Vegan Breakfast Reicpes: Caramelized Banana Bread Oatmeal

Steal cut oats have always been one of those foods that I knew was good for me but I never made because I thought it would take too much time and effort. I initially took one look at the label and was turned off when I saw that it took about a half hour for the oats to cook. I am usually running out the door with a half blended smoothie in the morning, never mind waiting for breakfast to cook. But lately it has been getting cooler outside and I have been craving warm, filling foods, and oatmeal definitely falls into that category. I have been making steal cut oats in the morning, right when I wake up, and by the time I’m done taking a shower and getting dressed, the oatmeal is usually ready. I know that overnight oats are a thing too, this is just more fresh to me. Oatmeal is so easy to work with because you can add virtually any flavors to it and it will still taste good. It is pretty hard to mess up oatmeal. I usually add some combination of spices, nuts and fruit, and this week I decided to add caramelized banana. I used black spotty bananas that were already ripe and sweet, and cooked them in coconut oil and brown sugar to make them candied and gooey. I then added other typical flavors you would find in banana bread - cinnamon, nutmeg, pecans. You can play around with this recipe and add different mix ins. Once you learn how to make the caramelized bananas, you can use them as a topping on anything from pancakes to ice cream. If you don't have the time or patience to wait for the steal cut oats to cook, you can use plain, instant oatmeal and still add in these toppings. All of the ingredients in this recipe were so extremely cheap, and they all bring some sort of health benefit to the table. For about five dollars, I could make this breakfast everyday for a week!