pumpkin oatmeal

so, sometimes i like to pretend i'm this really important health/fit/lifestyle blogger and have lots of followers and companies send me stuff so i can review it on my super successful blog. and in this pretend fantastical world in my head, some of my "readers/twitters/followers" (aka natalie and christine) were wondering about my pumpkin oatmeal recipe that i tweeted about yesterday. so of course, since i had SO many readers just dying to know how i made it, i decided i'd post a little recipe/how to in pictures. 

first, a little confession. so you know how everyone is obsessed with pumpkin spice lattes? well, i am too. well, i'm obsessed with the idea of them/the season/the excitement etc. however, i don't actually really like the taste of them that much (shh, don't tell). so, feeling left out of all of the pumpkin hooplah, i decided to try to create my own concotion. i was inspired by PB Fingers and Carrots n' Cake for their pumpkin smoothies/other things. i had been drinking a lot of smoothies in the morning, so i wanted to have something different for breakfast. 

INGREDIENTS:

 i love mccann's oatmeal. no sugar, inexpensive and it it cooks super quickly in the microwave!

 i love almond milk. in cereal, in coffee, on it's own. seriously. try it. i've only been drinking it for a few months, but i prefer it 100% to milk. and apparently, it has more calcium.

i got this pumpkin at whole foods. i probably wouldn't have bought organic, but it was all they have. i don't really feel like it's necessary to buy organic canned foods. do you? i don't really know, but it's more expensive.

 cinnamon and splenda. so a lot of people are anti splenda and fake sweeteners. but guess what? i'm not. but you could obviously use real sugar or stevia or whatevs. 

DIRECTIONS (ready carefully it is REALLY complicated):

-Put oatmeal in bowl. Put as much as you want. i am a beast, so i put a lot. 

 

-Fill bowl with almond milk so it covers all of the oatmeal. if you like your oatmeal less wet, use less almond milk. 

-Then, put a big scoop of pumpkin into the bowl and mix all three ingredients. You can put as much or as little pumpkin as you'd like. I think the best way to measure is when you mix it, make sure all of the oatmeal is a light orange color. 

-Put in microwave and nuke it for 1:30 secs. Feels like eternity, i know. 

-Toss in cinnamon and splenda and stir well.

ENJOY!!!! it will keep you full for hours, and especially on a morning like this, it's a great comforting way to start the day. i'm a tool. 

HAPPY FRIDAY!