Maple Almond Butter Oatmeal

by Ashlyn Edwards on Jan 18, 2014 (updated Jul 2, 2018) 5 comments »

Mornings at our house right now are kind of a blur. Not because we are busy or have places to go, but simply because my exhaustion from being up most of the night with our baby seems to prevent my brain from fully functioning the first few hours of the day. She just turned 5 months old a couple days ago (tear!) and is still waking up at a minimum of 2-3 times per night, sometimes more. This is unfamiliar territory for me since my now three year old was an excellent sleeper, and still is. He started sleeping through the night at 12 weeks old, but that’s not the case for little sister!

I’m getting ready to start her on solids soon, so I’m hoping that will help her to sleep longer. Lots of people I’ve talked to about her sleep habits, including her pediatrician, suggested I go ahead and start her on solids at 4 months. I’ve been apprehensive about doing so, however, for one reason in particular: there is research that suggests starting solids too soon can lead to allergies, including one that we are very familiar with: peanuts.

Yep, our son has a peanut allergy, and my husband and I spend a lot of time worrying about his exposure to peanuts, especially once he goes to school. He’s very aware of his allergy and will ask if foods have peanuts in them (as he says, “Peanuts make me sick!”) but I still worry about him constantly and am OCD about making sure that we have the Epi-Pen with us at all times. I really don’t want our daughter to have to go though the same difficulties of having a life-threatening allergy, too. Waiting longer to start solids isn’t necessarily the answer for everyone with little babies, but since it seems ours might be a little predisposed to allergies, we’re going to give it a try. If there’s a chance we can prevent it by waiting until she is 6 months, that’s what we’ll do! I will probably continue to look like a walking zombie until then, so I apologize to any of you that have to see me in person. 😉

So, in the morning I need simple. Easy. A lot of mornings we have cereal or smoothies, but now that I’ve created this quick and yummy oatmeal, we eat it a lot too. We LOVE almond butter, by the way! While we are a peanut-free house, we most definitely are not almond-free! Our son is thankfully not allergic to all nuts, just specifically peanuts, so we use almond butter in place of peanut butter. We also use Sunbutter which is made from sunflower seeds!

This is so so SO easy, it only requires four ingredients! oats, almond milk, almond butter, and a banana

Yep, that’s IT, and this is definitely my favorite oatmeal, not including this recipe for Baked Oatmeal. Justin’s Maple Almond Butter is so stinking good, y’all, I can’t even describe it. The MAPLE kind is out of this world delicious, and it is from a certified peanut-free facility, so that makes it even better! A close up of a jar of almond butter

You can tell that our jar of Justin’s Maple Almond Butter has been loved on, for sure. It’s almost empty, eeek! Need to add that to my shopping list… A bowl spoon full of oatmeal

If you feel the need to eat a spoonful all by itself first, go ahead. I won’t judge.

To make this, just whip up a bowl of plain oatmeal. I like to use the kind in the picture; it’s an organic oat blend that I got from Target. I just mix 1/2 cup of it with some almond milk and microwave for a couple of minutes. Once it’s cooked add in a couple of tablespoons of almond butter and stir until it’s nice and smooth. I like to top mine with a chopped up banana and dig in! A close up of a bowl of oatmeal with bananas

This is a wonderfully filling breakfast. On days that I actually have enough energy (haha!) to get on the treadmill, this breakfast is what keeps me going long enough to finish a run. And other days it just gives me enough oomph to maybe do a load of laundry. Well, some days… 😉

Hope y’all have a wonderful weekend.

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