This Vegan Mini Protein Pumpkin Baked Oats recipe is so easy to make and delicious, that you won’t even realize it’s high protein, sugar-free, gluten-free, nut-free and vegan!
Enjoy this easy layered dessert for breakfast! I love eating it as a post-workout dessert 🙂
This recipe is full of spices, pumpkin flavour, and the right amount of chewiness in the muffin/cake/oat layer topped with a sweet pumpkin “frosting”, sprinkled with cinnamon! What’s not to adore?
And before you ask, no, these aren’t “just” baked oats. They are SPECIAL.
If you know me, you know that I love pumpkin and oats. So that explains why I have a ton of great high protein sugar-free pumpkin recipes like this protein-layered pumpkin yogurt parfait with crust for one. It tastes amazing.
Why you should make this Protein Pumpkin Baked Oats recipe:
- high protein
- easy to make
- satisfying to make
- sugar-free
- gluten-free
- nut-free
- vegan
- Great for meal prep
- healthy and filling
- It’s layered!
- gut friendly (as someone with terrible gut health, I can approve of this recipe)
- beyond delicious!
Ingredients + Substitutions
Old-fashioned Oats – the main ingredient. Feel free to use gluten-free rolled oats. I recommend using old-fashioned / rolled oats because they give more texture and crunchiness, but if you don’t have them, quick oats are fine too. However, they might soak up more liquid.
Vegan Vanilla or Pumpkin Protein Powder – Pea or brown rice protein powder works well here, I use this one. The protein powder not only adds protein (duh) but also gives most of the sweetness.
I don’t recommend using whey or casein protein powders – please stick with the pea or brown rice protein powders, The measurements are a lot different from whey and casein.
Note that if you’re not using Vega protein powder, which I totally fine, you may need to adjust the amount of milk slightly.
Baking powder – so it rises a little.
Pumpkin spice – we’ve got pumpkin, of course, but we have to add some spice! I made my own pumpkin spice, and the ingredients are just down below. For me, the most important spice is cinnamon for sure, because or else why would this website be called I C Cinnamon?
Quick Substitute for pumpkin spice
- ground cinnamon
- ground cardamom
- ground ginger
- ground nutmeg (or cumin if you don’t have it)
Flaxseed and chia seed – if you only have one of these, feel free to use 2 tablespoons of that instead. This is the vegan egg of this recipe, and if you are not vegan, 2 whole eggs work too.
Pure pumpkin puree – the star of this recipe! Not pumpkin pie filling, cuz it’s full of wacky ingredients, but if you only have that then use it. I use this canned organic pumpkin puree. Try to get ones that only have one ingredient in them – pumpkin.
Milk – Cow’s, Goat’s, almond, cashew, oat, walnut, it doesn’t matter. The milk is here to give more moisture and some creaminess.
I don’t recommend switching the milk with water for this one, however, if you did run out of milk, you can obviously try.
The Mini Loaf Pan I used
Tips and Variations
Variations: Sprinkle some seeds, nuts, and cinnamon on top! If you have a sweet tooth, feel free to add additional sweetener to the dry ingredients 🙂
Tips
- Mix the ingredients well
- Taste test – Your oats, protein powder and pumpkin puree are variables that may lead to the recipe tasting different
How to store Protein pumpkin baked oats
To store, let the mini protein pumpkin baked oats cool completely, and put them in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days. If you don’t have the pumpkin layer topping, you can store them at room temperature for the first 3 days.
To freeze, wrap the baked oats individually in parchment paper, then put them in a freezer-friendly bag for 3 months.
To defrost, take the individual baked oats out of the freezer and into the fridge to defrost. You can also reheat them either in the microwave on medium to high heat or in the oven (320f/160c) for 5-10 minutes.
To store leftover pumpkin puree, watch the recipe video down below, instructions for freezing pumpkin puree are included!
I have more questions/suggestions!
Comments, suggestions and comments are more than welcome! All you have to do is fill in the simple contact form below.
Mini Protein Pumpkin Baked Oats (Meal Prep)
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients
- 2/3 cup rolled oats
- 3/4 cup vanilla or pumpkin vegan protein powder
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice
- 3-5 tbsp sweetener of choice (optional if your protein powder isn’t sweet enough)
Wet Ingredients
- 1 tbsp chia seed
- 1 tbsp flaxseed
- 1/2 cup water
- 2/3 cup pure pumpkin puree
- 3/4 cup milk
Others
- Cinnamon to dust
- More pumpkin puree on top
- More vanilla protein powder / powdered sweetener
- pumpkin seeds , hemp seeds
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 365f / 180c
- In a medium-large bowl, add your flaxseeds, chia seeds, and water. Mix well and set aside. This is your vegan egg.
- Add all the dry ingredients (oats, vanilla protein powder, baking powder, and pumpkin pie spice) in a large bowl and mix to combine
- In the medium-large bowl that has the vegan egg, add the rest of wet ingredients (milk and pumpkin puree) and mix well.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix well. Taste test? I did 🙂
- Grease your or line it with parchment paper. Scoop the batter into the loaf pan, divide them evenly and smooth the top.
- Add a layer of pumpkin puree on top of the batter. If the pumpkin puree isn’t sweet enough, mix it with some sweetener of sweetened protein powder beforehand.
- Optional: dust with vanilla protein powder, then ground cinnamon on top.
- bake for 20-25 minutes, then let cool on a cooling rack. Enjoy!