Maple Blackberry Baked Oatmeal

Loaded with big, juicy blackberries and crunchy walnuts with warm spices, this luscious baked oatmeal definitely feels more like dessert than it does breakfast. Topped with whipped cream, it tastes decadent, but it’s healthy! The best part, is it’s loaded with fiber and nutrients, it’s heart healthy, and a single serving is less than 300 calories, so you can totally enjoy it for breakfast and still feel good about it.

I know, maybe this doesn’t look like the flakes of oatmeal you’re used to … that’s because I used OAT BRAN in my baked oatmeal (for more fiber), but you can substitute old fashioned oats or steel cut oats or even quick cooking oats and you’ll be just fine. You can also substitute other berries in place of the blackberries (if you don’t have any on hand or you run out). I did, in fact, run out of blackberries while I was making this and had to use some frozen mulberries on top. But mulberries look like baby blackberries anyway, so they fit right in!

How are you all holding up out there during this virus craze? I hope you’re staying at home and safe … I notice everyone seems to be turning to comfort foods and doing a LOT more cooking at home.

For me, this stay at home thing is not a HUGE change to my lifestyle, because I was already working from home, but now I’m no longer going out to yoga or the gym. I did take a (temporary) cut in pay, which strangely doesn’t make me sad because I’d much rather take a cut in pay than lose my job like I know is happening to SO many people. I feel so bad for those that have already lost their jobs or are on a temporary leave of absence.

My small problems seem miniscule in comparison. I miss my yoga friends as they were my regular social outlet every week. I miss my Saturday morning outings to the coffee shop with my kids. I miss my parents and my sisters … not being able to go visit them is really hard, and I’ve got some internal fears about that that keep haunting me, but while I’m finding myself scared or sad or lonely at times, I’ve been trying to stay positive by doing yoga at home, taking (socially distant) walks around the neighborhood, and a making sure I look for something to be grateful for every day.

Today I’m grateful for the feeling of the breeze in my hair, for the birdsong (and angry bird chatter) that I hear every time I step outside, for the trees that I see swaying in the breeze and beginning to awaken, for the various visitors we get in our yard (deer and squirrels and sometimes a gaggle of wild turkeys), for the love and support I have from my family. And also, I’m so grateful for my fellow “quarantine-ee’s”: my son, my daughter and our four cats. … but yes, (perhaps like you), I do crave comfort foods and find myself reaching for something comforting to eat more often these days.

When I am craving a sweet treat, I like to make something sweet for breakfast and top it off with a bit of indulgent whipped cream (or better yet, ice cream, if I have it). Eating sweets in the morning seems to satisfy my sugar cravings so I can (hopefully) eat healthy the rest of the day. That’s not to say I don’t cave into crunchy, salty snack cravings later in the day … that has TOTALLY been happening, but so far, I’ve been pretty good about choosing healthier snacks like popcorn and (my latest obsession) White Cheddar Hippeas, which are kind of like Cheetos, but made with chickpeas, so I don’t feel completely horrible about eating them.

I’m trying to think of ways to brighten other people’s days too, having lots of conversations with my mom and dad and sisters, texting my friends, trying to stay in touch. My daughter has been having nightly talks on Discord with her friends. I think mostly they play video games or D&D together, but sometimes they just talk. I’m proud of her for keeping in touch with them during this craziness, but she says she’s used to it. Being an introvert, she’s been physically separated from her friends most of the time since she graduated from high school. She had JUST decided she needed to get out in the world and socialize more when this happened and now we just can’t leave the house. Well, technically we CAN, but we’re not. It’s just not safe right now … and since we know that the more of us that CAN stay home, do, the faster this nightmare will all be over, we are doing that.

I’ve never been this way, but I’m learning to be a germaphobe and doing quite a good job of it! I’m washing my hands incessantly. Not leaving the house except for solitary walks around the neighborhood. The last time I went out to the store, I was shaking with anxiety, but we planned out the trip, I wore gloves and tried to cover my face with a scarf but when it fell down, I gave up on trying to get it back in place because I’d have to be touching my face (which is why I’ve read they tell people NOT to wear face masks because they tend to touch their face more often when they do). The gloves and my shoes and all the groceries we didn’t need to refrigerate or get in the freezer right away were quarantined in the garage for three days, while the rest of the things got sanitized or washed. My son was an awesome helper. He made sure the cats were locked up, opened up both doors from the garage into the house AND opened up the washing machine so I could head straight for the shower and then dump all my clothes in the laundry, which I totally did. I scrubbed myself down from head to toe and felt much better.

Anyway, back to the recipe: I have been smitten with blackberries ever since my trip to the Pacific Northwest last fall with my parents where there were wild blackberries growing EVERYWHERE and they were so sweet and juicy and wonderful! I picked some almost every day of our trip and reveled in the flavor. The ones we buy here are not anywhere that good, so that’s why I like to put them in baked goods like this. Grocery store blackberries definitely benefit from being cooked.

By the way: you can freeze some of this yummy “dessert” oatmeal for later if you don’t gobble it all up right away. Since I’m the only one here who eats oatmeal, I did freeze half of it for later, while the other half was my breakfast for several days.

I just noticed this baked oatmeal is SUPER high in vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin. Research has shown that vitamin D might play an important role in regulating mood and warding off depression … so that’s one more reason to enjoy this comforting sweet breakfast right now.

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