I freaking love sweet potatoes, so it was only natural for me to eventually make a Sweet Potato Casserole Baked Oatmeal. :) Sweet potatoes are fairly inexpensive because they’re very shelf stable, they’re packed with nutrients, and you can use them in both sweet and savory dishes—what’s not to love? That’s why they’re one of my absolute favorite ingredients. I modeled this baked oatmeal after the classic Thanksgiving classic side dish, sweet potato casserole, but I used less sugar and tried to make it as breakfast-worthy as possible. Luckily sweet potatoes have quite a bit of natural sweetness, so I was able to go light on the added sugar.
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This is a Marshmallow Free Zone
To make this baked oatmeal even more like the sweet potato casserole we all know and love I topped it with a pecan crumble (sorry, I’m not a fan of marshmallows). I went light on the topping because again, I want it to count as a breakfast rather than a dessert, but even the small amount I added made a big impact on the dish. The pecans toast while the oatmeal bakes and add a wonderfully deep and earthy flavor that balances beautifully with the sweetness of the casserole. It’s just perfect! 👌
Meal Prep Your Sweet Potato Casserole Baked Oatmeal
This baked oatmeal, like all my baked oatmeal recipes, is perfect for breakfast meal prep! Refrigerate the cooked portions of the baked oatmeal for 4-5 days, or freeze for up to a few months. You can serve your leftover portions cold, or reheated in the microwave. I also like to pour a little milk on top!
More Baked Oatmeal Please!
And I know I say this every time I make a new baked oatmeal flavor, but I really do think this is my new favorite! You’ll just have to make it and judge for yourself. ;) Want to try some other flavors? Try Oatmeal Cookie Baked Oatmeal, Peanut Butter Brownie Baked Oatmeal, Baked Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal, or Blueberry Banana Baked Oatmeal.
Sweet Potato Casserole Baked Oatmeal
Servings 6Ingredients
- 2 cups mashed sweet potato* ($1.33)
- 2 large eggs ( $0.54)
- 1/4 cup brown sugar ($0.08)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract ($0.84)
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg ($0.05)
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon ($0.05)
- 3/4 tsp salt ($0.04)
- 1 tsp baking powder $0.06 ($0.06)
- 2 cups milk ($0.75)
- 3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats ($0.51)
PECAN CRUMBLE TOPPING (optional)
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour ($0.04)
- 2 Tbsp brown sugar ($0.04)
- 2 Tbsp salted butter ($0.20)
- 1/4 cup chopped pecans ($0.56)
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon ($0.05)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Prepare the crumble topping by mixing together the flour, brown sugar, butter, chopped pecans, and cinnamon. Mix the ingredients together until it looks like a crumbly mixture. Refrigerate the topping until ready to use.
- Add the mashed sweet potato to a large bowl along with the eggs, brown sugar, vanilla, nutmeg, cinnamon, salt, and baking powder. Stir until everything is evenly combined and mostly smooth. It’s okay if there are a few lumps of sweet potato.
- Pour the milk into the bowl with the sweet potato mixture and stir or whisk to combine. Add the rolled oats and stir to combine again.
- Coat the inside of a 2 quart baking dish lightly with non-stick spray. Pour the oatmeal mixture into the dish. Sprinkle the prepared pecan crumble topping over the oatmeal mixture.
- Bake the oatmeal in the fully preheated oven for 45 minutes or until the pecan crumble topping and edges of the oatmeal are slightly browned. Serve immediately or refrigerate for later. Can be eaten hot or cold.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Notes
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!It’s like dessert for breakfast!
How to Make Sweet Potato baked oatmeal – Step by Step Photos
If your sweet potato isn’t already cooked and mashed, do that first. You’ll need about 2 cups once mashed. I used a sweet potato that was just slightly over 1 lb. and it yielded just over 2 cups once mashed. If you have slightly more or less than 2 cups, the recipe will still work fine. You can use whatever method to cook the sweet potatoes that you like, but I find boiling to be the fastest and easiest route. To boil them, first peel, then dice the sweet potatoes.
Add the diced sweet potatoes to a sauce pot and cover with water. Boil over high heat until they are very tender (5-7 minutes). Drain the sweet potatoes, then mash. Let the sweet potatoes cool slightly.
While the sweet potatoes cool, prepare the pecan crumble topping. In a bowl, combine 1/4 cup all-purpose flour, 2 Tbsp brown sugar, 2 Tbsp salted butter, 1/4 cup chopped pecans, and 1/2 tsp cinnamon.
Mix these ingredients until they form a damp crumbly mixture (I used my hands to mix them together). Refrigerate the pecan crumble topping until ready to use.
Preheat the oven to 375ºF. In a large bowl combine 2 cups of the mashed sweet potato with 2 large eggs, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1 tsp vanilla, 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 3/4 tsp salt, and 1 tsp baking powder. Stir them together until they are fairly smooth (a few sweet potato lumps are okay).
Stir or whisk in 2 cups of milk.
