Healthy Chocolate Pumpkin Oatmeal Bake

Fall season is here and so is pumpkin spice season. Whether you love it or hate it, it’s here to stay.

As a gardener, I now know that pumpkin season truly begins at the end of August/beginning of September – because that’s when your first batch of pumpkins are ready!

We always cure ours because – why not? But also, it provides us with more options due to it’s longer shelf-life. Check out our squash curing article here.

Last year we saved a ton of pumpkin purees in the freezer and that was great, but we barely used any post Halloween. We have now had over 12 cups of puree frozen since last year and with pumpkin spice season here – we can finally utilize the purees.

I’ve been making something similar to this for a long time and finally landed on this super easy pumpkin oatmeal bake. It’s healthy, with lots of protein and other vital nutrients to kick start your morning.

I’m not a breakfast person, so having an easy, ready oatmeal bake leftover in the fridge from baking Sunday morning, has been a game changer for busy school and work mornings. I just knew I had to share the recipe.

Why Is Everyone Obsessed with Pumpkin?

Pumpkin is a fun vegetable to grow if you have the space for it. The vines grow over 10ft long and each plant provides a few pumpkins. While it might seem like it, pumpkin is also very versatile and has many uses. Also remember – not everything in the garden needs to have a specific use, sometimes it’s just fun to grow things!

But if you are looking for some quick reasons to grow pumpkins, here’s a few:

Pumpkin Purees

For this article I’m using a pumpkin puree we baked, peeled, blended and froze into our silicon muffin pan as pucks. Purees can be used and added in so many different culinary dishes.

We’ve added them to our healthy peanut butter cookie recipe as some added nutrients, you can add it to many other deserts or for casseroles, you can use it in soups. The list is endless.

Fun fact – pumpkin is good for constipation as well. We used it for our constipated cat a few years ago and it worked great. It’s also great for babies as a pureed snack when introducing solids!

Pumpkin Seeds

Besides saving seeds, you can also eat pumpkin seeds. They are absolutely delicious! They’re full of nutrients and are an easy healthy snack to have on hand.

You don’t need to have the fancy specific green pumpkin seeds found at the grocery store – you can use the kind found in your own pumpkins you grew! No pesticides or harmful toxins used here!

Jack O’Lanterns

Pumpkins are known for being Halloween decor and that includes the tradition of carving them into jack o’lanterns. While it doesn’t cost much to get pumpkins from the store, it does tend to cost a bit more money when you go to a pumpkin patch.

Growing your own (and maybe more to give away or sell), is so much more satisfying. Children can get really into the growing and curing process of the pumpkins all season long, and saves you from going to the expensive pumpkin patch for the day.

Chicken Food (pumpkin carving)

Chickens will eat anything, including pumpkin squash. Growing some for chicken food is another way to cut down the expense of chicken feed.

Additionally, chickens can even ‘carve’ pumpkins for you! Peel of the harder rind of where you want to ‘carve’ and the chickens will peek at the easily accessible/already carved into rind and ‘carve’ the jack o’lantern’s face out for you!

Does Adding Seeds Really Make it Healthier?

Yes! We always try to incorporate flax seeds and hemp hearts into as many dishes as possible. It’s a simple and easy way to add nutrients to your food – and the best part is that you can’t even taste them.

Hemp seeds are high in protein, healthy fats and fibre, they’re also a good source of calcium, iron, potassium, zinc and magnesium.

Flax seeds are high in omega-3 fatty acids, fibre and aid in heart and digestive health as well as can improve blood sugar control.

It’s for these reasons and more that we add these super useful seeds into our baking.

Chocolate Doesn’t Automatically Mean ‘Bad’

I feel like chocolate has been given such a bad rap – yes it’s not the best food to eat, but it’s also not the worst. Eating a homemade oatmeal bake with no sugar added but it includes chocolate chips is much healthier than eating a muffin from the coffee shop.

The chocolate is the sweetness kick the recipe needs, you can add as much or as little as you like – but when you realize the recipe calls for oatmeal, milk, honey, eggs, pumpkin puree, hemp hearts, flax seeds and chocolate chips, you realize there’s more whole foods in there than any quick breakfast meal you can find at the store or a coffee shop.

Can you Freeze It?

Yes! I doubled the recipe and realized I made too much for us to eat in a few days – plans changed! I froze a few pieces and let it thaw out overnight in the fridge and just reheated it in the microwave the next morning. A quick and easy breakfast!