Quick and Tropical Sweet Potato Oatmeal
Mashed sweet potato, mixed into quick-cook oatmeal, then sent to the tropics with candied pineapple, macadamia nuts, and toasted coconut. Topped off with a little honey and spice, this creative Sweet Potato Oatmeal spin on sweet potato casserole will become your new favorite breakfast bowl.
You know what? I have talked about the recipes and food and fails and such lately, but I have not talked about triathlon in a while. Not so much since Rocketman Half Ironman in November. Which is fine because winter break. But Ironman Louisville is in 8 months. Time to get on it. Seriously, what is wrong with me. Seems easy right? …No no no. Not so much. Workouts at 4:30am (because otherwise they don’t happen), watching what I eat – no, not easy. Really hard actually. Annnd my planned 1 month break (which I very admittedly needed) turned into well over 2 months – well over. ACK. Yeah, it’s bad. And there are various reasons – injury ?, illness ?, travel ✈, excuses ?, but it is time (which of course I said before, but now I really really mean it ?).
And I have been doing some. I have started working out again. I also hired a coach so, basically, I am buying myself a kick in the pants – I start with him next week. I have dropped 4 of the 12lbs I put on. And I have been eating better. It is a start.
…Just keeping it real as always. You may care, you may not. But I know more than a few of you are triathletes too, so for you I share. ?
One of my goals for this year with the Ironman is to learn from last year particularly with food. I would like to get my carbs from more of a variety of sources then just all pasta and rice all the time, and especially from more vegetable sources like squash.
Which is precisely where this bowl of Quaker® Oats comes in… I have struggled with oatmeal. I have wanted to love it, I really really have. It has carbs I want, easy to make, filling, etc. But I have struggled with the flavor of just plain oats. And a sprinkling of brown sugar just does not fix it for me. Prepping it with milk does not either. What to do, what to do with oatmeal…
Which is why I came up with this little recipe. Because this golden bowl of heaven right here is what I have been searching for. I could live on this oatmeal. In fact, I think I just may. It is going to become a regular thing for me, I’ll tell you that much. At least, I just ate it for dinner 2 nights in a row. ?
This has the essense of a holiday sweet potato casserole …but with a tropical spin …and served as an oatmeal.
You. Cannot. Lose.
So, okay what did I do here… First, we nuke a sweet potato for a couple minutes to cook. Easy. Originally, I was going to use butternut squash, but then the whole “quick and easy” went away with that. So with sweet potato I went, and with sweet potato I will stay because this was tastier I think. And easy.
While the potato nukes, we make the Quaker® Oats. I went with 1-minute oats to keep this recipe super fast, but by all means use whatever oats – steel cut, old fashioned rolled oats, etc., that you fancy. No biggie. Then we just combine those and add some sweet toppings. I added NO salt or sugar other than the honey, nuts, and pineapple. The salt from the nuts was plenty (and this coming from me, a heavy salter). And the sweetness from the sweet potato, the candied pineapple (yes, sugar is used to make candied pineapple, we can live with that bit), and all-NATURAL honey…
[Do you know someone once told me that honey is a “processed” food because bees process it? Seriously.]
…is plenty. And this all came out so balanced and delicious and comforting and soothing and made me happy happy happy. Adding sweet potato to oatmeal. That was the ticket right there. Who would have ever thought.
So that’s it kids. I hope this new oatmeal looks as good to you as I have tried to convey. Ready super fast, wholesome, and really truly delicious.
Quick and Tropical Sweet Potato Oatmeal
Ingredients
- 1 medium sweet potato
- ½ cup Quaker® Quick One Minute Oats
- 3 Tbs chopped candied pineapple
- 3 Tbs chopped macadamia nuts
- 1 Tbs unsweetened flaked coconut toasted
- pinch fresh grated nutmeg
- honey for drizzling
Instructions
- Microwave the sweet potato on high heat until soft (5-6 minutes).
- Meanwhile, prepare the oats according to package directions, using water as the liquid.
- Remove the sweet potato flesh to a bowl and add a couple tablespoons water. Mash until smooth. Stir into the cooked oatmeal and transfer to a serving bowl.
- Top the oatmeal with the candied pineapple, macadamia nuts, toasted coconut, and nutmeg. Drizzle honey over top and serve. Yields 1 serving.