Finally, stir in 3 cups dry old-fashioned rolled oats until everything is evenly combined.
Lightly coat the inside of a 2 quart baking dish with non-stick spray (this is an 8×13 inch casserole dish). Pour the oat mixture into the dish.
Sprinkle the pecan crumble topping over the oats. They won’t fully cover the top. It will be more like a 50-60% coverage.
Bake the casserole for 45 minutes, or until the pecan crumble topping and the edges of the baked oatmeal are lightly browned. Serve immediately, or refrigerate it for later. You can eat this Sweet Potato Casserole Baked Oatmeal either hot or cold.
I love it warmed up with a little cold milk poured over top! You can also freeze portions for later, but be sure to fully cool it in the refrigerator before transferring it to the freezer. Frozen portions reheat very easily in the microwave. Now I have breakfast all set for the rest of the week! :D
Hi Beth,
Major fan over here!! Would it be possible for you to tell us the dimensions of the pan you used? For example, 8X8 vs 9X13? It would really help me out :)
Thank you for the wonderful recipes! My husband and I are generally able to make in on $50/week for groceries, assisted in no small part by you!
Delish! Sweet enough for me yet not too sweet to pass off as breakfast. The topping was just the right amount.
HOw do you eat this. I mean with milk, cut in bars and eat, or some other way. Just curious.
thank you,
shirley
I break it up into a bowl and either warm it up in the microwave or just eat it cold. Sometimes I also pour cold milk over it. It has a texture similar to bread pudding, soft but semi-solid.
I have been making this on a weekly basis. My husband and I can’t get enough and it helps with my sweet potato cravings. Going to try the chocolate banana one next for my husband (chocoholic).
Can you replace brown sugar with maple syrup? If so, how much?
You probably could, although I haven’t tried it so I’m not sure what the appropriate ratio would be.
Yum! So perfect for a brunch – it avoids so many of the things folks these days are trying to avoid. It is delicious and very easy to make for this novice cook!
Beth, I have no idea how long I’ve been following budgetbytes other than it was on the old blog. You finally enticed me to try baked oatmeal and all it took was sweet potatoes. I just ate 2 squares for supper and loved it. I’m already contemplating how to customize it next time – more cinnamon, more pecans, maybe coconut. I also wonder about letting the mixture sit for a little while to allow the oats to soften more before baking – how that would affect the end texture. Have you tried that with any baked oatmeal and did it make any difference? Also have you experimented yet with leaving the potatoes chunky? Thanks. I appreciate you.
I haven’t tried that, but I suspect it would definitely give the oats a little less of a “rough” texture. If you give it a shot, let me know! I like the rough texture, but I know not everyone does. :)
Has anyone tried this? Often with breakfast casseroles, we prep it and have it in the pan ready to go in the fridge overnight, so we can just bake in the morning, so that it doesn’t take as long to make. We are considering how that’d work with this, but are conflicted. I’m pretty sure by morning we’d just have a giant pan of overnight oats. Mom claims that that would just decrease the baking time, since the oats are already cooked (basically just needing to heat and toast the topping, I guess). Anyone have any ideas?
This looks like heaven! I cannot WAIT to try it. Thank you for sharing :)
Yum. I don’t have sweet potatoes this week, but I do have frozen pumpkin puree from fresh pumpkins. Gonna do that instead and sub some of the spices for a pumpkin spice blend. Hoping it turns out!
Has anyone tried making this with canned sweet potatoes? I’m lazy :)
That should still work! :) Just drain off any excess liquid.
The canned sweet potatoes which I have seen are packed with sugar or syrup. Check the label and consider whether or not you’ll want to add extra sugar. I don’t know whether you could rinse the canned potatoes before using.
I have an egg allergy. Do you have substitution suggestions? I often use the combination of ground flax and a. It of water. Hoping to try this as a thanksgiving side dish. Thanks!
I’ve heard a few other people say that they use the flax substitute and it works well, but I’ve never tried it.
YMMV, but my attempt turned out really, really dry – I used 3 cups old fashioned oats but felt like it only needed 2, or maybe more liquid. Looked just like the picture though :) And generally I LOVE the recipes on your site!
Oh. My. Gosh. The Sweet Potato Casserole Baked Oatmeal is absolutely delicious!!! I baked the sweet potatoes the night before at 375 for one hour. Before I mashed the sweet potatoes, I added some butter. Although the recipe calls for 1/4 cup of brown sugar, I added 1/4 cup of regular sugar for added sweetness. I LOVE the pecan crumb topping, and will have to double the recipe next time. I served oatmeal casserole with some breakfast sausage links. My apartment smelled heavenly when I was getting ready for work. I’m looking forward to having the oatmeal for breakfast all this week. Thank you, Beth!! :-)
I may have more-than-doubled the pecan crumble. :D
Loved this recipe. Didn’t use most of the topping ingredients so I could save on calories. Toasted the nuts and put them into the oatmeal mix. Maybe my oven runs hot; 45 minutes was too long. Over all, great recipe. I eat baked oatmeal for dessert.