A Tale of Two Baked Oatmeals

And one is savory—don't freak out

Hi friends,

This may come as a surprise, but… oatmeal can be baked. And not only can it be baked, it can be savory. And not only savory, it can make for a delicious and satisfying dinner. Once you’ve peeled yourself from your fainting couch, allow us to explain.

From all of your feedback, we’ve learned that the Green Spoon community is in constant need of recipes that fit this bill: easy to make, hard to mess up, considered delicious by most, deemed repulsive by few, and are wholesome enough that the parents involved are able to stave off any nutrition-related guilt for at least a handful of hours. But the other major factor at play here is variety. We all get stuck in our ruts and our ruts don’t just bore us all to tears, they make the endurance sport of feeding your child—or, frankly, yourself—feel joyless and exhausting.

Enter baked oatmeal. Unless you’re already baking oatmeal all the time, these two recipes should tick all of the above boxes. The texture is a little fluffy, a little custardy—think bread pudding—and flexes both sweet and savory with major success. (Both recipes are also great receptacles for all of the wilty or soft produce you have languishing in your fridge.) Plus, both can be made ahead and reheated (or not) for a quick breakfast/lunch/dinner.

Worth a shot, no?

Fanny + Greta

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Once you get past the cognitive dissonance of using a traditional breakfast food to make a satisfyingly savory dinner, this baked oatmeal might just be crazy enough to shake up your routine in the kitchen. It also reheats beautifully for lunch the next day and, as long as you’re generally mindful of veggie chunk size, is a great dish for new and toothless eaters as well (just smash it up a bit with the back of a fork).