Baked banana and raisin oatmeal.

Always remember to eat a healthy, balanced breakfast! People (especially dieters) tend to skip their breakfast in the hope they'll lose weight, or to save calories.. This doesn't tend to work - if anything, skipping breakfast will aid weight-gain, rather than weight-loss. This is because your metabolism slows down whilst you're sleeping and doesn't speed back up again until you eat.. So if you eat breakfast, your metabolism will start up sooner than if you left it until lunchtime to eat, which means you'll burn calories faster! There is loads of research and evidence that can be found online that supports this. So please don't skip breakfast. It really is the most important meal of the day!

I found this yummy baked oatmeal recipe on Mr Breakfast - a whole website dedicated to breakfast! I have adapted the recipe a tiny bit to make it contain a little less calories.. But if I were to make it again, I would definitely cut it up into 8/9 squares, instead of 6 -making each square even less calories than it says below!

This recipe serves 6 people and is 296kcal per serving.

Ingredients:
- 2 eggs
- 1 egg white
- 2 very ripe bananas
- 3 cups/210g rolled oats
- 1.5 cups/330ml unsweetened almond milk
- 0.25 cups/g seedless raisins
- 0.25 cups/55ml oil
- 6 tbsp golden syrup
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp vanilla extract


Method:
1. Preheat the oven to medium-high temp.
2. In a  large bowl, lightly beat the eggs and egg white. Add all the remaining ingredients. Stir until well combined. Now leave the mixture to set for 10 minutes, to allow the oats to absorb up some liquid.
3. Stir the mixture once more, before pouring it into a baking pan (make sure the baking pan in generously covered with a spray-oil, such as "Fry Light").
4. Leave to bake for 35 minutes.
5. Once finished, cut the oatmeal into 6 pieces and serve warm. You could serve it with a little golden syrup drizzled on top (this step is optional) - yum!