal will still taste great. A single serve Pyrex bowl would work, or if you’re like me and like the toppings heavy, you will have to find an alternative.

Lucky for me, my everyday dishes are oven safe. Into the furnace she went!

You will want to bake this for approximately 20 minutes at 375 degrees, or just until your flax egg sets. It should come out of the oven looking lovely.

Top this baked pumpkin oatmeal with your toppings of choice and enjoy! I topped mine with chopped Fuji (I think I cried a little when I had to give up on the expensive habit of Honeycrisp apples), apples, and peanut butter.

I also like my oatmeal a little on the soggy side, so I splashed just a little more almond milk into the mix to make things interesting.

I’m going strong on eating orange foods like it’s my job – soon, I won’t even wish that I believed in indoor tanning salons.

But until then, I’m going to eat pumpkin at every meal (I really think this should be something I try!) and be proud of my soon-to-be orange tinted skin.

Question: What has your Fall weather been like where you live? Mine has been really cold in the morning (about 40 degrees) but getting really warm in the day (about 65-70).

PS – Don’t forget to enter my Crunchmaster giveaway. It ends Tuesday, October 19 at midnight! Happy entering!

Tagged as: baked pumpkin oatmeal, blaming on husband, oatmeal, pathetic bedtime, pumpkin