Blueberry Baked Oatmeal

This post is sponsored by The Quaker Oats Company. All opinions are my own.

This Blueberry Baked Oatmeal is made with a base of Quaker Old Fashioned oats and is made with lots of good-for-you ingredients. It’s the perfect breakfast recipe to prep ahead on a Sunday to help make weekday breakfasts a breeze.

When it comes to my morning meal, I like to change things up, but there are two staples I find myself making most often: smoothies and oatmeal. Even when I take breaks from oatmeal or smoothies, I find myself coming back to them again and again because they’re simple, delicious and nutritious.

Though I prefer to make my smoothies fresh in the moment, one of the best things about eating oatmeal for breakfast is that there are so many recipes out there that allow it to be prepped ahead of time. From overnight oats and baked oatmeal to steel cuts oats, there are so many ways to make oatmeal in advance to help make hectic mornings feel a little less stressful.

Another thing I love about oatmeal: the toppings! It’s rare that I eat my oats plain because I feel like oatmeal is one of those dishes that begs to be topped with a myriad of toppings. However, in the case of baked oatmeal, I love incorporating the toppings into the recipe itself to simplify things, so my oatmeal is ready to reheat and eat!

Oh hi, Blueberry Baked Oatmeal. We’ll get to you in a second!

On the topic of oatmeal, I recently had the opportunity to travel to Cedar Rapids, Iowa with Quaker to learn more about the journey their oats take from seed to spoon. It was a fascinating and educational experience and I left Iowa feeling even better about making the choice to regularly incorporate oats into my diet.

Our day began at Quaker’s Cedar Rapids mill, the largest oat mill in the world! During our time at the mill, we saw the milling process firsthand and were able to observe how the oats are transformed so they’re ready for you to make delicious oatmeal. The milling process is a physical process involving steaming, pressing and cutting the raw oats into the different varieties of oats with no chemicals involved. The process is intense and involves a lot of people and high-tech machines!

Every variety of Quaker oats, no matter how they are cut – Old Fashioned, Quick, Instant and Steel Cut – are 100 percent whole grain and ounce per ounce provide similar amounts of fiber, vitamins and minerals. Their oats undergo rigorous testing to ensure they contain the right amounts of fiber and beta-glucan needed to qualify for their heart-healthy claim.

The part of the milling process I found most interesting was the kilning stage. Quaker’s unique kilning process uses heat to deactivate naturally occurring enzymes in groats (the edible part of an oat) to help extend the shelf life of their oats without the need for any preservatives. The kilning process also toasts the oats giving them the delicious, signature flavor we associate with Quaker oats. The whole mill was filled with the most wonderful aroma of toasted oats!

After the kilning process, the groats are then ready to be rolled, cut or flaked into different kinds of oatmeal products. Quaker’s Steel Cut Oats are only cut, whereas the Quick 3-Minute Steel Cut Oats are cut into smaller pieces so they cook quicker. Quaker’s Old Fashioned Oats are steamed and rolled and the Quick 1-Minute Oats are steamed, rolled thinner and then cut so they can cook faster.

For the delicious recipe I’m sharing with you guys today, I used a base of Quaker’s Old Fashioned oats which is one of my personal favorites due to its slightly chewy texture and toasted oat flavor. You guys know I’ve been making baked oatmeal for years, but there’s something about this recipe in particular that really wow-ed me! It’s bursting with fresh blueberries and I love the way the addition of walnuts, chia seeds and hempseeds only serve to enhance the texture and overall chewiness of the baked oatmeal. This blueberry baked oatmeal is wonderful on its own, topped with milk or crumbled on top of a bowl of Greek yogurt.

This blueberry baked oatmeal is a great breakfast option to prep on a Sunday and enjoy all week! Please let me know what you think if you give it a try!