Chocolate Covered Strawberry and Cashew Butter Baked Protein Oatmeal [Clean, Vegan, GF]

Looking for a tasty and warm Valentine’s Day (or anyday) breakfast? This simple baked oatmeal recipe for 2 would be perfect! It requires minimal ingredients, is quick to whip together and you can get ready while it’s baking in the morning! It is full of protein, fiber, healthy carbs and fats and antioxidants to boot. 

There has been so much going on recently and I’ve been so busy, but I’ve got so much to tell you guys! Gah! If only I had more time to write and tell you all of these things. I’ve got so many stories. However, the short and dirty is that I am finally back in my own apartment again after 12 (mostly miserable weeks…), I went on vacation (and I miss it terribly. It was so calm and relaxing. Man I really needed that in my life), I’m in a brand new beautiful hospital that I’m still trying to figure out (guys it’s so massive, but at least I get a good bit of walking in because I for sure need it). More on all this to come.

For now, I’m going to tell you a personal story that I am still boggled by and am hoping that perhaps you guys might have some ideas of how it happened.

Alright, so the other day I came home because I had to change quickly out of my scrubs into real clothes (super foreign, I’ve been living in scrubs for the past couple months or so lol) and certainly wasn’t sure if I was going to fit into any of my real clothes because I gained quite a bit of weight recently (yeah..definitely have to work on my stress eating).

Anyway, so I took off my scrub top and I always wear a cami underneath and there were a couple of large brown spots on the upper left side of my abdomen. I was like what in the world is that?

My first thought was, “Hm… am I nerding out right now and my surgical marking pen in my scrubs is leaking, or something like that?” So, I go and check my scrub top, the pocket is right above that area, but lo-and-behold no marker leaks.

My second thought was that maybe it was lunch? We don’t get lunch, or breaks so if I want to eat I have to scarf food down that I bring with me in between patients. So spilling on myself (since I had brought soup..cold soup since I didn’t have time to go and heat it) was not an unreasonable guess. But, then I decided that that was strange for it to be all the way down there on my abdomen and not higher.

I didn’t know what else to think, but I knew I was late and needed to wash my cami. So, I took it off and there was the answer. I had dried blood on my stomach. Upon closer inspection, it turns out I had somehow ripped off 75% of a mole that I have on my upper abdomen. As I was examining it and moving it to see what the full situation was (and questioning how I didn’t realize that I had done this during the day?!) it started profusely bleeding again.  All I had on me were a pair of regular scissors (all my other tools were in my call bag in the car) and I decided that would not be a good idea. So I just applied pressure and put a band-aid on it and decided I would have to decide what to do about it later since I had to go.

It was really late when I got back (the mandatory dinner TOOK FOREVER. Not ok) and wasn’t sure if I wanted to deal with it. So, I took a look at it again, it started bleeding again, so I just put the band-aid on and decided it would have to wait).

My dilemma. The good thing about being a surgeon is that I knew I could easily do a minor procedure on myself so that wasn’t the issue. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do that, or if I should try to let it re-appose and heal. I decided eventually that if I did the latter, there would be a very high chance that I might randomly keep opening it up so it may just be better to take it fully off, especially since it was deep. Being a doctor, I also knew that I didn’t want this to keep happening and there there be some squamous cell metaplasia going on (AKA essentially what I’m getting at is it transforming into a spot of squamous cell cancer down the road) so I took it off.

The bigger question though is how did it happen? How did I not notice it!? (Especially since it was tender.) I talked to some of my other residents and we decided that I was probably just to busy and my brain just suppressed those feelings because I didn’t have time to deal with it. Very sad that that is most likely the case. I’m curious to think what you guys think of all this. If not…obviously it was aliens.

Meanwhile, even though you may not want to think about food at this point, this recipe would be great for a Valentine’s Day breakfast for two (or really any breakfast)! It is so tasty and sounds like it should be sinful, but it’s full of protein, fiber, satiating carbs and fat and of course chocolate. Who could ask for more? I make my own cashew butter and it’s so easy to do! Only a blender and 2 ingredients needed for melty delicious oil free cashew butter. If you are interested, feel free to check out that post here.

Looking for other Valentine’s Day Recipes? Feel free to try out some of these!

1. Chocolate Coconut Protein Brownies [Clean, Vegan, Low Carb, Gluten Free]

2. Guilt-Free, No Bake Chocolate Raspberry Almond Protein Cheesecake [Low carb, grain free]

3. Chocolate Covered Strawberry Protein Cheesecake [No-bake, guilt-free, low carb, grain-free, clean]

4. 3 Ingredient Guilt-free, No-bake Chocolate Protein Cheesecake [Clean, low carb, grain-free]

5. Double Chocolate Raspberry Protein Notmeal [No bake, Low carb, vegan, grain free, clean]

6. Strawnana and Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Protein Pancakes [Clean, Vegan, GF]

Print

Chocolate Coverered Strawberry and Cashew Butter Baked Protein Oatmeal [Clean, Vegan, GF]

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Servings 2 bowls

Author AZ@...And A Dash of Cinnamon

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup old-fashioned oatmeal
• 1/2-1 scoop vanilla protein powder
• several strawberries diced
• 1 T chocolate chips
• few dashes cinnamon
• 1-2 T psyllium husk powder
• water/liquid of choice
• Cashew butter (optional for topping)

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease 2 oven safe dishes

2. Dice however many strawberries you would like in your bowl

3. Mix your oatmeal, protein powder, psyllium husk powder, cinnamon and chocolate chips in a bowl. 

4. Add the diced strawberries
   

5. Add your water or liquid of choice until the mixture is really thick, but not watery

6. Pour into your bowls and bake for ~25-30 minutes or until baked through.

7. Once done, top with cashew butter, eat and enjoy!

Recipe Notes

You can use fresh or frozen strawberries for this recipe. If using frozen, no need to defrost before use. 

The amount of liquid you use will depend on how absorbent your protein powder is and if you are using psyllium. I just add water a bit at a time, mix and then determine if I need more once that liquid absorbs. 

This recipe is easily multiplied to make more servings, or can be halved if you only want one.

 

I link up with Deborah and Sarah’s, and running on happy’s/ the fit foodie mama’s Meatless Monday, #recipeoftheweek,Homestead Blog Hop, glutenfreefridays,  #healthyveganfridays,  What’s for Dinner, Sunday Fitness and Food, GraciousPantry, Kriska Marie