Pudding (a breakfast post)

When you think of dessert do you think of pudding?  Why the heck not?  In our family growing up we ate a lot of pudding.   Mainly vanilla, but sometimes rice or tapioca as well.  We all loved it and thought it was great.  When Glenn and I were dating he thought our love for pudding was comical.  Comical?  What's so funny?  Pudding is awesome.  He was hysterical watching Ty make a whole box of jell-o pudding and then polish it all off by himself.  Mom always made pudding from scratch, but do you think Ty has the patience for that?

Which brings me to breakfast.  Mom always made oatmeal too.  Since there were so many of us breakfast was usually a gigantic pot on the stove filled with one of two things.  Rice or Oatmeal.  Either way it was topped with milk, butter, sugar and cinnamon.  As I got older I got more adventurous with the oats.  Bananas, granola, apples, nuts, craisins etc.


Well I still love oatmeal.  There are probably only a handful of times throughout the year when I don't have oatmeal.  I just love it.  It takes a long time to eat.  It's very nutritious.  It's delicious.  The variety of add-ins are endless.   And key to any of my meals, it has to be FILLING!


So here are my breakfast staples:

*1/3 cup oats
*1/2 cup liquid egg whites
*1/4 cup pumpkin
*vanilla


I cook the oats with double the water.  When they are halfway done I add the eggs and stir every minute or so for about 5 minutes.  Next goes in the pumpkin and vanilla.  Mix it all up and let cook another few minutes.  When done push the oats to the side and pour in some almond milk just for a minute to warm up the milk. Top with  homemade coconut butter.  


The pero is Mormon coffee.  I usually add in a little something sweet.  Either a teaspoon of hot chocolate mix, or some of this chai that Glenn gave me for Christmas.  I really, really like this stuff and upon reading the ingredient list noticed it has black tea.  Sad for me.  No more chai. 


I am a volume eater.  I like to eat a lot so I try and find things that give me the most bang for my buck.  Oats are filling and the nutritional stats are great.  For my serving the calories are 160 with 3 grams of fiber and 6 grams of protein.


The liquid eggs are 60 calories per 1/2 cup with 12 grams of protein.


The pumpkin is 20 calories per 1/4 cup  with 2.5 grams of fiber and 150% of your daily vitamin A.


The coconut butter is about 100 calories per Tablespoon.  I bought the unsweetened shredded coconut and blended it in my Cuisinart for about 5 minutes to make the coconut butter.  It is somewhat nutritious but I eat it just because it's so dang good.  And fat is filling.  And eating what you love makes you happy.


So there it is.  A huge bowl of filling, nutritious, yummy oats made just the way I like and all, including the drink, for 400 calories.  The only sugar is in the 1 teaspoon of chai added to my pero.  The coconut butter does give some natural sweetness to the oats.  The almond milk I use is unsweetened and so thick that...............


My oatmeal tastes like PUDDING!  Is there anything better?