Peanut butter jelly oats

Every morning, the first word that comes out of Easton’s mouth is “oatmahl!” aka feed me oatmeal now. The kid loves his oatmeal and we’re always mind blown at how big of a bowl he can eat (and then asks for a snack…). I started fancy-ing up my oatmeal when I decided to use it as a replacement for my usual pre-long run breakfast of a bagel. My go-to oatmeal creation is what I call (really only in my head) peanutbutterjellyoats. It takes about five minutes and is super delicious, filling, and an awesome way to start the day when it’s snowy, gray, and too cold for a smoothie.

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup of organic, quick cooking rolled oats (I like Bob’s Red Mill)

• 1/2 cup of unsweetened vanilla almond milk* (1/3 cup if you like thicker oatmeal)

• 1/2 ripe banana broken up into little chunks

• 1 tablespoon of pure maple syrup (honey could work)

• A huge spoonful of peanut butter*

• A smaller spoonful of jam or jelly

• Nuts/seeds/granola/coconut flakes for topping

My go-to method is:

• Mix the oats with the milk and the banana chunks

• Stick in the microwave for 1 minute, stir, cook for another minute to 90 seconds (definitely check at 1 minute)

• Stir in the maple syrup

• Stir in the peanut butter

• Stir in the jam or jelly

• Top with a crunchy topping

• See if you can eat as much as your toddler

*Any nut, seed, regular, non-dairy, whatever milk should work. But imho an unsweetened vanilla makes it tastier.

*Any nut or seed butter should work.

Some fave toppings:

-Pepitas
-Granola (yes, more oats)
-Walnuts
-Hemp hearts
-Flax seeds