Fried Chocolate Oatmeal with Peanut Butter Molasses Topping & Bananas

My little boy has a lot of food issues. A good part of this is due to aversions and sensitivities to certain textures and flavors but a part of it can be attributed to him just being picky. He has a definite sweet tooth so sometimes, in order to actually get food into him, I cave in and add a little something to appeal to his tastes. He usually won't eat oatmeal, so I decided to jazz it up for him a little. I made chocolate oatmeal. It was a big hit and for the first time, he ate an entire bowl of oatmeal without having to be prompted constantly. He even had seconds! Success!

I always make a double batch of oatmeal so we can have fried oatmeal the next morning. We usually have regular fried oatmeal with butter & maple syrup, but this was going to be fried chocolate oatmeal so I wanted to kick it up a notch plus I was out of maple syrup. I remembered a recipe from Cooking Traditional Foods for Peanut Butter Molasses Pancake Sauce. I had already been thinking of fitting peanut butter into the plan somewhere to sort of mimic No-Bake Cookies, so this sounded just right. I looked up the recipe and, of course, I was missing ingredients but I didn't let that stop me. I just went with what I had on hand and this is what we ended up with.

This was probably one of the best breakfasts we've had lately. It was almost more like a dessert. The oatmeal had a pudding like texture with a little chewy crispiness on the outside and the topping was kind of thick & fudgy. So good! And I didn't have to keep after the kids to eat - they devoured it! Well, almost. Micah got full quickly ate all but half the oatmeal but he did eat all the bananas & topping. I was left wishing we had more so I could have seconds. 

To make Chocolate Oatmeal: Mix about 2 to 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder to 6 servings of cooked oatmeal. Sweeten with stevia powder to your preferred sweetness.

To make Fried Oatmeal: Put your leftover oatmeal into a square pan and spread out to a nice even layer. Put it in the fridge and chill it overnight so it's nice and firm. Cut the firm oatmeal into squares and fry it in coconut oil over medium heat for 3 or 4 minutes or until it starts to get a little browned. Flip It & do the same for the other side. Remove it from the pan to a plate and melt some fresh butter over it.

To make the Peanut Butter Molasses Topping (my way): Melt 2 tablespoons of coconut oil in a small sauce pan. Add 1/2 cup peanut butter, 3 tablespoons of blackstrap molasses and 1 packet of stevia. Stir over low heat until mixed & melty. Spoon over warm fried oatmeal.

Then top it with sliced bananas. Dig in and enjoy!

If you'd like to try the Peanut Butter Molasses Topping the way it appears on the CTF website, go here. Spend some time checking out the Cooking Traditional Foods site - loads of great info & recipes there!