When you love chocolate as much as I do, why not have it for breakfast. One of my favorite morning recipes these days is from a book called Flat Belly Diet! written by the editor of Prevention magazine. In a nutshell, the book focuses on incorporating monounsaturated fatty acids into each of your meals to burn belly fat. MUFA’s, as the book calls them, come from nuts and seeds, oils, avocados, olives and dark chocolate! So yes, this is actually a healthy recipe. The book lists the recipe in the dessert section, but I love it for breakfast because it keeps me full for several hours. So if you exercise in the morning, this is a great post-workout meal. There’s several good recipes from this book I’ll share with you over time and I’ll include the caloric information too.
Double Chocolate Chip Oatmeal
(Prep. time: 5 minutes/Cook time: 5 minutes/ Makes 1 serving)
1/2 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup water
2 tbsp semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp freshly ground black pepper
Pinch of salt
2 tbsp dark chocolate chips
In a saucepan over high heat, bring the water to a boil. Add the oats, stir once to moisten, then cook, stirring occasionally, for 3 to 4 minutes, or until the water is absorbed.
Remove pan from heat and add the semisweet chips, vanilla extract, pepper and salt. Stir to thoroughly mix. Spoon into bowl. Sprinkle dark chocolate chips over top while still warm.
365 Calories, 9 g Protein, 55 g carbohydrates, 14 g fat, 2 g monounsaturated fat, 6.5 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 159 mg sodium, 6 g fiber
My tips: I don’t worry about the 2 tbsp of dark chocolate chips at the end of the recipe. I use a total of 3 tbsp of semi-sweet chocolate chips. Instead of a pinch of table salt, I grind a pinch of sea salt. Also, this recipe is easy to double, which I do often because Ryan loves it too.
Recipe from Flat Belly Diet! by Liz Vaccariello with Cynthia Sass, MPH, RD.
Hey Brannon! The website is great! This recipe is one of my faves… day #20 on Flatbelly and I make this every other day! Keep sending yummy recipes!
Hey Amanda,
You need to let me know your other favorites from the book. I havent’ quite tried them all yet. Thanks!
Hey Brannon. Melissa B. told me about your site. I’m a foodie, too, so I’m loving your blog!!! I love oatmeal and chocolate, so I’m super excited about trying this! Thanks for the great ideas. Let me ask, why sea salt instead of table salt??
Hey Amy!
Good to know someone’s looking at the blog. I’ll be adding a few recipes this week. About the salt… honestly, I just keep a little grinder of sea salt by my stove and prefer it to regular salt. I don’t thing there’s much different in taste. But I like it because I don’t tend to add to much like I always do when using regular table salt.
Now I do think there is a difference when it comes to roasting vegatables. Then I always use kosher salt because it’s coarse and, they say, brings out the flavor of food.
Here’s a link to an article about salt on the Food Network webpage.
See you soon!