Tropical Baked Oatmeal

I am clearly in a breakfast state of mind. This is the third breakfast recipe I have blogged about in a row. Breakfast deserves a little more attention. You need a good, hearty breakfast to start the day off right.

I have joined the baked oatmeal bandwagon, and I’m glad I did. I have been eating it all week, and it has been magnificent! It’s like eating a warm, giant oatmeal cookie for breakfast. I used an epicurious recipe as the basis but made some “tropical” substitutions. The original recipe had layers or ingredients, while I just mixed everything up for one homogenous layer of goodness.

The ingredients are 2 cups rolled oats, 6 ounces dried unsweetened mango, 1 cup coconut flakes, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon, ½ teaspoon nutmeg, ½ teaspoon salt, 1 11 ounce can drained mandarin oranges, 2 cups milk, 1 egg, 2 tablespoons melted butter, 1/3 cup pure maple syrup, and 2 teaspoons coconut extract.

I combined the oats, chopped mangos, coconut flakes, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and coarsely chopped mandarin oranges in a large bowl.

I stirred it well.

I combined the liquid ingredients in a separate bowl. I’m pretty sure this is unnecessary, and I had to clean an extra bowl for no reason. The liquid ingredients are milk, melted butter, egg, syrup, and coconut extract.

I mixed the liquid ingredients thoroughly and poured them into the oatmeal mixture.

Once everything was mixed well, I poured the oatmeal into a well-greased pan. The recipe called for an 8 inch square pan. I used this weirdly shaped IKEA pan that looks like a large loaf pan.

I baked the oatmeal for 40 minutes at 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

 This smells phenomenal and the flavor is scrumptious!  It reminded me of an oatmeal cookie.  You can switch out the fruit combination, but I would highly recomend adding the shredded coconut.  I ate this for breakfast for almost a week.  It reheats like a champ.