This dessert-like banana bread baked oatmeal is rich, sweet, hearty, and totally breakfast worthy, thanks to hearty oats and the natural sweetness of bananas. So if you’re tired of using your brown bananas for actual banana bread, you can change things up a bit with this banana bread flavored baked oatmeal, which makes a great make-ahead breakfast meal prep for the week. BONUS: it’s freezer-friendly!
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What is Baked Oatmeal?
If you’re new to the world of baked oatmeal, it’s a wonderfully rich and moist breakfast treat. It’s basically oats baked into a custard. Kind of like bread pudding, but with oats instead of bread. If you think you don’t like oats because they tend to be gooey when boiled with water, try baked oatmeal. It’s soft, moist, and rich, but not at all gooey. Some people also mistakenly think baked oats are crunchy, but they’re not.
Try these other baked oatmeal flavors: Pumpkin Pie Baked Oatmeal, Oatmeal Cookie Baked Oatmeal, or Blueberry Banana Baked Oatmeal.
How to Store the Leftovers
This recipe makes a pretty big batch, so you’ll want to save the leftovers to eat throughout the week. Make sure to refrigerate your baked oatmeal soon after cooking. I like to divide my baked oatmeal into single servings right after baking, then refrigerate them in individual containers. Once chilled, you can keep the baked oatmeal in the refrigerator for about 5 days, or freeze for about 3 months.
How to Serve Banana Bread Baked Oatmeal
Baked oatmeal can be eaten hot OR cold. You can eat it as-is, or pour cold milk over top. And, if you like things a little sweeter, you can drizzle a little maple syrup over top.
Can I Use Steel Cut Oats?
You can not substitute steel cut oats in this recipe without making other changes because steel cut oats require a lot more moisture and a longer cooking time than rolled oats. While it may be possible to tweak it to make it work, I have not tested this method so I can not offer suggestions for that particular substitution.
Banana Bread Baked Oatmeal
Servings 6Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups mashed banana (about 3 bananas) ($0.63)
- 1/3 cup brown sugar ($0.12)
- 2 large eggs ($0.46)
- 1/2 tsp salt ($0.02)
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract ($0.15)
- 1 tsp baking powder ($0.02)
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon ($0.02)
- 1/8 tsp nutmeg ($0.02)
- 2 cups milk ($0.75)
- 2 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats ($0.45)
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts ($0.60)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Mash the bananas well with a fork (you'll need 1.5 cups).
- Add the mashed bananas to a large bowl along with the brown sugar, eggs, salt, vanilla, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Whisk until the ingredients are combined.
- Add the milk and whisk until combined again.
- Finally, stir in the rolled oats and chopped walnuts.
- Pour the oat mixture into a 9×9-inch casserole dish and transfer to the preheated oven. Bake for 45 minutes, or until it is golden brown on top and around the edges.
- Serve warm or refrigerate and enjoy cold!
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Equipment
- Liquid Measuring Cup
- Whisk
- Measuring Cups Spoons
Nutrition
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You might also like my Yogurt Banana Bread recipe!
How to Make Banana Bread Baked Oatmeal – Step By Step Photos
Preheat the oven to 375ºF. You’ll need 1.5 cups mashed bananas, which is about three bananas. I like to mash my bananas right in a liquid measuring cup so I can see the volume on the side.
Add the mashed bananas to a large bowl along with ⅓ cup brown sugar, 2 large eggs, ½ tsp salt, ½ tsp vanilla extract, 1 tsp baking powder, ¼ tsp cinnamon, and ⅛ tsp nutmeg. Whisk the ingredients together until they’re evenly combined.
Add 2 cups milk and whisk to combine again. It’s easier to whisk in the milk after the other ingredients have been combined because it causes less splashing.
Finally, stir in 2.5 cups rolled oats and ½ cup chopped walnuts.
Pour the oat mixture into a 9×9-inch casserole dish.
Bake the oatmeal in the preheated 375ºF for 45 minutes, or until it’s golden brown on top and around the edges.
Serve the banana bread baked oatmeal immediately, or divide into six portions and refrigerate for later!
Serve hot or cold, alone or topped with milk.
Can I mix it, recruits it over night and bake it in the morning? Or do you think the oats would suck up all the moisture and mess with the texture?
