Pumpkin Baked Oatmeal (with Chocolate Chips)
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Pumpkin Baked Oatmeal is a wholesome, warm, comforting breakfast. Kids love the sweetness and chocolate chips; parents love the sneaky pumpkin and other healthy ingredients (like in our other kid-friendly sneaky recipes). This baked oatmeal is a big batch recipe, so feel free to cut it in half and freeze one for later.
Why Baked Oatmeal?
We are baked oatmeal fanatics around here, as you may know. Both my kids and Polly’s kids eat it by bushels. We love it because it’s:
- A fast way to make oatmeal in bulk.
- Super comforting and delicious like our Oatmeal Pancakes.
- Stores for days in the fridge or months in the freezer.
- Filled with good-for-you ingredients!
I find myself making this one and the Brownie Baked Oatmeal repeatedly, while Polly probably makes the original Baked Oatmeal with Fruit recipe the most. But, all our baked oatmeal recipes are worth trying.
Ingredients Needed
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 – Use any leftover puree in one of our other top pumpkin recipes.
- Bananas – If it’s close to Halloween, use extra bananas to make Banana Ghosts!
- 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.
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 FAQs
Let it cool completely. Cover and place in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
Pumpkin pie filling contains added sweeteners and spices, so it will change the flavor and sweetness of your baked oatmeal. It’s best to use plain pumpkin puree for this recipe.
Rolled oats (old-fashioned oats) work best for baked oatmeal as they provide a nice texture. Quick oats can also be used if you prefer a smoother consistency.
Yes, you can make it in advance and reheat it. Store it in the refrigerator and warm it in the microwave or oven when ready to eat.
More Baked Oatmeal Dishes You’ll Love
If you enjoy baked oatmeal as much as our families do, give a few of these others a try. They all work well to freeze before baking, as well.
Did you make this? Snap a photo and tag us on Instagram at @thrivinghome so we can see your creations and cheer you on!
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.
Ingredients
- 2 cups milk
- 4 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1/4 cup avocado oil or melted coconut oil or butter
- 1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin puree
- 2 over-ripe bananas
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 6 cups old fashioned rolled oats (sub: quick oats)
- 1/2 cup ground flaxseed
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 2/3 cup mini chocolate chips
Before You Begin! If you make this, please leave a review and rating letting us know how you liked this recipe! This helps our business thrive & continue providing free recipes.
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 milk, eggs, vanilla, oil, pumpkin, bananas, sugar, and salt.
- In a large bowl, stir together the oats, flaxseed, baking powder, and cinnamon. Pour the wet ingredients in to 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 for 9×13-inch dish (or 35-40 minutes for 8×8-inch dish), until the edges are set but middle is still a little soft to the touch.
- Let cool for about 5 minutes (it will continue to carry-over cook). 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/Tips
- 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 of my kids will eat all of this within two days time.)
I seem to be the only family who Didn’t care for this, but I found it to be a lot of healthy ingredients that tasted…very healthy and Blah. We are generally a healthy family (Although we have not had baked oatmeal before), and had friends overnight also, and even with 12 of us not even half was gone. It was a weird texture, slightly chewy but mushy at the same time, and after a couple of days it was finally eaten, with lots of extra milk and brown sugar on top. The flavor did seem to get stronger as it sat, in a good way. I won’t be remaking it, but if I did I would recommend baking it the day ahead of time and reheating in the Oven morning of, to save time before everyone wakes up!
Baked oatmeal isn’t for everyone. Thanks for your thoughts. Did you use rolled oats or quick oats? I’ve found that rolled oats are definitely better. We also always eat it warm in a bowl with a little milk and bananas on top.
Yummy yummy and easy to make!
Hi Amy! Thanks for taking the time to leave a review.
This recipe goes in my KEEPER recipe file. It is a great breakfast for busy work or school days, and it was perfect to take on a road trip, we heated it up in the hotel microwave.
I substituted pumpkin pie spice for the cinnamon and used double the amount.
Hi Kathleen. That pumpkin pie spice substitution sounds delicious. Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a review and note your substitution!
This was so good! I made it this morning and my 5 kids ate it ALL and begged me to make it again tomorrow. Thanks for sharing!
Yes! Empty dishes are the best sign of a great recipe. Thanks for leaving a review April!
I made this today, and my super picky toddler loved it! I think next time I’m going to try making 1/2 recipe & baking it in muffin tins!
Hi Angie! So glad you found a winner for your toddler. I know other readers have baked in muffin tins with success. It’s a great way to portion is out.
Very Good! I would definetly make this again. Healthy and my toddler calls it cake so he is happy! Do I need to refrigerate this if I do not freeze it? How long can I keep out before I need to freeze?
Yes, I would say refrigerate if it’s going to sit out more than a day. One time I left it on the counter for over a day and it started to smell funky. 🙂 I think you could easily refrigerate for 5 days.