I got up with Zak this morning when the alarm went off at 5. He headed out to go swimming and I headed down to the kitchen. Feeling hungry already, today would have been a perfect morning for some green lemonade, except for one problem. I’m out a romaine. I’ve got spinach but spinach doesn’t have a lot of water and I’ve come to find that it takes A LOT of spinach to get a decent amount of liquid from it.

What’s that saying? If life hands you lemons, make lemonade? Well then, if life hands you spinach, make a green smoothie.

Hmmm, my modified version of that saying doesn’t roll off the tongue quite as easily but I’m sticking with it.

Today’s concoction was 1 banana, slightly frozen. 1 apple, peeled and sliced. A couple handfuls of spinach and a few splashes of unsweetened vanilla hemp milk.

I’ve got yoga planned for today but made the executive decision to move it back to this afternoon. The girls are spending the day with Aunt Ellen and I always enjoy yoga more in the middle of the day after I’m loosened up from moving around with normal activity.

With my exercise postponed I had time to experiment in the kitchen this morning. I knew my green smoothie wasn’t going to hold me over long so I got a jump start on Breakfast Part II knowing it was going to be at least an hour in the making.

I love cereal. Especially cereals like Kashi Heart to Heart and Peanut Butter Puffins. I’ve come to realize though that eating boxed cereal makes me crave MORE MORE MORE cereal and it’s easy for me to go overboard with it if I don’t try hard to exercise some restraint. I therefore prefer to leave cereal on the grocery store shelves with the exception of what I buy for the girls. (i.e., “safe” cereals that aren’t as titillating as H2H or PB Puffins.  I can safely buy Cheerios with no fear of diving head first into the box.)

I’m quite experienced now in making my own granola, and its had me thinking for a while now that making my own cereal couldn’t be a big stretch from granola. I wanted something slightly different than granola though because I don’t want a “cereal” full of nuts and dried fruit. I like to add fresh banana and almond butter to cereal and make a big ol’ cereal mess!

With that introduction, let me proudly present you with my very own breakfast cereal recipe created this morning.

Mama’s Bunches of Oats

1 cup of rolled oats
1/4 c ground flax
1/4 c canola oil
1/4 c grade A maple syrup

Pre-heat oven to 250 degrees.

Combine dry ingredients in one bowl and combine wet ingredients in a separate bowl. Mix dry ingredients with wet ingredients and flatten mixture on a large cookie sheet but be careful not to spread too thin.

Bake at 250 for about an hour. No flipping or stirring necessary while it bakes. Remove after an hour and allow to cool. Break into clusters.

Makes about 3 servings. I didn’t figure out calorie content but I’d put a rough guesstimation at about 300 calories per serving. My typical breakfast cookie or bowl of overnight oats easily runs me 500 calories so this is about par and fits neatly in to my usual complete breakfast. But there no doubt about it, this is calorie dense.

Store in an air tight container to enjoy another day.

“Another day” for me will most likely be tomorrow. This turned out better than I ever expected! I’m already looking forward to experimenting with this further. I’d like try some different spices like nutmeg, cinnamon, vanilla… maybe even some nuts if I feel like I can bear to be without my beloved almond butter for breakfast one morning. The possible combos are endless!

Time to eat! Served still warm this morning on top of 1/2 container of 2% Fage, 1/2 a sliced banana and a spoonful of almond butter, topped with unsweetened vanilla hemp milk.

This was crunchy and very satisfying.  More importantly it didn’t leave me wanting to sneak back into the container for a little more. In addition, there are no added preservatives, chemicals, high fructose corn goodness or partially hydrogenated surprises. I’m excited to call this a breakfast success!