Super Easy Strawberry Baked Oatmeal (Healthy Kid-Friendly Breakfast)

A super delicious and easy strawberry baked oatmeal recipe that is healthy, kid-friendly, gluten free, dairy free, and has an egg-free option. It’s practically magic.

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How to make strawberry baked oatmeal

Baked oatmeal is so easy to make it’s part of our weekly meal plan rotation. 

You can literally throw all of the ingredients together in any order, give it a good stir, and it’ll turn out.

After learning how beneficial it is to soak oats for maximum nutrients, I always make this the night ahead.

However, if you are trying to get a quick breakfast out or forgot to soak your oats, don’t worry. You can totally skip the soaking. Just add a bit of bake time and it will be great.

Ingredients in strawberry baked oatmeal

• Oats: use old fashioned oats. If you have celiac, be sure to use gluten free oats. If you’re soaking oats, you can even use steel cut for this! Just don’t use them if you’re skipping the soaking part.
  
• Coconut flour & Tapioca starch: this combo makes a fluffy, filling, and nutritious oatmeal bake. You can substitute this with just a cup of gluten free flour or wheat flour if you don’t need gluten free.
  
• Eggs: you can use regular egg or flax seed eggs. To make flax eggs add 2 tablespoons ground flax seed to 5 tablespoons water. Mix together and add to blender.
  
• Baking soda: helps the muffins rise a bit, obvi.
  
• Salt: just helps to balance all of the flavors.
  
• Vanilla: vanilla helps bring out the flavor but it’s not a necessary ingredient if you don’t have any on hand.
  
• Strawberries: Fresh or frozen strawberries work here. You can dice or slice them, mix them into the batter, or lay them on top. It all tastes great and just depends on your preference.
  
• Sweetener: you can use pure maple syrup, coconut sugar, stevia (follow directions on package for the correct equivalent), monkfruit…your choice!
  
• Optional boosts: You can add in a scoop of protein powder or powdered greens to add a little oomph.

Can you make baked oatmeal ahead of time?

A big ol’ heck yes to this one! Baked oatmeal is a great make-ahead breakfast. 

I often make a double batch and save the second one for later. Here are a few ways to make it ahead of time:

1. Before baking: Mix all of the ingredients together, pour it in the pan, cover it, and refrigerate for up to 48 hours before baking. Then just pop it out of the fridge the morning of and bake it as normal.

2. Refrigerate: Make it, bake it, and stick it in the fridge covered (after letting it cool to room temp) for up to 6 days. Just take out what you want and reheat it in single portions, or reheat the whole thing in the oven.
   

To reheat the whole oatmeal bake, cover it with tin foil and bake at 400 degrees F for 10-15 minutes.

3. Freeze: Make it, bake it and freeze it! This is a wonderful thing to do right before having a baby (trust me!).
   
   Once the oatmeal bake is cooked through and has cooled to room temperature, simply cover with tin foil and pop it in the freezer.
   
   OR you can cut it into individual bars, place them in a freezer safe container or bag, and freeze.

How long does baked oatmeal last in the fridge?

This easily lasts 4-6 days in the fridge after it’s baked.

It’s a great breakfast to make for the whole week if you like to meal prep in advance. 

Gluten-free oats

First of all, let’s answer this common question:

Are oats gluten free?

Yes. HOWEVER…

Regular oats are pressed in wheat flour, so even though the oat itself is not glutenous, the flour coating is.

If you have celiac, don’t mess around with regular oats. Get gluten free certified oats.

If you aren’t too sensitive, regular oats will work just fine and still be mostly gluten free. 

Steel cut oats in oatmeal bake:

You can also use steel cut oats in this if you are soaking the oats and like a bit more texture to your oatmeal bars (my oldest son LOVES this with steel cut oats). 

Steel cut oats are less likely to contain gluten because they’re not rolled flat, and thus not rolled in wheat flour.

However, there’s still a chance they’re processed on the same equipment as wheat products. Just be aware.

Note: I buy our gluten free oats through Azure standard for the best price. They also have a killer deal on gluten free flours, so we buy bulk of those too.

How do you make chocolate strawberry baked oatmeal?

Mad respect if you asked this question. 

And the answer is simple. Add chocolate! 

You can add cocoa powder to the oatmeal bake batter (I say ½ cup cocoa powder, but if you’re really intense you can add ¾  cup).

You could also add chocolate chips to the cocoa powder version or the regular version. Both would be delicious!

These chocolate chips are dairy free and delicious.

Lily’s makes a great sugar free and dairy free chocolate chip.

The links are for an example only. These will be much cheaper in your own grocery store, I bet!

How to make this oatmeal bake vegan

You can replace the eggs in this recipe by subbing flax or chia eggs. Place 2 tablespoons of ground flax or chia seeds in a small bowl with 5 tablespoons of water (¼ cup + 1 tablespoon). Stir together and let sit for 5 minutes before adding to the batter.

What do you serve with strawberry baked oatmeal?

Without fail, my kids request yogurt (check out how I make my own in the Instant Pot).

• Yogurt
• Sliced fresh fruit
• Turkey sausage links
• Whipped cream (and fruit-sweetend sprinkles if it’s a party)
• Scrambled eggs

How to make strawberry baked oatmeal cups or bars

There are so many ways to make this oatmeal bake work for you. 

After mixing up the batter, you can pour it into muffin tins and bake fo 20-22 minutes. I do recommend using either silicone or paper liners, as it can stick.

To make bars, simply cut the oatmeal bake into squares and stores in single serve bags or containers. 

If you like solid bars that you can eat on the go, add an extra ¼ cup coconut flour to the batter to really firm them up.

Need more gluten free breakfast recipes? Try these!

• Easy double chocolate blender muffins
• Best gluten free + vegan cinnamon rolls
• Gingerbread oatmeal bake
• Gluten free cinnamon bread