Cinnamon Chia Oatmeal bake with Coconut Whipped Cream

I made the kids and I some baked oatmeal this morning.  I adapted the recipe from a new blog I found called, Skinny Mom's Kitchen.  Her recipe looked delicious, so I just made a few changes using coconut oil, coconut milk and added some chia seeds for additional nutrition.  Since I was on the coconut theme, I played around with the coconut whipped cream as well.  Don't like coconut??  No worries!  Outside of the whipped cream, which you could omit, you will find that there is no shockingly crazy coconut flavor to this dish.  It's very cinnamony (is that a word?) and this is a basic recipe in which you could play around with all sorts of flavors.  How about almond flavoring, using a mashed banana rather than applesauce, or adding peanut butter........PEANUT BUTTER, why did I not add that??  The possibilities are really endless.  Play around with it and let me know what you come up with.

Banana Oatmeal Breakfast Muffins

Yep, another muffin recipe!  What can I say.....I love 'em and my kids will eat them.  Score!  As I was pinning today, I came across this that I repinned from Toni, one of my facebook fans at Fit and Healthy with Debbie Reichert.  Here is the original recipe if you would like to check it out at chase and em's site!

I did not add any sugar at all, and substituted with honey, as I usually do with my muffins.  Therefore, these muffins were not overly sweet, making them truly perfect for breakfast with a cup of coffee.  Oh, who am I kidding, I just ate 2 at 2:00 in the afternoon with some skim milk......so sue me!  Since I have been eating clean, I honestly don't miss the sweetness in certain foods.  That said, if you are looking for a sweeter muffin, then use the sugar that is called for in the original recipe, OR use more honey than I did.  But play around with it and make it your own.  I found the recipe below to be just right!

Here's my variation:

Apple oat muffins

In my effort to continue to get rid of all of our freshly picked apples, I found this recipe online, made a few changes, and it was super easy and yummy!  The original recipe can be found here if you are interested.   I'm VERY happy with how these turned out! They are not as much on the sweet side, so I'm picturing me in the morning, with my cup of coffee and one of these beauties, alongside my Greek yogurt and fruit.  My 7 year old LOVED it for his after school snack.  He had 2 of them with some yogurt. Score Mom!!!  

I try very hard to keep my refined sugar intake to a low but you'll see I did throw in a little bit of brown sugar.  To me, the combination of apples, brown sugar and cinnamon is second to none.    Try throwing some walnuts into the batter as well.  I did not because my kids are not big on nuts in their muffins.  That, however, would have made me even happier with this final product......the things you do for your kids, right??  Next time, I'll make a special "Mommy batch."

If you use gluten free ingredients, then this is another great GF recipe.  If you've been following me for awhile then you know I've chosen to decrease the amount of wheat in me and my family's diet, so I've been making quite a bit of gluten free recipes lately.  My reasoning for that are for another post, for another time.  Until then, read this fabulous recipe and then use the apples (that I know you have during this prime picking season) and ENJOY!!

Delicious oatmeal bake

This recipe was an accident.  A delicious, gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, protein and omega-3 packed accident that you should all try.  NOW!!

I spend a lot of time in the kitchen, whether it be testing someone else's recipes (usually making changes) or creating original recipes of my own.  I was craving an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie, while also feeling adventurous, so decided I'd make up my own recipe.  Here is the thing though......baking is a science.  Unlike cooking, with baking you can't just add a pinch here, a dash there and have it turn out just right the first time (typically).  Let's just say I figured going into this experiment that my cookies were NOT going to rise and set right.  Mainly because I wanted to use almond meal/flour in lieu of all purpose or whole wheat flour.  I still haven't figured that whole conversion thing out yet.  But the end result was a success.  I turned my cookie recipe into an oatmeal bake recipe and BOOM.....

If you are wondering what made me turn my "cookie" recipe into something else.....here ya go.....