Banana Nut Oatmeal

Do you remember Great Grains Banana Nut Cereal? It tasted like dessert in a bowl and I grew up absolutely adoring it. In fact, when I visited my best friend out in California during college and found a box on her shelf, I consciously ignored everyone else while I sat at the table and at it dry from the box. Thanks girl.

Breakfast. You know you should eat it. You rarely do.

But you’ve never tried Banana Nut Oatmeal before. Now, breakfast. You know you should eat it, and you always do.

When I talk to my clients about nutrition, eating a healthy breakfast is up there on the list of healthy habits to create. The why’s are plentiful: you break the ‘fast’ that you’ve been on since dinner last night, you wake up your metabolism, you fill up so that you aren’t starving at lunch time, you have a fantastic opportunity to fill your plate with nutritious food.

Oatmeal is a go to. Oats, especially steel cut if you have time to make them, contain about 6 grams of protein per cooked cup. Oats are also an amazing source of slow-digesting carbs and fiber – making them a wonderful option for a hearty, filling breakfast. Oats for breakfast fill you up and keep you full well into the early afternoon.

You’ll notice a couple of “odd” additions to this oatmeal recipe: protein powder and egg whites. Both ingredients are purposefully added to increase the amount of protein (important whether your fitness goal is to lose weight, build muscle or run faster), in the meal. Added benefit: vanilla protein powder adds good flavor backbone to breakfast. The trick is to keep stirring while you add these ingredients, and to add them when your oats are already closed to being fully cooked. They don’t take long to incorporate and cook in the hot oats, but you want to make sure the powder doesn’t clump!

 

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This is a super easy recipe to change according to what you’re craving.

Mix in chocolate protein powder and top with a drizzle of almond butter and raspberries.

Or mix in pumpkin puree and top with pecans.

Bon appetit!