It’s almost Valentine’s Day! Donny & I went on our first “real” date around Valentine’s Day in 2012. It was not actually on Valentine’s Day, but it was somewhere in the beginning to mid-February. I say “real” because we went on our first date in 2010, but it didn’t go anywhere. Then we gave it another go a couple years later and, as they say, the rest is history!
Donny always has food shows in Germany and Dubai in February so this will actually be the first Valentine’s Day that we have spent together! Technically we get about 5 hours of Valentine’s Day together this year because he gets in from Germany at about 7pm on Saturday night… but it counts! I am not really a big Valentine’s Day person, but it might be nice seeing my husband for once on the day.
I cannot complain though, each year he has surprised me with different gifts that happen to appear at my office on Valentine’s Day, even though he is in Germany. He basically texts my sister and tells her to go pick up this and that… then she hides it somewhere.
Before we went on our first “real” date he surprised me that way. The movie Stepbrothers with Will Ferrell and John C Reilly was big in our conversations (most funny movie quotes are part of our dialogue). One of my favorite lines was when John C Reilly’s character was telling his new step-mom about himself: “I like to have a lot of fresh fruit in the house and chocolate chips in my pancakes. Write that down so you don’t forget”. We used to use that quote all the time (okay, okay…still do).
Anyway, Donny surprised me on Valentine’s Day with a box of Bisquick pancake mix, a bag of chocolate chips, and a bunch of fresh fruit… I’m talking a lime, oranges, and an entire pineapple! He had secretly enlisted Lindsey’s help and she went and bought everything. Just one example of how charming Donny is!
The funny thing was that we were emailing back and forth all day long and the entire time he was saying he got me a gift and I kept writing sarcastic things back because there was no gift anywhere. Pretty soon he finally just said “No really, there is a gift for you somewhere. Find it”. I looked all over the office and low and behold it was in one of the big drawers of my desk. I looked inside and immediately started laughing because a huge pineapple was sitting in there. Hilarious. And creative.
The next year my gift had to do with donuts and Telletubbies…. you don’t want to know.
On to oatmeal. I have noticed that quite a few of my recipes are breakfast recipes. I apologize. I will work on getting other things posted, I just really really love breakfast foods! I crave breakfast foods. When Donny is out of town and I have to make dinner for myself I tend to eat BFD (aka Breakfast-For-Dinner). And by breakfast for dinner I mean I tend to wait until about 8pm and decide I need something to eat. Hello over-easy eggs and cereal. Lame, I know but I love both eggs and cereal!
This recipe for oatmeal is awesome, especially if you like Almond Joy candies. When I was growing up my dad hated coconut so us kids thought we hated coconut. I feel like I missed 20 years of experiencing coconut flavors! Now I love it and use it quite a bit for different things.
I use chocolate protein powder in this recipe, but you could use cocoa powder and sweetener if you didn’t have chocolate protein powder (not the same quantity – cocoa powder can be very bitter). Also, if you do not have coconut butter (and do not want to make any) then feel free to add more shredded coconut instead. You could add chia to your oatmeal before you cook it too (just add a little more water than the oatmeal directions say).
- 1/2 c rolled oats
- 1/2 scoop protein powder, chocolate
- 1 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder (optional)
- 1/2 Tbsp coconut butter
- 1/2 Tbsp sliced raw almonds
- 1/2 Tbsp unsweetened shredded coconut
- Cook oats according to package directions. Once oats are fully cooked, add the protein powder and cocoa powder. Stir until combined. Top with almonds, coconut, and coconut butter. Serve immediately.
- Quick oats can be used for this recipe as well, which helps cut down the cooking time. Also, coconut butter can be left out of replaced with more shredded coconut.
Ok Mel I’m trying this one!! Almond Joy is my favorite candy bar.
If you like coconut then definitely add the coconut butter! If you don’t have any then I can give you some 🙂 it takes it up a notch for sure!
Hey, hey, hey,
I enjoyed reading your post. This almond joy oatmeal sounds good. I think you may have mentioned it before, but where did you buy coconut butter? I have coconut oil and coconut.
Happy Valentines!
The coconut butter that I used was Nikki’s Coconut Butter and Donny brought it back from a trip. I really like Maranatha Coconut Butter and you can get that at Whole Foods, Sprouts, or Vitamin Cottage. I can give you some to try!