I love to make easy, healthy snacks for my kids to put in their lunchboxes, like my Banana Carrot Muffins, Samoa Bars, or Quinoa Bagels. These baked oatmeal cups are always one of my go-to recipes for the kids on busy mornings. Plus, they are very simple and cheap to make, made with very basic pantry ingredients, and a great way to use your ripe bananas.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Kids love how convenient they are because they can grab their favorite flavors and pack them in their lunch boxes. They are delicious morning tea at school, packed with fiber and plant-based proteins from simple wholesome ingredients. So let me share with you my school-friendly Baked Oatmeal Cups. They are naturally:
Nut-free – perfect if your school has nut-free policies. Packed with fiber Vegan Egg-free Dairy-free Gluten-free option
What Are Baked Oatmeal Cups?
Baked oatmeal cups are similar to a baked oatmeal recipe. But instead of being baked in a large baking dish, the recipe is baked in cups to make single-serve breakfast easy for kids to grab and eat on the go in the morning. Baked oatmeal cups are healthy because they are made with wholegrain oats and chia seeds and naturally sweetened with bananas.
Ingredients and Substitutions
All you need are a bunch of wholesome ingredients.
Ripe Bananas – I recommend using bananas with dark spots on their skin. These are the best because they add natural sweetness to the cups without adding sugar later in the recipe. Old-Fashioned Rolled Oats – You can also use quick oats. Both work in the recipe. You can’t use steel-cut oats. Chia Seeds or flaxseed meal. Non-Dairy Milk – Fortified soy milk is the best option to boost the calcium and protein content of the oatmeal cups, but almond milk, coconut milk, or oat milk all work as well. Vanilla Extract – To add even more taste. Ground Cinnamon – or nutmeg Baking Powder – make sure yours is gluten-free if you are gluten intolerant. Maple Syrup or any liquid sweeteners you love, including agave syrup, coconut nectar, or date syrup.
How To Make Baked Oatmeal Cups
It’s super easy to make these vegan baked oatmeal cups. Let’s see how you can make 12 oatmeal cups for breakfast in 15 minutes and in 4 amazing flavors. That’s probably the easiest healthy breakfast meal prep ever.
Four Amazing Flavors
Below are my 4 favorite baked oatmeal cup flavors.
Carrot Cake – This consists of adding grated carrots and shredded carrots. You can replace the carrots with chopped walnuts or pecans, but since most schools have nut-free policies, I prefer to stick to nut-free options. Zucchini Chocolate – I like to add zucchini to my kids’ breakfast. It has no flavor but adds vitamins and fiber to their food. Since zucchini are high in water, make sure you pack and drain the grated zucchini before adding them to the batter, or your cups will be super soft. Stir in the grated zucchini with dark chocolate for an amazing combination of flavors. Berries and Seeds – Stir thawed berries (not frozen berries) with sunflower seeds. Frozen berries release water, and they make the cups super loose in texture. Thaw the berries, discard their juice, or keep it for a smoothie later, and add the thawed berries to the batter. Strawberry White Chocolate – Strawberries are high in water, like zucchini, and they can make the cups super fragile. The trick to using fresh or thawed strawberries is to cut them into tiny pieces. Stir strawberry pieces and vegan white chocolate chips in a quarter of the batter.
Toppings
You can add some toppings to the cups to boost their flavors, like:
Peanut Butter or other nut butter such as Almond Butter or Cashew Butter Maple Syrup Yogurt Pinch of Cinnamon
Storage Instructions
The best way to store these oatmeal cups is in the fridge, in a sealed box. They last for about 4 days in the fridge or up to 3 months in the freezer. Thaw the cups in the fridge the day before serving.
Allergy Swaps
Gluten-Free – Pick gluten-free certified oats and baking powder. Sugar-Free -Skip the sweetener or replace it with a sugar-free sweetener like erythritol, allulose, or Monk fruit maple-flavored syrup. Banana-Free – Use 1 cup of apple sauce or sweet potato puree. Chia Seed-Free – Use the same amount of flaxseed meal.
Below are the answers to some of your most common questions about this oatmeal cup recipe.
More Oatmeal Breakfast Recipes
If you like breakfast recipes with oats, you’ll love these:
