Everyday Super Foods – Oats ( Delicious Banana Oat Bread Recipe Included!)

Posted on by Andy the RD

My superstar guest blogger Leigh is at again with a great feature and recipe on Oats! 

Oats as an Everyday Super Food

By Leigh Merotto

What food is affordable, offers a large amount of fibre and nutrients per serving, and is easily incorporated into recipes? Well, as you probably guessed from the title of this post – oats! Oats are available in many different forms – rolled, instant, steel cut – and are often a breakfast staple because they are easy and simple to prepare, and plenty nutritious. If you aren’t incorporating oats into your diet, perhaps this post will help convince you why you should!

A ½ cup serving of cooked whole grain, rolled oats contains almost 3 grams of fibre, 5 grams of protein and 20 grams of complex carbohydrates. This makes for an excellent profile of nutrients you want to include at breakfast time, to give you the energy to fuel your day. Oats are also an excellent source of plant-based iron, as well as the B-Vitamins thiamine and niacin. Oats are also relatively low in calories, but high in nutrients, and your local bulk store will have them available for roughly a few dollars for a pound of rolled oats, making them very economical. 

As mentioned, oats make a simple breakfast option: combine rolled or steel cut oats (these types are whole grain and more nutritious then instant) in a 2:1 ratio of water to oats. Rolled oats take approximately 5 minutes to cook, while steel cut oats take around 20, but can be prepared in batch for the week. Simply add some nuts, seeds, dried fruit and milk of choice and you have a filling and nutrient packed breakfast or snack!

Banana Oatmeal Breakfast Loaf 

Wet Ingredients

  • 2 ripe bananas, mashed
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • ½ cup peanut butter (or any nut or seed butter)
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • ¼ cup milk of choice
  • 1/4 cup coconut or other oil

Dry Ingredients: 

  • 1 & ½ cups of rolled oats
  • ½ cup oat flour
  • ½ tsp baking soda
  • ½ tsp ground cinnamon
  • Pinch of sea salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a square baking dish and line the bottom with parchment paper.

In a medium sized bowl, mash bananas. Add in remaining wet ingredients and mix well to incorporate. In another medium sized bowl, mix all the dry ingredients together.

Add the dry mixture to the bowl of wet ingredients, and mix until just incorporated. Optional: add in a handful of dried cranberries or chocolate chips if desired, and gently stir into mixture. Pour mixture into baking dish, and place in oven to bake for 30 minutes.

Let cool for approximately 15 minutes, then remove from pan and cut into slices. Loaf can be kept in the fridge for up to a week, and tastes amazing with a spread of your favourite nut butter. 

**Tip: Recipe can be made vegan – Simply substitute maple syrup for honey, and 1 Tbsp Ground Flax + 3 Tbsp hot water to replace egg.

Andy De Santis RD MPH