With this cold weather that has moved in, this morning was a perfect day to add to our series The Oatmeal Chronicles - or How to Make Your Oatmeal More Interesting.
Now since I gave up sweets and desserts for Lent, I did use only one crushed Nilla wafer on top and one to garnish for the sake of the photo, but I personally would recommend at least 3 to 7 crushed wafers for layering and the topping, plus the one whole one wafer for garnish (8 wafers is a serving size of the reduced fat wafers) as I've put in the recipe, in order to achieve the full 'banana pudding' effect.
I considered using some dry sugar free vanilla pudding powder, but decided on the protein powder in order to give the oatmeal a protein boost. I used a vanilla ice cream flavored whey protein powder because that is what I have in the pantry. If you don't happen to have protein powder, you might give the dry pudding a try. In keeping with the vanilla inspiration, I also used a vanilla Splenda Flavors for Coffee tube for sweetening, because, again, I happened to have some in my pantry. You could certainly exchange that for any sugar substitute, table sugar, stevia, honey, or your preferred sweetener.
Banana Pudding Oatmeal
Posted at http://deepsouthdish.com
3/4 cup of Quaker old fashioned oatmeal
Pinch of salt
1-1/2 cups of water
Scoop of vanilla protein powder
1 tube of French vanilla Splenda Flavors for Coffee
3 - 7 Nilla wafers, crushed
1 banana, sliced
1 Nilla wafer for garnish
Heavy cream to drizzle, optional
Combine the oatmeal, salt and water in a large microwave safe bowl, between 2 and 4 quarts to allow for expansion. Stir together well and microwave on high for 3 to 5 minutes, depending on your microwave, or until oatmeal is creamy.
Spoon half of the oatmeal into a serving dish. Top with 1/2 of the sliced bananas and 1/2 of the crushed Nilla wafers. Layer the remaining oatmeal on top, then the rest of the banana. Sprinkle with the rest of the crushed Nilla Wafers and garnish with one whole Nilla wafer. Drizzle with cream around the outside edges, if desired.
