Baked Oatmeal Bars with Banana's and Nutella

Baked oatmeal bars with banana and Nutella is so easy to make, it just takes ingredients
you probably already have one bowl and 25 minutes in the oven.
After that, you can enjoy oatmeal bars all week. How is that for easy meal planning?

If you're new to baked oatmeal it is just another way of cooking this amazing grain. Similar to overnight oats, the flavors are completely customizable to your personal preference. For this recipe, I used two of my favorites, bananas, and Nutella. However, if yore not a fan of Nutella, no problem, just swap it out for peanut butter. If your not in the mood for bananas, no problem. Just swamp ½ cup of applesauce for each banana. If you like nuts, go ahead and add them. The combinations are endless.

The best part about baked oatmeal, it can prepared the day before and can stored for up to a week in the refrigerator. So the next day when you wake up, a healthy oatmeal breakfast is ready to go and you do not have to wait! It's also a great breakfast option for meal planning. It can easily be made on your meal prep day and eaten all week. I don't know if it gets any better than a week's worth of healthy breakfasts for less than ten minutes of work.

Let's Get Started Making Baked Oatmeal Bars

First you will want to gather your ingredients. The best thing, most of these you probably already have in your home.

Ingredients for Baked Oatmeal Bars with Banana's and Nutella

Mixing Oatmeal with Banana's and Nutella

To mix the ingredients start with the banana. In the pictures below I used my mixer, however for this recipe a mixer is not necessary. Here are the two different ways you can mash bananas.

• To mash the banana's in the mixer, turn the mixer onto a low to medium speed with the beater attachment for 1 - 2 minutes.
• To mash with your hands, make sure the bananas are very ripe and squish between your fingers until you reach a smooth consistency.

Once the bananas have been mashed, mix in the rest of the ingredients either using your mixer or by hand with a spatula. After the ingredients are thoroughly mixed, pour them into a parchment-lined baking dish. The pour will be thick (see below). Once poured, bake at 350 degrees for 25 - 28 minutes.

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Once baked, removed the oatmeal from the oven and allow it to cool for 30 minutes. Then place in the refrigerator for one-two hours. This will allow the oatmeal to become firm and easier to cut.

Because I prefer to bake oatmeal the day before, I leave this dish in the refrigerator overnight. Before eating top as desired with banana, strawberries, apples, peaches warmed Nutella, etc. (The strawberries I used below are dried.) Get creative here and have fun coming up with different toppings!

Great British Baking Show Bake
Season 1, Episode 4, Showstopper - Puddings

Hear me out, I know this is a pudding challenge. However, in this episode, the bakers could make a crumble, bread, or suet. Suet was totally out of the question, I would not make something out of animal fat. Bread always sounds good, but I have made a lot of that lately and wanted to bake something else. So that left me with crumble. I know I did take some liberties with the interpenetration of a crumble becoming baked oatmeal. But in all fairness, crumbles are made out of oats and this is a personal challenge. So I took the extra liberties and went with it.

On the upside, now that I am down with puddings I can move on to pastry! I have never made pastry before and I am very excited to try my first "rough puff". So next up, mushroom and thyme pot pie! Even better, I don't have to think about a pudding until season 3, episode 6.

Count: 11 down, 267 to go!