No one likes to eat leftover oatmeal, but you can turn that mushy, sticky oatmeal mess into a delicious muffin for tomorrow’s breakfast! These Leftover Oatmeal Muffins are the perfect solution with simple ingredients you already have on hand!

Yesterday, an unexpected November snowstorm blew through the area, leaving a blanket of white on the trees and lawn. As I gazed out my window at the pristine landscape, I knew I had to make a huge pot of piping hot oatmeal for my kiddos. I knew it wouldn’t be long before they would be begging to go outside, and I wanted something warm in their tummies when they did.
However, it never fails – we always have 1-2 bowls of oatmeal leftover in the pot…and NO ONE wants to eat leftover oatmeal.
But never fear! Leftover Oatmeal Muffins to the rescue! And guess what that means?! Tomorrow’s breakfast is covered!

I love how easy these muffins are to pull together. Right after breakfast, I threw the leftover oatmeal in a mixing bowl, added the other ingredients and spooned them into the muffin cups. Because of the oatmeal, these muffins are nice and dense, so you can even use your hands to plop them into the muffin tin!
And these muffins don’t require any exotic ingredients – I had ALL of the ingredients in my pantry and refrigerator already! If you are adventurous, you can certainly stir in something like raisins or chocolate chips or dried fruit or nuts, but I wanted to keep things simple and fairly neutral since we had guests staying with us as well.

This recipe makes 36 average-sized muffins, so feel free to half this recipe if your family isn’t as large (or voracious!) as mine. I like to use muffin papers to keep the mess at a minimum. And if you are making these for a crowd, I highly recommend a LARGE muffin pan! They are a lifesaver for the large family mom! I got mine at Aldi on a sale, but this one would do just fine:

Leftover Oatmeal Muffins
Ingredients
- 3 cups leftover oatmeal
- 4 eggs
- 1½ cups oil
- 1 cup milk
- 1 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 4½ cups flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 3 Tbsp baking powder
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Grease muffin tin or line with muffin cups.
- Whisk together leftover oatmeal, eggs, oil, milk and brown sugar until smooth and there are no clumps of oatmeal.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder, and cinnamon.
- Fold the flour mixture into the wet mixture until combined – being careful not to over mix. (If adding in stir-ins, add them here.)
- Spoon into prepared muffin cups.
- Place on the middle rack of the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes (closer to 30 minutes if you are using the large muffin pan).
- Cool the muffins in the pan before removing.
More Oatmeal Recipes
Autumn Pancakes – all the tastes of fall in a pancake!
Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies – real food cookies you can eat for breakfast!
Isaiah blue says
It looks like you forgot to put in measurements for the milk. In the mixing instructions it says to mix in milk and I am wondering if oil got written in front of the the milk measurement.
Amy says
Fixed it! Sorry about that!
Carrien says
Amy, these are amazing! We always have leftover oatmeal. My son made these for us this morning, because he made way too many oats for breakfast yesterday.
They turned out great. But he did notice that the directions call for stirring in milk, but there’s no milk measurement in the ingredients list. He eyeballed it and it turned out alright. But we thought you might want to add it in.
Thanks again.
Amy says
Yes! So sorry about that! Got it put in there.
Christine M. says
Thanks for posting this! I was just wondering what could I do with the leftover oatmeal my kids are refusing to eat. ?.
Praying for a speedy recovery for you as you heal from your surgery.
Adoring family says
Genius idea!! I always have leftovers and somehow a muffin is more appealing to my kids than a bowl of oatmeal. Thank you for sharing. Long time reader here. I have used your breakfast cookie recipe since you first posted it! its a hit w my fam <3
Amy says
Oh wow! That is so neat you’ve been making those breakfast cookies so long!