Breakfast Brainchild

As I read other health-conscious blogs such as The Fitnessista or Eat, Live, Run, I continue to be tantalized by these writers' creative oatmeal concoctions. Every new combination I see seems so delicious, adding toppings from nut butter to chocolate chips to coconut, and even homemade cookies! I'm a little impatient in the morning, however, and don't like having to think too much about what I'm eating for breakfast and how to make it. A little lazy, I know, but I eat early and my brain isn't quite up to the task of conquering new culinary creations.

This morning, however, I decided to try something a little different. Not with oatmeal, but with one of my stand-by breakfast foundations: yogurt. One of my go-to morning meals is one cup of yogurt topped with cereal or granola and fruit, usually a sliced banana. I really enjoy maple yogurt with pumpkin flax seed granola, or vanilla yogurt with berries and Kashi GoLean! cereal.

This morning I wanted the former, but didn't have any more pumpkin granola. I did have, however, a pumpkin flax seed granola bar by the same makers of the granola (Nature's Path brand). I also had my new favorite trail mix, pumpkin spice trail mix from Archer Farms. I decided to get a little creative and crumble the bar and sprinkle it over maple yogurt and a sliced banana, topped with a quarter cup of the trail mix.

It tasted . . . okay. Not bad. But it was nothing special, either. However, it got the job done and filled and fueled me up for the day. Next time I'd leave the trail mix on the side for nibbling since the yummy pumpkin-spicy-ness of it got lost in the maple yogurt. Adding a ton of cinnamon after I tried the first couple of bites helped as well. The granola bar was also a little too firm and chewy to be quite the right consistency for a yogurty breakfast. Still, I'm glad I tried it. Here's to early morning breakfast freestyling!