Days with a small child can be unpredictable. Some mornings my 19-month-old daughter will go straight to her shape sorters and forget the rest of the world exists for a while. Other mornings it can take some ingenuity for Mom to make a pot of coffee without interruption. Having breakfast already planned makes one variable, at least, more predictable.
Baked oatmeal is a breakfast my daughter loves. She especially likes the baked apples at the bottom of the dish, so I make sure to add lots for her. This time around, I had enough apples on hand to make an extra pan of baked apples just for her (I just greased an 8×8 glass pan, added apples and water, and baked at 350 for 35 minutes). She devoured them!
To make this kid-friendlier, I peel the apples. The first time around, I didn’t peel the apples, and my daughter handed most of the unpeeled apples back to me (or, actually, threw most of them on the ground). If I took the skin off, she would eat gladly them. But who wants to dig for apple skins in an already-baked pan of oatmeal? I learned my lesson and peeled them beforehand. If you have older or more texture-embracing folks in your home, you can skip this step. I often leave most fruits and veggies with soft, edible skin unpeeled if I can get away with it!
The recipe below is a result of my quest for more protein. After making my go-to baked apple recipe a few times, I was feeling a little shaky a couple hours later. I decided to make a version with peanut butter.
It took some experimentation. The first time I made it, the oatmeal was too dry. So this version skews a little more toward an apple-and-peanut-butter French toast texture.
Kid-friendly Apple Peanut Butter Baked Oatmeal
Pro tip- if you refrigerate your peanut butter, take it out of the fridge when you start this process
- Prep Time: 20 mins
- Cook Time: 60 mins
- Total Time: 1 hour 20 mins
Ingredients
- 3 cups oats
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- ½ cup maple syrup
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 3 cups milk
- 4 eggs, beaten
- 1 cup peanut butter (softened)
- 4 medium apples (enough to generously cover bottom of pan)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a 9×13 pan.
- Combine oats, baking soda and cinnamon in one bowl, then maple syrup, vanilla, milk and eggs in another.
- Pour wet ingredients over dry and let sit while preparing apples (approx. 10-15 minutes)
- Peel and chop the apples. (You can chop them very roughly – they get so soft that big pieces are fine!) Arrange on bottom of pan.
- Stir peanut butter into the oat mixture.
- Pour oat mixture over the apples.
- Bake uncovered for 30 minutes and then covered with foil for remaining 30 minutes, or until knife inserted comes out clean.