Cookie dough steel-cut oatmeal with chocolate chips, coconut and pecans. It’s vegan and on the healthy side.
Tired of chocolate yet? No? Me neither.
Clearly last weekend simply wasn’t chocolatey enough for me. Despite all those chocolate bunnies, I was still craving this chocolate chip covered oatmeal every morning.
So say hello to my latest breakfast obsession. It tastes like cookie dough. It’s speckled with chocolate chips. And it’s warm and creamy.
In other words, it’s like a hug in a bowl. Okay, that was cheesy. Sorry.
As you may have guessed, I’m one of those people who bakes cookies partly because I just want to eat the dough. And if we’re making a cake, you just know I’ll call dibs on licking the beaters (and/or spoon).
So I should warn you: if you’re a cookie dough fiend like myself, there’s a good chance you’ll find this oatmeal addictive. Especially considering that it’s both cookie dough and a hot breakfast, which is pretty much my definition of comfort food.
Luckily for me – and other cookie dough addicts out there – this breakfast is actually on the healthy side. At the very least, it’s a lot healthier than your average cookie dough.
The key to the cookie dough flavor is almond butter. A little bit of the stuff provides richness – plus a few health benefits. Maple syrup adds some much-needed sweetness, and blackstrap molasses give the oatmeal a little brown sugar flavor.
If you don’t have any blackstrap molasses, simply replace the maple syrup with brown sugar.
Then, of course, there are the stars of the show: chocolate chips, shredded coconut and pecans. It wouldn’t be cowboy cookie dough without these three amigos.
If you stir chocolate chips into the oatmeal, they’ll melt immediately. So it’s up to you whether you stir in some chips – and have your oatmeal streaked with delicious melted chocolate – of save all the chocolate chips to sprinkle on top.
If you’re eyeing that cookie sneakily sitting in some of these oatmeal photos, then I have good news for you. One: it’s a cowboy cookie! And two: I’ll be sharing the recipe for my cowboy cookies sometime next week.
Until then, let’s eat cookie dough (oatmeal) for breakfast.
- Oatmeal
- 1 cup almond milk
- 1 cup water
- ½ cup steel-cut oats
- Pinch of salt
- 2 tablespoons almond butter
- ½ teaspoon blackstrap molasses
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 - 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 2 tablespoons shredded coconut
- 2 tablespoons chopped pecans
- 2 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)
Toppings- Shredded coconut
- Chopped pecans
- Chocolate chips
- Almond butter (optional)
- In a saucepan, bring the almond milk and water to a boil, and then turn down the heat to medium-low. Add the steel-cut oats and salt, and stir well.
- Stir in the almond butter and blackstrap molasses
- Gently simmer the oatmeal for 20 – 30 minutes, stirring frequently, or until the oats have softened and become creamy. As the oats are cooking, add more almond milk if the oatmeal becomes too dry.
- Add the vanilla extract, and sweeten with maple syrup. Stir in the shredded coconut and chopped pecans, and then very gently stir in the chocolate chips (if using).
- Divide the oatmeal between two bowls. Top each bowl with plenty of shredded coconut, chopped pecans and chocolate chips. If desired, also top each oatmeal with a spoonful of almond butter.
Blackstrap molasses give the oatmeal a slight brown sugar taste. If you don’t have this ingredient, replace the maple syrup with brown sugar.
Chocolate chips
If you stir chocolate chips into the oatmeal, they will melt immediately. So if you’d prefer your oatmeal without melted chocolate streaks, just top the bowls with plenty of chocolate chips.
I used (non-dairy) dark chocolate chips.
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