Buttery Breakfast

Fall means lots of things: changing leaves, cooler temps, cinnamon spice candles and warm woolly sweaters. But for a lot of us, fall also means the arrival of our most favorite produce.
I have seen a lot of pumpkin oats, and also some pleasantly festive sweet potato oats around the foodie blogs recently, and a while ago, I real Miss KERF concocting a very experimentarian-esque bowl of veggie oats herself. How autumnal.

Well, due to a rather unfortunate experimentation of my own during my first attempt at butternut squash fries, I was left with some slightly mushy, somehow steamed, but very thoroughly cooked butternut bits the other evening. I'd been brainstorming ideas to use them up since they didn't really taste bad, just not crispy and meaty like a good oven-baked fry should be.

After seeing Kailey's Christmas in a bowl version of sweet potato oats, I knew what I had to do!

Ingredients

• 1/2 cupp-ish butternut squash cube-lets
• 1/3 c. oats
• 1/2 c whipped cottage cheese
• Cinnamon
• banana slices
• PEANUT BUTTER
  

Extremely complicated directions....Must not be deviated from in ANY way.

Prepare oats as usual. For me, this means add much less boiling water than called for ( I like them kind of chewy--but this is changing for better mixability) and let them sit while I make tea and stumble around the kitchen trying to wake the hell up.

While bobbing around trying not to injure oneself or break anything at such an ungodly hour, pop leftover squash in the micro for about 30 seconds. Be alarmed when it beeps (WHAT?? Is that my alarm clock??? @#$%! I thought I was already awake!!!)

Mash squash cubies with the back of your oatmeal stirring spoon and mix into cooked oats. I added my whipped cottage cheese dream here, but if you're not obsessed, you could probably leave it out.

Sprinkle with cinnamon and top with banana and peanut butter (which is the only reason you got up in the first place).

I didn't really know what to expect, but honestly, this was the BEST bowl of oats I've had in a while! It was very smooth and creamy, and I didn't think it was vegetable-y tasting at all. Just sweet and gooey and comforting. I was almost like the squash absorbed all the peanut butter taste, so the bowl just tasted very buttery indeed. Yum. I bet this would be great with a drizzle of maple syryp, too! Plus I always get a kick out of starting the day with a serving of veggies.


Hope your day got kicked off on the right foot, too. Hopefully with an extra yummy and warm breakfast. Tell me--what did YOU eat this morning? Have a great Wednesday! xoxo