Pumpkin Baked Oatmeal (with Chocolate Chips)
Pumpkin Baked Oatmeal is a wholesome, warm, comforting breakfast for any day of the week. Kids love the sweetness and chocolate chips; parents love the sneaky pumpkin and other healthy ingredients. I feel great about filling my family’s tummies with this first thing in the morning. This baked oatmeal recipe is an easy one to double and freeze too!
We are baked oatmeal fanatics around here, as you may know. Both my kids and Polly’s kids eat the stuff by bushels.
I find myself making the Brownie Baked Oatmeal repeatedly, while Polly probably makes the original Baked Oatmeal with Fruit recipe the most.
But, all the baked oatmeal recipes on here are worth trying.
What’s In Pumpkin Baked Oatmeal?
This baked breakfast treat is sweet but not too sweet, autumnal (I love that word), and packed full of sneaky nutrition with pumpkin, bananas, and whole grains throughout. You likely have all of the ingredients in your pantry! Here is what you will need to make it:
- Milk
- Eggs
- Vanilla
- Melted coconut oil or butter
- Pumpkin puree
- Bananas
- Brown sugar
- Salt
- Oats (quick or old fashioned will work) (Gluten-Free Option: Use gluten-free oats.)
- Ground flaxseed
- Baking powder
- Cinnamon
- Mini chocolate chips
How to Serve Pumpkin Baked Oatmeal
After doing a deep dive into the Internet’s best baked oatmeal recipes, I learned there is conflicting information on how to serve baked oatmeal. The two main beliefs are as follows:
Option 1: Serve it in a bowl
This is my personal favorite way to serve baked oatmeal. It makes it easy to pour milk on top and feels a bit more “oatmeal” like.
Option 2: Slice it up & serve on a plate
If the recipe holds together enough (like this one does), you can slice it up into pieces and serve it on a plate. The presentation is a bit prettier this way too which always helps my kids who are prone to judge a recipe based on how it looks.
Either way, your baked oatmeal will taste great.
How to Freeze Baked Oatmeal
We are big fan of freezer meals. In fact, we’ve built a small freezer meal empire including cookbooks, 1 Hour Freezer Prep, and an index of tried and true freezer meal recipes.
So it shouldn’t come as a surprise to you that we have freezer meal instructions for this recipe!
Freeze For Later:
Put together the casserole either in one 9×13 inch casserole dish or two 8×8 inch casserole dishes (like what’s pictured in this blog post), but don’t bake it. Tightly wrap the dish in a few layers of plastic wrap or foil (or a tight-fitting lid) and freeze.
Prepare From Frozen:
Thaw completely using one of these safe methods. Cook according to instructions.
Recipe Tip: Store Overripe Bananas for Later
P.S. If you have more overripe bananas than you didn’t use in this recipe, did you know you can freeze them? Here is the best way to freeze bananas for later. Now you’ll be ready to make Pumpkin Baked Oatmeal anytime!
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Pumpkin Baked Oatmeal is a wholesome, warm, comforting breakfast for any day of the week. Kids love the sweetness and chocolate chips; parents love the sneaky pumpkin and other healthy ingredients. I feel great about filling my family’s tummies with this first thing in the morning This baked oatmeal recipe is an easy one to double and freeze too!
Ingredients
- 2 cups milk
- 4 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1/4 cup melted coconut oil or butter
- 1 (15 ounces) can pumpkin puree
- 2 over-ripe bananas
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 6 cups oats (quick or old fashioned will work) (Gluten-Free Option: Use gluten-free oats.)
- 1/2 cup ground flaxseed
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 2/3 cup mini chocolate chips
Instructions
Make It Now:
- Preheat oven to 350° F. Spray one 9×13 inch casserole dish or two 8×8 inch dishes (like what is pictured in this blog post) with cooking spray.
- In a blender, blend the first 8 ingredients, milk through salt.
- In a large bowl, stir together the oats, flaxseed, baking powder, and cinnamon. Pour the wet ingredients in with the dry ingredients and stir until well combined. Finally stir in the chocolate chips. Pour batter into greased casserole dish.
- Bake for about 40-45 minutes, until the edges are set but middle is still soft to the touch. I prefer to take it out on the softer side, because it carry-over cooks even after it’s out of the oven.
- Let cool for about 5 minutes. Serve warm with a little milk on top.
Freeze For Later: Follow Steps 2 and 3. Wrap the dish with a few layers of plastic wrap and either a layer of foil or snap on a lid. Freeze.
Prepare From Frozen: Thaw completely. Cook according to instructions.
Notes
- Try using Butternut Squash puree instead of the pumpkin.
- Throw a little baby spinach into the blender along with the wet ingredients for more sneaky nutrition.
- I wrote this recipe to be big. It’s a great meal for a crowd or for a hungry family. All three kids will eat all of this within two days time.
Want More Pumpkin Recipes?
With YEARS worth of content and recipes on Thriving Home, it can be easy to forget about some amazing pumpkin recipes that we have shared over the years. Here are our Top 10 Pumpkin Recipes that you simply must try!
This is such a delicious breakfast! Even my picky eater, who normally doesn’t like oats, asks for seconds! I also like that it makes enough for two 8×8 dishes, one to eat now, one to freeze for later. Thanks for this great recipe!
Ever made these in muffin tins? My toddler loves having his own muffin and I appreciate the pre-portioned breakfast! Thanks !
I have but it’s been years ago. It’s a great idea, especially for toddlers. I’d say bake it at the same temp and check at about 15 minutes.
What should I do if I don’t have any ground flaxseed?
You can substitute more whole wheat flour for the ground flaxseed.
This is a FAVORITE!
Do you think it could be adapted for the Instant Pot or Crock Pot? If so, what recommendations do you have? I am new to the Instant Pot! I hate turning on the oven in the hot weather!
★★★★★
To be honest, I don’t think regular oats would do well in either of those. Sorry!
Elizabeth, we are so happy to hear you like this recipe! We have found that steel cut oats work best in the IP and slow cooker from the MANY tests we did for our forthcoming cookbook, From Freezer to Cooker. You can find the cooking time for Steel Cut Oats in our Instant Pot cooking times chart here: https://thrivinghomeblog.com/instant-pot-steel-cut-oatmeal-recipe/. Or try our Instant Pot Brown Sugar and Cinnamon Steel Cut Oats recipe here: https://thrivinghomeblog.com/instant-pot-steel-cut-oatmeal-recipe/. As for the slow cooker, we recommend 1 1/2 cups steel cut oats to 6 cups water or milk in a 6 quart slow cooker. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. Hope that helps!
My picky eater has been asking for this family favorite for weeks. I am up making it right now and she will be so excited in the morning. Thank you for all these great oatmeal options. This one is another great choice! Yummmm
★★★★★
So glad it’s a hit!
I made this for breakfast today. Thank goodness it is so large or we wouldn’t have any for tomorrow! The entire family gobbled it up. I used almond milk and added a little Pumpkin Pie Spice. It was super, super yummy. Thank you!
★★★★★
Wonderful!!!
This was really good. Tasted like banana bread; not too sweet. I just mashed the bananas by hand, then added all the wet ingredients, mixing as I went, and then added in the dry ingredients, so I didn’t have to dirty a blender and a bowl! I baked mine around 50 minutes as I wanted it completely set. I like to serve mine with a smear of butter and drizzle of maple syrup.
★★★★★