I haven’t done it, but I think you could. The oats soak up the moisture as it bakes anyway, so I don’t think it will affect the texture too much. The only issue you may have is that if the whole thing is chilled when it goes into the oven, you may need to bake slightly longer.
I made this with no sugar. It was sweet enough without the sugar.
We are very careful about our sugar intake but this sounds soooo good. Is there anything else I could substitute for the brown sugar? Or would it be possible to cut the amount of sugar? Thanks!
You can reduce the sugar to meet your needs, keeping in mind that it will also change the flavor. :)
(Not a recipe review)
Can you look in to making your “jump to recipe” button work better? Sometimes it doesn’t work at all and when it does, it’s very slow. I’m getting Kim Kardashian hand scrolling through all your recipes lol. (It isn’t my phone because I don’t have that issue on other sites). It also might be better if you just added a “pin every single recipe on my site” button because I’ve literally pinned everything of yours I see 😉. Thanks for all the great recipes!
Brittney, you should get the app!!! It makes keeping all of the recipes from this site in one place really easy.
I’ve tried a handful of baked oatmeal recipes now, and this one wins the best texture award for my household. I supplement with applesauce (to get to the 1.5c) if my bananas are on the smaller side, and we like to have peanut butter chips in place of the nuts.
I love this recipe. In addition to being delicious, I am breastfeeding and it helps a lot with my breast milk production.
How do I freeze? Do I just stick the individual portions in the freezer in Tupperware or is there some more to it than that? Then how to thaw/reheat? Thanks for any help in advance!
Yep, that’s exactly how I freeze it. :) And then I just pop it from the freezer straight into the microwave to reheat. Or, you could always thaw overnight in the fridge if you prefer.
I made this with Kroger’s vanilla carbmaster milk and eliminated the sweetener. When I heated it I added additional milk, mushed it all up, and topped with thawed frozen blueberries. Delicious! This is a much more filling portion than I get from the recipes on other sites and the milk swap made it fit in my eating plan. The other baked oatmeal recipes from this site are next on my list.
Did you change this recipe? My old print out got dirty so I printed a new and and realized this one doesn’t have baking soda in it and doesn’t require a foil cover. Is the old version still available anywhere? I had better results with that one. This one is still delicious, I just like the other result a bit more. Thank you!
Yep, I can email it to you. :)
Sorry for any trouble, but could I also get a copy of the previous recipe? It’s one of my favorites!! Love your site and thank you in advance.
No problem at all! Just sent. :)
Can I also get a copy of the previous recipe. Loved that one.
I just emailed it to you. :)
Me, too, please? Getting ready to make this newer version now to use as a portable breakfast for my husband. Thanks!!
Sent. :)
Is there a way that I could get the previous recipe as well? Thanks!
Sure thing! ~ Marion :)
I tried this right out of the oven and was unsure if I could get on the baked oatmeal bandwagon. I took a batch into work and brought milk and maple syrup to serve it with and the milk made all the difference! Served warm and mini chocolate chips baked in *almost* had me thinking I was eating a fresh doughy chocolate chip cookie it was so delicious! So many compliments from the office! :)
This has become one of my go-to recipes! I often find myself with a couple of odd, overripe bananas, but don’t always want to make banana bread (mainly for health reasons, though it’s delicious). This is a very handy recipe for that – accomplishes the same purpose with almost the same taste, yet it’s healthy enough for breakfast. I’ve also successfully made this vegan by substituting a flax egg and non-dairy milk, so it’s versatile if I want to serve it to vegan friends, or if I just ran out of eggs or something! Thanks for this fantastic recipe!
family loved it. substituted milk for oat milk and turned out fine
I was surprised by how much I liked this! I’d had baked oatmeal before and was luke warm about it, but this recipe is delicious.
I love this recipe for an easy work week breakfast! I added blueberries for another flavor component! I have also made this recipe in a cupcake pan – baked with chocolate chips and peanut butter swirled in – SO GOOD!
i have made this repeatedly – my favorite variation is to include blueberries for jammy puddles throughout
Mmmmmm, jammy puddles! I love that!
Absolutely wonderful! Definitely saving this recipe to make again in the future. Thank you for an easy healthy breakfast I can enjoy! Breakfast is always a challenge for me..