Turning ripe bananas into a delicious and healthy baked oatmeal. Plus meal prep for my family with an enchilada casserole and banana oatmeal with extra protein.
Hello! How’s it going? It’s been a little challenging over here with running and life and eating and everything in between. But I’m alive and well and distracting myself with Sister Wives (random) and using emojis every waking hour.
Last night I went out to enjoy a few adult beverages. I feel like my favorite part of going out is talking to best friend on speaker while I get ready. Ha! That’s like the highlight so I should just do that and then stay home. I’ll consider it.
But I did need this too:
Today I woke up bright and early to… RAIN?!!! It never rains here (hence the drought). It rains so rarely that I didn’t even recognize the sound of the rain coming down and thought I left the AC on blast or something. Ha!
Anyway I braved the rain for 15 miles and then hit the store for some post-long run essentials:
Chips.
These Harvest Pumpkin chips are a yes. Yes.
Then, I headed to my parent’s house to dog-sit for the day. They were out of town and the puppies and big dogs need love and food and stuff.
When I got there I was greeted with super super beyond ripe bananas. How are these people living? They just pass by these bananas and don’t grab one and slather PB on it 3 times a day??!?!?! Get it together family!!!
Anyway. I decided to… immediately eat one with PB. And then, I made baked banana oatmeal.
It’s gluten free (if you use gf oats) and has extra protein from cottage cheese. Plus it’s delicious and warm and comforting.
Baked Banana Oatmeal
- 3 super super ripe bananas
- 3 Tb brown sugar (packed)
- 1/4 cup cottage cheese
- 1 egg
- 1 & 1/4 cup quick cook oats
- 1 tsp each: baking soda, cinnamon, vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp salt
- optional: raisins, nuts, dried cranberries, chocolate chips…
Directions: Heat oven to 350 degrees. Smash bananas. Combine with sugar, cottage cheese, egg and vanilla extract. Add dry ingredients. Mix thoroughly. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes or until set.
Then, since I knew they would be coming home late I prepped dinner for my mom for tomorrow night. I made enchilada casserole with some leftover carnitas they had in the fridge. Just heat and eat tomorrow.
Meal prep done – just not for me, so I can eat Oreos all week 
When I wasn’t meal prepping, I was rolling around with the dogs. Actually it was kind of perfect – the internet wasn’t working well at the house so I couldn’t work like I originally intended and just sat in the grass with all the perros. It was really good for my soul.
They all took turns sitting on my lap. I loved it more than they did.
And now I’m cuddling with Vegas and talking to you nice people.
Question: What was the BEST thing you did or ate this weekend?
Me: cookies ‘n cream ice cream at my parents.
Yeah, so speaking of Gluten Free, did you see that General Mills had to recall all their Cheerios that were marked “Gluten Free” because of cross contamination? Anyway…
I must try this oatmeal. My bananas are about to go into the freezer. This recipe sounds amazing.
Best thing I did all weekend? We had a party for my Great-Aunt’s 94th birthday. I got to talk to her and she told me about her trip … on a bike…to the 1939 World’s Fair. She and her friend rode a tandem bicycle from Springfield, MA to New York City. I think that is just amazing.
That oatmeal looks amazing and I always have over ripe bananas. Must add this to the list!
Your makeup looks gorgeous and I love that fringe dress!
What was NOT the best part of my weekend was getting in a minor fender bender. I was the hittee not the hitter! But not much damage to my vehicle and I am fine….so that was good.
Two things that were good:
1) I finally had a good half marathon finishing time. Still slow by most people’s standards but it was my PR of 2015 (#TheYearOfSlow)
2) We were fostering a dog and she got adopted on Sunday. YAY!!!
those puppies are so stinking cute!! I had my harry potter party this weekend and it was a blast. I didnt get my long run in like i wanted to but it was totally worth it!
Best thing I ate: SIDECAR Donuts (you gotta swing by!)
Weekend activities were a little “meh”, so I can’t really pick a “best thing” per se. Maybe next weekend.
Those puppies are getting so big! I ran my fifth half marathon this past weekend. Unfortunately didn’t do as well as I had hoped but I finished!
I definitely have that v-neck tee in the last photo! Those are my favorite shirts!
No real eating happened yesterday because I had a mad case of runner’s stomach, but on a much happier note I PR’d by 9 minutes and ran a 1:41 1/2 marathon.
How sweet and thoughtful of you to meal prep for your parents while you were there! I’m sure that’s much appreciated after traveling. Love all the pups, so cute!
Ahhh. Puppies. Their unconditional love makes everything better 🙂
Speaking of….best thing I did was snuggle with my dog this weekend. I had a craptastic 18 mile run and couldn’t wait to get home to take a hot shower, eat and then spend my Saturday night cuddling with him.
Best eat would be peppermint patties. Too many to count. The mini size though so that’s ok. Lol.
How cute! Sometimes I do think it’s kind of nice when the internet isn’t quite working the way we want it to and we can instead just enjoy our surroundings (or playing with the dogs). My weekend was spent in Michigan visiting my boyfriend, brewing kombucha (for me) and beer (for him) and just relaxing. It was fantastic!
I promise I’m not normally this annoying but one of my biggest pet peeves is when people say stuff like “gluten free oats”, oats don’t contain gluten anyway so it’s unnecessary to say they’re gf. Okay, my know-it-all rant quota for the day is now full.
My fave thing I did this weekend was baby sitting my younger niece; she’s 15 months old and absolutely hilarious.
I’m really jealous of the weather over there; it’s freezing here in Finland :/
Hope you’re having a great day 🙂
Rant all you want, I don’t mind 🙂
I agree, but some oats can be cross contaminated with wheat or barley and it’s usually not a big deal but for people with legit celiac it could cause a reaction. I think it’s like when people have a peanut allergy that is super sensitive.
You are exactly right. For peeps with LEGIT Celiac, the cross-contamination is a big deal. Machines, cooking oil, etc. So it’s important!
That baked oatmeal looks dreamy- think I’ll have to give it a go.
My labrador puppy has to have surgery really soon so I’m sending him lots of love. And treats. Cos obviously he loves treats.
Those dogs, so cute!