Banana Baked Oatmeal

This banana baked oatmeal is the ideal healthy breakfast! It’s full of good-for-you ingredients and so delicious, everyone will want seconds.

Here’s the ideal healthy breakfast recipe, easy and full of irresistible flavor. In fact, we’re head over heels for it: Banana baked oatmeal! This incredible recipe is wholesome and filling, and it’s made with good-for-you ingredients: mostly oats and bananas. It happens to be a vegan baked oatmeal, but it pleases absolutely everyone. Serve it for guests or even better, make up a big pan and eat off of it all week! You can cut it into “bars” for quick snacks, too. Topped with a little nut butter and banana slices, it’s a decadently wholesome treat.

Ingredients in banana baked oatmeal

A few ripe bananas on our counter inspired this recipe. What to make with ripe bananas? Most recipes are banana bread or banana muffins…in short, treat food! We wanted something wholesome that would work for a meal. So we opted for a banana-based vegan spin on our healthy baked oatmeal. My, did it turn out delicious! It quickly skyrocketed to the top of our favorite easy breakfast recipes. The ingredients for banana baked oatmeal are:

Rolled or old fashioned oats: Do not substitute steel cut oats, as they have a much different texture! Instead, go to Baked Steel Cut Oatmeal.
Ripe bananas: Make sure they are very ripe! It is crucial for this recipe.
Pecan pieces or other nuts like walnuts or almonds
Cinnamon, allspice, and vanilla
Baking powder
Milk (your preferred dairy free milk)
Maple syrup

Banana substitutes for egg (and makes it vegan)

Here’s the fun thing: typically a baked oatmeal recipe calls for egg to help bind together the texture. But when you use mashed bananas, they act as a binder! In fact, banana is a common vegan substitute for egg in baking recipes. You can use this formula in other baked goods: substitute 1 mashed ripe banana for 1 egg.

The other thing mashed banana does here: it adds big banana flavor! So it doesn’t matter your dietary preferences. This banana baked oatmeal is full of beautiful sweet banana flavor and it makes for the perfect texture.

Types of milk for baked oatmeal

You can use any type of milk you like for this recipe! If you want to make it a fully vegan baked oatmeal, use your favorite plant based milk. Here are some options:

Oat milk: Oat milk is becoming a popular and easy to find non dairy milk. Make sure to use unsweetened and unflavored.
Almond milk: Almond milk is another popular choice.
2% milk: If you don’t care about being fully vegan, use 2%.
Avoid coconut milk, as it can add strong coconut flavor. Soy milk is an option, but we don’t often use it in our cooking.

Toppings for banana baked oatmeal

There are lots of ways to top baked oatmeal! This banana baked oatmeal is a pretty darn healthy breakfast: it’s vegan, oil free and relatively low sugar. So we like to keep our toppings wholesome too! Here’s how we topped it, and a few more ideas:

Nut butter and bananas: Swirl together almond butter and peanut butter, then top with banana slices. Use sunflower butter for nut free.
Maple syrup: A tiny drizzle of maple syrup is all you need for a little sparkle.
Blueberry compote: Try topping with blueberry compote (also vegan).
PB&J: Why not add a swirl of peanut butter and strawberry jam?

Make ahead instructions for baked oatmeal

Keep in mind for this vegan baked oatmeal recipe: there’s not really a good make-ahead option. Do not make the entire pan in advance and refrigerate overnight! Overnight oats call for this, but don’t try it here. The problem? The oats will absorb all the liquid and be much too dry. Here are two make-ahead options:

Minimal prep: You can mix up the wets and dries separately and store in separate containers (with the wets refrigerated), then pour them together in the morning and bake. It still takes 45 minutes to bake. We prefer this option…
Bake in advance: Make up a pan on a Sunday night, then refrigerate it for eating off of throughout the week. You can refrigerate leftovers for up to 1 week, and re-warm them in a 300 degree oven or the microwave. Or, just eat them right out of the fridge like we do!

And that’s it! Let us know what you think of this banana baked oatmeal: we hope it’s as big of a treat in your house as it is in ours.

More banana recipes

This vegan baked oatmeal recipe is one of our best banana recipes (in our opinion, at least!). Here are a few more at the top of our list:

Healthy Banana Bread Muffins A fan favorite! Whiz up bananas and oats in a blender, and they come out perfectly fluffy.
Banana Oatmeal Pancakes A spin on the muffins…made into pancakes! A hearty and healthy breakfast option.
Perfect Banana Smoothie The perfect banana smoothie recipe: frothy, creamy, and just the right sweet flavor.
Chocolate Banana Muffins Wow is all we can say about these muffins! They’re dark chocolaty with a light crunch on top and a moist interior.

This banana baked oatmeal recipe is…

Vegetarian, vegan, plant-based, dairy-free, and gluten-free.