Banana, Chocolate and Walnut Butter Oatmeal

Once again we awoke to cold, dreary, gray and rainy weather. It seems like we will need to build an ark if the weather doesn’t break soon. Needless to say my sweet husband didn’t want a cold fruit smoothie again today, and I can’t say I blame him. Since he wanted oatmeal with chocolate I couldn’t say no.

As usual I used my unsweetened almond milk because that is what I have on hand. And yes, I need to make more almond milk again today, but I digress. Walnut butter and shelled hempseeds were included for their omega 3 fatty acids. Chocolate does provide flavonoids, but honestly it was included for the gooey chocolate goodness. Bananas provide potassium, which is said to help keep blood pressure in check. If you want to make this recipe healthier you can substitute oat bran for the oatmeal. Also, if you are replacing the walnut butter with peanut butter add a little cinnamon and ginger. I didn’t add those spices because it is in my walnut butter.

Banana, Chocolate and Walnut Butter Oatmeal
Serves 2

Oatmeal Ingredients:

1 cup oatmeal, dry
2 cups almond milk, unsweetened
2 tablespoons walnut butter

Oatmeal Topping Ingredients:

2 bananas, peeled and sliced
2 tablespoons chocolate chips
1 teaspoon shelled hempseeds

Directions:

Combine half of the oats, almond milk and walnut butter in each container and microwave until the oatmeal is cooked. The cooking took 2 minutes and 15 seconds in my microwave but the exact time will depend on the wattage of your microwave.

Remove the oatmeal and add the toppings and serve hot.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 423.44
Calories From Fat (34%) - 142.3

Total Fat - 16.8g
Saturated Fat - 3.06g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 169.51mg
Potassium - 834.66mg
Total Carbohydrates - 66.94g
Fiber - 10.44g
Sugar - 15.02g
Protein - 9.84g

Comments:

Even though this oatmeal contains bananas, chocolate and walnut butter it isn’t as sweet and candy bar like as you may imagine. In fact my hubby thought it needed more chocolate chips (no surprise to anyone that knows him) but I thought it had enough.

This recipe has a reasonable amount of potassium and a nice amount of selenium (over 19mcg). Consuming adequate selenium is associated with a reduction in the incidence of cancer. In the early 80’s selenium supplements were all the rage even though you don’t hear about them much any more. Recently when I was rereading the book “Anticancer” I noted that the doctor discussed the fact that selenium increases the immune system and stimulates the bodies NK (natural killer) cells. The more active your natural killer cells are the less likely cancer is to grow and spread.

For breakfast this morning we had this oatmeal, a half serving of our green drink of choice, Green Vibrance and our vitamins. We followed this with our first mug of green tea with fresh sliced ginger, goji berries and a splash of pomegranate juice. Since this meal is a little light on fresh fruit and vegetables we will have a snack of fresh strawberries mid morning.

I hope you are all having a happy and healthy day. I will be back later with more recipes from tonight's dinner, if not sooner.