Birthday Cake Protein Baked Oats

For the Oats:

• Oats - Yep, just plain old fashioned rolled oats. Make sure you don't use steel-cut or quick oats. You need 1/4 cup.
• Almond milk - More specifically, 1/3 cup of unsweetened vanilla flavored almond milk. You can use plain or a different flavor if you want, but just make sure that it is unsweetened!
• Unsweetened Applesauce - You will need 1/3 cup of unsweetened applesauce. Make sure you get unsweetened! And no, your oats will not taste like applesauce haha.
• Egg whites - This makes the oats fluffy and gives you extra protein. You need 3 tablespoons.
• Sugar-free syrup - You can use any liquid sweetener of choice, but I prefer to use 1 tablespoon of a sugar free breakfast syrup because it is super low in calories!
• Protein Powder - I used 30 grams of a vanilla flavored protein powder, but you can use a different flavor you would like! I used the Prozis natural vanilla whey isolate. If you want to try out their protein, you can use the code "KATIE10" for 10% off.
• Vanilla Extract - 1/2 teaspoon, for flavor.
• Salt - 1/4 teaspoon, for flavor.
• Baking powder - 1/4 teaspoon to make the oats rise and taste like a cake!

For the Icing:

• Cream Cheese - I used 1/2 tablespoon of low fat cream cheese to keep the calories & fat lower.
• Powdered Sugar Substitute - Swerve is my go-to sugar replacement. For this recipe, I used Confectioner's Swerve. If you are not familiar with Swerve, it is a zero-calorie, low-glycemic sweetener that measures cup-for-cup to sugar. It’s completely save and natural, with no artificial ingredients, preservatives or flavors. It is safe for diabetics and Keto approved. You can purchase Swerve off of Amazon here.

1. Blend - Yep, it's that easy. Baked oats became so popular because they are one of the easiest things to make. Blend all of the ingredients for your oats in a small blender. I love my  Nutribullet blender for my overnight oats. It is the perfect size, easy to clean, and can literally blend anything! Set aside.
2. Pour - Pour your oat batter into a greased ramekin.
3. Bake - Bake at 350°F for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. I stick around the 25 minute mark because I do like mine to be a little gooey!
4. Make Your Icing- Combine the low fat cream cheese and confectioner's sugar substitute until fully incorporated.
5. Top - Top your baked oats with your icing and some sprinkles if you would like to be festive!

For the Egg Whites

Feel free to substitute this for one large egg, or if you can't have eggs there are lots of egg substitutions out there!

For the Applesauce

You can use 1/2 a banana (mashed) or 1/3 cup of plain, nonfat Greek yogurt.

For the Almond Milk

Use any milk that you would like! Almond milk is my favorite because I personally have a food sensitivity to lactose and almond milk is very low in calories.

For the Protein Powder

The whole point of these oats are to be low calorie and high protein...BUT if you do not like using protein powder or are not interested in having protein in your oats, you can omit the protein and just use less almond milk. Or, you could use the same amount of milk and more oats!