Strawberry Rhubarb Baked Oatmeal

For Mother's day, our family was all over the place, but came together for dinner to celebrate Mom. I saw some rhubarb in the store (the plant in our garden is not quite ready) and knew immediately that I had to make a dessert for this dinner. After all, strawberry rhubarb flavoured anything's is Mom favourite. I made a strawberry rhubarb crisp which was fantastic. I used this gluten free recipe from Gluten Free Goddess with a few modifications: almonds instead of pecans, oats instead of quinoa flakes, sucanat instead of brown sugar; and it was marvellous! It made me love rhubarb, something I was always not a fan of. I had some left over strawberries and rhubarb that I didn't want to go to waste, so I put together this baked oatmeal recipe. A more wholesome breakfast version of the dessert crisp.

Strawberry Rhubarb Baked Oatmeal
Serves 6-8

1.5 cups steel cut oats
1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp dried ground ginger
1/4 cup good quality coconut oil
2 cups chopped rhubarb
1 cup chopped strawberries
5 cups milk (I used unsweetened almond)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a large casserole dish, whisk together the first 4 ingredients.
3. Melt the coconut oil and pour over the oats, mixing well to combine.
4. Add the fruit and milk and stir.
5. Bake for 1 hour and then allow to cool to room temp. The oatmeal will be runny when removing from the oven, but will thicken up as it cools down. I liked the consistency once cooled down before refrigerating. Refrigerating thickens it up even more but becomes soft again once heated in the microwave.

This oatmeal was delicious! It made a great breakfast for my Mom and I during a busy week. I would definitely added another cup of strawberries if we had some. This oatmeal is not very sweet so a tsp or two of maple syrup would be nice along with some chopped nuts. Since I have been eating oatmeal for breakfast nearly ever week day for the last...I don't know...3 years?!?..I am always looking for new ways to make it. This was my first baked oatmeal and I was definitely a fan. Lately I have also been making a new variety of overnight oats which actually has very little oats. Stay tuned for that recipe. Hopefully it won't be weeks before I get around to posting again. This Master's thesis thing really gets in the way of cooking/blogging ; )