Protein breakfast oats! Yes, you can have a high-protein oatmeal for meal prep. Easy to make and adapt!
We love playing around with the basics of oatmeal because you can take it in so many directions as far as meal prep goes. Sweet, savory, high or low protein. Wait, protein? Yes, protein! Plus, oats are naturally gluten free, and this recipe is vegan, too. So many benefits!
Oats are really healthy and contain fiber; that's probably their biggest claim to fame along with being a whole grain. They're also an example of complex carbohydrates, which basically means they aren't going to spike your blood sugar. That, in combination with fiber, means you feel full longer in between meals.
High Protein Breakfast Oats Ingredients:
- 2 cups organic oats
- 1 cup protein powder
- ½ cup unsweetened flaked coconut
- ½ cup golden flax seeds
- ¼ cup almond butter
- 1 cup almonds
- 1 cup blueberries
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How to Make High-Protein Breakfast Oats
Instead of cooking these oats in water, you cook them right in almond milk. You bring the almond milk to a low boil in a saucepan and then add the oats, protein powder, coconut, and flaxseeds. Stir, and reduce the heat slightly (you don't want to scald the almond milk.) The oats will cook in a matter of minutes.
When all the milk has been absorbed by the oat mix, remove it from the heat. Add the peanut butter either all at once and stir it in, or portion it out if you're turning this into a meal prep. It's important to add the almond butter while the oatmeal is still hot because it can be more evenly distributed that way; sometimes it can clump up. If that happens, add a little bit of hot water. Top it with almonds and blueberries and you're good to go.
How to Store and Serve High-Protein Breakfast Oats
These oats will keep for 3 to 4 days in the fridge in a sealed, airtight container. Feel free to eat them cold (some people love that) or reheat them in the microwave or stovetop with about ¼ cup of water or milk to loosen it up. Oatmeal doesn't tend to freeze well, so we wouldn't recommend that.
Substitutions and Alterations
You can make this recipe with either quick cooking oats or old-fashioned rolled oats. Either way, it's still a pretty speedy breakfast prep.
Substitute any other kind of plant-based milk, such as coconut, cashew, soy, or even oat milk for some extra nuttiness.
Pecans, cashews, pistachios, and walnuts are also delicious with oatmeal.
Feel free to also add sunflower or pumpkin seeds for extra nutrients and vitamins.
Peanut butter or other nut or seed butters are a natural substitute for almond butter, if desired.
And finally, we love blueberries because they're such a nutritional powerhouse, ahem, a superfood, but feel free to use chopped apples, pears, mangos, banana slices, blackberries, raspberries, or strawberries. You get the idea.
A dollop of plain Greek or regular yogurt on top would seriously up the protein content, too.
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