Sweet and Savoury Slimming-friendly Recipes You Can Make with Oats
If you’ve got a pack of oats in your cupboard, they’re far more versatile than you might think. While you may only use them for your morning porridge or overnight oats, there are lots of other ways you can make the most of this budget-friendly ingredient.
From baked treats and breakfast bites, to hearty pies and even meatballs, you’ll be surprised by all the sweet and savoury delights you can rustle up with oats at your fingertips.
It doesn’t matter what brand of oats you have at home either! Some of our recipes use finer oats, while others need thicker, coarse ones. You can always blitz a batch of rolled oats into a finer flour-like mixture with the help of a blender – the results will be just as fluffy!
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Slow Cooker Oats with Two Toppings
These Slow Cooker Oats with Two Toppings take the effort out of busy mornings. Just like how overnight oats are soft and smooth after hours chilling in the fridge, this recipe bubbles away low and slow ready for you to wake up to – and they’ll be nice and warm!
It goes without saying that you’ll need a slow cooker, but you’ll also want a large heatproof dish, jug or dish to get started.
Our recipe offers two different porridge toppers: peanut butter and banana or blueberry and apple compote. We’d recommend making the compote the night before if you’re in a hurry, so you can spoon it over your bowl and get on with your day.
It’s best to add the peanut butter powder, freshly-sliced bananas and chopped pecans the day of – they could turn brown if refrigerated overnight!
Turn to pages 26 and 27 in your copy of Pinch of Nom: Comfort Food to see the full recipe.
Bakewell Baked Oats
All of our baked oat recipes are low-fuss and packed with flavour, but we’ve definitely got a soft spot for the juicy centre in our Bakewell Baked Oats! Perfect for breakfast, or even for supper, this warm and fluffy sweet treat never disappoints.
To keep things nice and light, we’ve added vanilla extract, granulated sweetener and fat-free yoghurt to our ingredients list. You’ll combine everything in a dish and leave it to bake until risen and irresistible!
These glass dishes from Amazon are really handy because they’re also safe to refrigerate and freeze – that’s ideal for recipes you can batch cook, like this one.
We’ve used a blend of cherry jam and almond extract to give our oats their Bakewell Tart inspired flavours, but there’s nothing to stop you mixing things up. Why not make batches of our Carrot Cake Baked Oats or Nutella Baked Oats next?
Strawberry Oat Muffins
If you’ve not tried a batch of oat muffins yet, warm the oven up now! From lemon drizzle to banana and peanut, we’ve had fun whipping up all kinds of different oaty batches, and they all come in nice and low in calories.
Our Strawberry Oat Muffins are absolutely perfect for afternoon teas throughout spring and summer, or they’ll keep nicely in an airtight container to snack on for a few days.
Instead of sugar, we’ve brought the sweetness by using a like for like amount of granulated sweetener. We’ve used strawberry essence to really ramp up the berry-licious flavours, but you can add a drop of vanilla instead.
To turn them into an extra-special pudding, serve them in a bowl with a dollop of strawberry yoghurt and more juicy strawberry slices.
Cheesy Courgette Pancakes
Yes, oats can make pancakes! We promise these Cheesy Courgette Pancakes are spot on with a hot cup of tea or coffee first thing in the morning.
With a side of bacon and juicy grilled tomatoes, they’re on the table in less than 20 minutes.
We promise you’ll never be able to taste that we’ve sneaked courgette into the mixture! It makes for a fresh and nutritious way to bind our pancake batter, without overpowering the flavours.
By using oats instead of flour, your stack will be packed with far more protein and filling fibre than flour-filled versions. If savoury pancakes aren’t for you, try our Banana and Chocolate Pancakes instead.
Lemon and Blueberry Waffles
The oat-based breakfast ideas don’t stop there…how about oat waffles? In the mixture for our Lemon and Blueberry Waffles you’ll find finely-blended oats, eggs, sweetener, fat-free yoghurt, vanilla extract and lemon zest.
It might sound strange but trust us, it really works! Once you’ve got your batter in a waffle mould, you’ll only need to bake for 15-20 minutes before you can try for yourself.
We prefer to use silicone waffle moulds because they’re really easy to clean by hand, or you can pop them in the dishwasher.
Once your waffles are gloriously golden, top them off with a dollop of sweetened yoghurt and a handful of blueberries.
Fruity Flapjack Pizza
It doesn’t feel like oats and pizza should be in the same sentence but here we are! This Fruity Flapjack Pizza has a chewy flapjack-style base that makes it into something fun and different to tuck into for dessert.
Unlike traditional flapjacks, you won’t find lashings of butter or golden syrup here. We’ve swirled reduced-fat spread together with low-sugar ingredients to make our oats nice and sweet.
For the pizza sauce, you’ll smear a layer of sweetened reduced-fat cream cheese on the crispy oat base – that’s where you’re left with a blank canvas to add your favourite fruits!
There’s no reason the whole family can’t get involved and decorate their own. Just note that you might need to count additional calories when you tweak our recipes, if you’re keeping track.
Vegan Spaghetti and Meatballs
There’s not an ounce of meat involved in our Vegan Spaghetti and Meatballs recipe. Ideal for a meat-free Monday, this hearty midweek dinner is bound to go down well even with fussy eaters at the table.
For our alternative to the classic meatball, we’ve bound a herby mix of beans and mushrooms together using oats. There’s no need to get your hands dirty every time you make this recipe – we always make more meatballs than we need, so that we’ve got some ready-prepped in the freezer for next time.
After half an hour in the oven, the ‘meatballs’ are ready to be stirred into the homemade rich and garlicky tomato sauce.
Top with a plant-based cheese to keep things vegan-friendly before you twirl the spaghetti around your fork!
Summer Berry Cobbler
A twist on a classic American pudding, oats replace the flour you’d normally find in the biscuit topping for a Summer Berry Cobbler.
You’ll use a tablespoon to add scoops of the almond-infused oat biscuit mixture on top of the fruits, before it all goes in the oven.
Similar to a traditional crumble, the juicy-sweet medley of summer berries bakes until syrupy and bubbling upwards. This might be a bit of a statement, but we think oats make this dish better…they add an even more satisfying crunch!
You’ve got to try this one with a dollop of fat-free yoghurt on a warm summer’s evening…
Beef Crumble
Next time you’re in the mood for comfort food, grab an oven dish and make our unusual-sounding Beef Crumble. If the overwhelming positive response in our Facebook group is anything to go by, you won’t regret it!
The topping of cheese, oats, garlic and parsley crisps up like a dream in the oven. You’ll layer it onto a filling that’s jam-packed with tasty veggies, including courgette, mushrooms, peppers and butternut squash, as well as reduced-fat beef mince.
No one at the table will be able to resist this family-friendly game-changer! We plate it up with a simple side of steamed vegetables, but you can always add a scoop of Creamy Mashed Potatoes if you’re feeling really hungry.
Tell us all about your oaty creations!
Once you’ve cooked up an oat storm, we’d love to see your photos over on Instagram. Don’t forget to tag us @pinchofnom so that we don’t miss a single one!
We’ve also got nearly 1 million community members waiting to chat all about your slimming journey in our friendly Facebook group. Share pictures, swap tips, ask questions…whatever you need, it’s the place to go!
If that’s not enough, take a scroll through our gorgeous PON gallery next (follow our step-by-step guide to sign up to a free website account and take part in the fun). Our wonderful community shares the BEST pictures there and we’re always handing out SWAG to say thank you where we can!
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