Gingerbread Baked Oatmeal Recipe

This gingerbread baked oatmeal recipe is the perfect healthy breakfast recipe for the holiday season. Great for make-ahead meal prep breakfasts!

Confession – I am one of those people that starts listening to Christmas music before Thanksgiving.

I absolutely love this time of year. I have Hallmark Christmas movies on all the time, Christmas music on the car radio as we drive, and I am itching to get the Christmas tree up (though I hold off on all of the other decorations until the day after Thanksgiving).

And I love my seasonal food – gingerbread, eggnog, peppermint, and all of those other lovely festive flavors are just so nostalgic for me.

So, I’m always trying to build holiday favorites into our healthy normal!

Breakfast is the one meal I meal prep every single week because I am so not a morning person, but I love a hot, hearty breakfast (you can read more about how I meal prep for weight loss here), so I decided to add a festive flair to baked oatmeal this year.

I use molasses instead of sugar or brown sugar for sweetness in this recipe and, paired with the ginger, cloves, and cinnamon, it brings all of the gingerbread magic to the dish.

How To Make Gingerbread Baked Oatmeal

Gather all of your ingredients together. The molasses I used is “full flavor.” Blackstrap molasses is the best kind to use for this recipe to give you the most gingerbread flavor, but they didn’t carry it in my grocery store, and the full flavor worked well.

I wouldn’t recommend using “mild flavor,” though!

First, mix together your dry ingredients.

In a separate bowl, whisk together all of your wet ingredients.

*Easy cooking tip – if you spray your measuring cup with cooking spray before measuring your molasses (or other sticky ingredients like honey), it comes out so much easier!

Now pour your wet ingredients into your dry ingredients and mix to combine.

Pour it all into a greased 8×8 glass pan and bake at 350 for 35 minutes, until the oatmeal is set.

When the oatmeal is set, take it out of the oven and cool for about 5 minutes before serving.

What To Eat With Baked Oatmeal

I eat fruit with breakfast almost every single morning and winter fruits like pears, clementines, and grapes go great with this gingerbread baked oatmeal!

Because high-protein breakfasts are such a big part of my 100-pound weight loss maintenance, I like to serve this baked oatmeal with whole foods with lots of protein like:

• spinach scrambled eggs
• chicken maple breakfast sausage
• Greek yogurt
• hard-boiled eggs

You can even add a protein option into the baked oatmeal itself before baking like:

• a scoop of vanilla protein powder
• a tablespoon of chia or hemp seeds

*Note that if you do add these options, you’ll also need to add more milk to the baked oatmeal.

How to Make Baked Oatmeal Ahead of Time

Meal Prep Breakfasts

My favorite way to do this is baking the entire recipe, then cooling them completely before packing up their individual containers.

I reheat each serving in the microwave for about 1 1/2 minutes for healthy breakfast meal prep.

If you want to reheat the entire pan, cover it with foil and bake at 350 for 10 minutes.

Can You Freeze This?

You can absolutely freeze this baked oatmeal if you’d like!

Just bake as directed, cool completely, then cover it tightly. You can freeze the entire casserole pan or individual pieces.

You can freeze it for up to 3 months.

When you are ready to use it, thaw it in the refrigerator, then reheat using the instructions above.

Can You Double The Recipe?

Absolutely! You can double the recipe and use a 9×13-inch pan instead of an 8×8.

You will need to add at least 10 minutes to the baking time for the oatmeal to set. Watch it carefully and if it starts browning too much, cover with foil until the oatmeal is fully baked.

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