Baked Pumpkin Oatmeal

My husband got some discouraging numbers back from a blood test which compelled him to make some changes to his diet. To that end, I'm trying to prepare food that he will enjoy that is lower in calories and doesn't spike blood sugar. Oatmeal is usually considered the breakfast of choice for its relatively low glucose index and decent protein numbers for a grain, but my husband doesn't like oatmeal as it is conventionally prepared.

In order to make oatmeal more palatable (and easier to eat than cooking it up on the spot), I modified an Amish baked oatmeal bar recipe. There are tons of these recipes out there, and I lost track of the one that I changed. Mainly, I replaced the sugar, cut the amount of milk and replaced it with pumpkin, removed the raisins, reduced the oil, and added in pumpkin pie spices. Here's an example of one of the Amish baked oatmeal recipes, though this isn't the one I modified.


Baked Pumpkin Oatmeal:

• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 cups rolled oats
• 2 tsp. all-purpose flour
• 1/2 granular Splenda (or use white sugar)
• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/4 cup low-fat milk (or use whole milk)
• 2 tbsp. vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F./175 degrees C. Grease and flour a loaf pan.

Lightly beat the egg in a medium-size bowl. Add the Splenda (or sugar), pumpkin puree, milk, oil, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and vanilla. Mix well. Stir in the oatmeal, flour and baking powder until evenly mixed. Pour into the prepared pan. Bake for 25-35 minutes until set.

I could tell by the color of the top that it was evenly cooked. When it was dark orange, it wasn't quite finished. I cooked mine for 35 minutes in a glass loaf pan, which may have been about 5 minutes too long. I'd recommend using a toothpick inserted into the center to check for doneness and using a shorter time if you have a metal pan.

This was much better than I expected. It's a little crumbly, and not exceptionally moist, but still like an oat cookie or bar. For a moister result, I think adding 1/2 cup of unsweetened applesauce should do the trick. Since my husband was happy with this as is, and apple would increase the carb profile of this, I am not likely to add it to mine, but I think it'd work well in general. I'm going to try some variations on this recipe soon including a peanut butter version and a blueberry version.

The total calories for the whole loaf was 840. I cut mine into 6 servings of 140 calories each.

by Shari (Orchid64)