Chai Spice Baked Oatmeal

Mmmm... it's looking cold outside and the rain has finally come. I need to get outside to see the gorgeous trees before the rain washes them all away. As I sit here contemplating this idea, I feel the urge to write about a new breakfast oatmeal that I'm enjoying at this very moment.

This is just like eating a snacking cake (if you remember the 70s favourite), but it's a breakfast food, and who doesn't like eating cake for breakfast?! I got this recipe for Chai Spice Baked Oatmeal from Good Thymes and Good Food and made a few of my own adaptations (which have been added into the recipe).

I ran out of oatmeal, so I had to run to the store for more. So this is oatmeal, spices, cranberries and I added a bunch of ground flax. I used porridge oats, so there are multi-grains in it. Oh, and I didn't add sugar, because hubby is diabetic.

I really need to read my recipes through before going to the store! I didn't notice the apple sauce and I'd already been out for oatmeal, so I used a bit of apple butter and the rest high protein Greek yogurt (thinking it was part of the recipe for moisture, rather than flavour), because I wanted this to be hearty and to hold me until lunch. It has an egg in it, but the next time I made it I added another, to give it even more protein.

At about this point I'm thinking, "there's no way the oatmeal is going to absorb all this liquid in 20 minutes," but this is a regular recipe for Good Thymes, so I chose trust.

Good thing! But when I smelled it, I was disappointed that I couldn't smell the Chai spices and I worried that I hadn't added enough cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, nutmeg, clove and pepper.

But one taste proved I had nothing to worry about! The spices are strong and redolent of chai. It's really, really good! I broke mine up in the bowl and poured a bit of milk and real maple syrup over and I have to say, I actually think I prefer this oatmeal to even my slow cooked steel cut oats made with apples.

We each ate a piece for 3 days straight (6 generous servings) and I never felt a hunger pang until lunch time. I think the high protein yogurt and egg helped a lot. 

If you have kids that don't like oatmeal, I think they would like this, even you make a less spiced version. If you use yogurt instead of apple sauce, you might want to consider adding the sugar though.

I think you could come up with all sorts of variations for this recipe. I also made it with just cinnamon and sautéed apple slices, but so far I prefer the chai spices version because of the depth of its flavour.

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Chai Spiced Baked Oatmeal

Adapted from Good Thymes and Good Food: http://www.goodthymesandgoodfood.com

2 cups                                       rolled oats

1/3 cup                                     brown sugar, lightly packed (optional)

1/4 cup                                     dried cranberries

1 tsp                                          baking powder

1/2 tsp                                      ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp                                      ground ginger

1/4 tsp                                      freshly ground cardamom

1/4 tsp                                      ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp                                      black pepper

                                                   pinch ground clove

                                                   pinch of Kosher salt

1-1/2 cups                                milk (skim or 1%)

1/2 cup                                     applesauce (or high protein 0% fat Greek yogurt)

2 tbsp                                        butter, melted

2                                                eggs, lightly beaten

       cooking spray

Preheat the oven to 375°F and lightly coat an 8-inch square baking dish with cooking spray. Set aside.

Combine oats through black pepper in a large bowl and stir to combine.

In another bowl combine milk through egg and whisk together.

Add milk mixture to oat mixture and stir well. Pour into prepared dish and bake for 20-30 minutes, until set and top is lightly browned. Serve warm with milk and sugar or maple syrup.