Baked Oatmeal with Bananas, Pecans and a Nutella Swirl Plus Announcing a Virtual Eid Party – Eid Eats 2015!!!

Ramzan/Ramadan Mubarak to all those who will be commemorating this holy month. For those of you who are wondering what it is, Ramadan is a month on the Islamic (lunar) calendar where Muslims world over fast from sunrise to sunset. During a fast we can not eat or drink anything. The purpose of this fast is to help us subsume our physical needs in favor of spiritual ones and also to develop a deep sense of empathy with those who are less fortunate, for whom ‘fasting’ is not an option.

At the end of the 30 days of Ramadan comes a wonderful celebration of Eid ul Fitr, which as you can imagine, revolves heavily around food! Last year Asiya of Chocolate and Chillies and I hosted Eid Eats! a virtual potluck party for to celebrate Eid ul Fitr and this year we are back with another co-host, the amazing Henna of My Ninja Naan.

So how do you join in? Easy!

1.) Make any dish of your choosing that you would make for Eid – something traditional, something unconventional, whatever you fancy – write a post and have it ready for the 15^th of July 2015.

2.) Our posts will also be live July 15th 2015. You can link back to our blogs i.e. My Ninja Naan, Flour & Spice and Chocolate & Chillies  through a link party  we will set up and use the button above in all of your posts (pretty cute isn’t it!)

3.) Remember to check out and leave comments on participating blogs!

Okay just thinking about Eid Eats is making me hungry. Good thing I have something yummy and filling for you today that would be wonderful for Sehri/Suhoor as well as breakfast any day. Baked in a square tin and sliced it will probably be pretty picnic friendly too!

The yummmy recipe I am sharing with you today originally comes from Asiya of Chocolate & Chillies. With it’s triple whammy of banana, oatmeal, and pecans it is quite substantial and healthy! Or rather it was until I couldn’t help myself and added a teaspoon of nutella on top  of each ramekin *guiltily looking away…*

I baked mine in individual ramekins to make them easier to eat and freeze since I wanted a large-ish portion that would be perfect with a glass of milk for Sehri/Suhoor. The baked oatmeal is fairly dense since I effectively make ‘thicker’ portions than Asiya does. I also halved the recipe, increased the whole wheat flour, and decreased the brown sugar (to make room for the Nutella lol). For my purposes this is wonderful as is. For summer snacks I would omit the Nutella and go back to baking it in bar form like Asiya does.

Enough blathering.. on to the recipe…

Baked Oatmeal with Bananas, Pecans and a Nutella Swirl 
Adapted from Chocolate & Chillies
Makes 4 ramekin sized servings or 8 squares in a 8 inch pan

1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp canola oil
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 banana, mashed
1/2 cup large flake oats
1/4 cup pecans, coarsely chopped
1 tbsp Nutella for swirling

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Grease 4 ramekins or a 8*8 inch pan. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together oats, flours, baking soda, and salt.

In a large bowl, whisk together oil, brown sugar, eggs and bananas.  Add the flour mixture and stir till combined. Fold in the pecans.

Divvy up the batter between 4 ramekins and top each with a scant teaspoon of Nutella, swirl with a toothpick. If using a square pan then just spread the batter in the pan, if using Nutella you may need a little more. Just drop small amounts randomly over the pan and swirl through. Bake for 18-22 minutes. Eat warm or wrap well and freeze, thaw, then reheat before eating.