Carrot Cake Baked Oatmeal

Name: Carrot Cake Baked Oatmeal
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 35 min
Ingredients: 2 bananas; 1/4 cup applesauce (unsweetened); 2 tbsp maple syrup; 1 tsp vanilla extract; 1/2 tsp baking powder; 1 tsp cinnamon; 1/8 tsp ground ginger; 1/8 tsp nutmeg; 1/4 tsp kosher salt; 3/4 cup almond milk (unsweetened, or cashew milk); 1 cup carrots (shredded); 1.25 cup old fashioned oats; 2 tbsp raisins; 2 tbsp reduced fat cream cheese; 1 tsp sugar; 1 tsp almond milk (unsweetened, or cashew milk)

March 28, 2021 By Steph 94 Comments

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Your favorite Springtime dessert, transformed into healthy baked oatmeal. Carrot cake baked oatmeal features shredded carrots and raisins like a traditional carrot cake, mixed together with old fashioned oats and the flavors of maple syrup, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg. It is topped with a cream cheese frosting swirl, leaving you to ask: breakfast or dessert?

What you’ll need to make this recipe

Here’s what you’ll need to make this recipe:

bananas
unsweetened applesauce
maple syrup
vanilla extract
baking powder
cinnamon
ground ginger
nutmeg
kosher salt
unsweetened almond milk
shredded carrots
old fashioned oats
raisins
reduced fat cream cheese
sugar

How to make the baked oats

Preheat the oven to 375F. Grab a baking dish; I use an oval Corningware one. I find this is the perfect size for this dish! The heat it gives the baked oatmeal is perfect for a moist texture. Any baking dish will do, however. If you want your bake to be flatter, you can definitely use a larger dish. Spray the baking dish with cooking spray. Next, mash the bananas up. Add in the applesauce and maple syrup. Grate the carrots. To do this, use a large handheld grater or box grater. Don’t use the store-bought shredded carrots, they won’t work here! Then, stir in the spices, baking powder, and milk. Next, fold in the oats, carrots and raisins.

Pour this mixture into the sprayed baking dish, and bake for 35 minutes.

How to make the healthy cream cheese frosting

While the oats bake, it’s the perfect time to make the cream cheese frosting. To make the frosting, just whisk the frosting ingredients together. Place the frosting into a small plastic baggie, and snip the end off, to create a piping bag. Once the oats are done cooking and have cooled a bit, you can pipe the frosting right on top.

Putting it all together and serving

When the carrot cake baked oatmeal is all ready and frosted, it will look like this. I sprinkled it with a few extra shredded carrots! I won’t lie, this dish is sweet enough to make a delicious dessert. My original idea was to have it for breakfast, but it can really work either way. It makes four GENEROUS servings. You can totally divide it into smaller servings as well. This baked oatmeal can be stored in the fridge for up to a week (make sure it’s covered). You can also freeze individual portions, they reheat really easily in the microwave. If you want to keep the frosting off, you can store it in the plastic bag and add the frosting right before serving each portion.