Banana Mango Oatmeal

Welcome to our weekly Foodie Friday link up! I’m linking up with Montana from Pretty Lil Mudder, Annmarie from the Fit Foodie Mama, Emily from Whatever Floats Your Oats, Esther from Chocolate Runner Girl, and Cassandra from Powered By Bling, to create awesome healthy recipes each week! Today’s theme = Oatmeal! Make sure you hop around to check out all the amazing recipes in this link up and feel free to add your recipes as well!

Welcome to my mornings. ;_;

Because I’m also linking up Friday Favorites (Housewife Glamour, Running 4 Cupcakes, + Fitting It All In), I’m going to digress a whole bunch and talk about some things that are currently keeping my life rather peachy before I get to the actual recipe:

1. Fuzzy Socks – Before I moved out here, I was incapable of sleeping with socks on. In the winter months, this has now pretty much become a necessity, and I’ve accumulated a pretty wonderful collection of fuzzy socks in the past couple years! :O
   
2. Space Heater – This is pretty much my best friend right now. I’ve established a new blanket hovel in my apartment, and while it’s not as cozy as my old one because this apartment doesn’t have a tiny room that I can enclose myself in, I believe it’ll still do the trick! My first-year study buddy/neighbor suggested this Lasko 5812 Automatic Air-Flow Heater with Temperature-Regulation System (affiliate link!) to me back in the day, and this thing is full of all sorts of awesomeness. (Namely, it gets the job done, and quickly.)Much as I adore actually having a bed once more, I’ve been somewhat tempted to start sleeping on the floor again, because this would mean warmth from said space heater.
   

   My super-cozy blanket hovel from my old apartment!

   It turns off automatically if it’s accidentally tipped over, which is especially wonderful if you happen to have curious pets, or prefer sleep next to it but have a tendency to flail your limbs while dreaming. (I’m just the former, I think.) It’s wonderful for warming your feet if you’re sitting at a desk, and for warming the rest of you if you like to lie on your stomach while working on the computer like I do.

   At under $40, it’s pretty affordable and much cheaper than warming up the entire house/apartment. I’ve fallen asleep a couple times with it on and have had no problems with it thus far. Two-ish years and still going strong! The cord is also heavier and more durable, so if you’re a klutz like me and happen to trip over things on a daily basis, this space heater will not give up on you. <3

   

   Meet my best friend! <3

3. Hot Tea – I remember reading Rebecca’s post on Winter Teas and I gotta say, hot tea is probably one of the few things that make me more likely to be okay with winter. Green tea, peppermint tea and chai are probably my favorite teas out there! Rachel recently sent me a super awesome Trader Joe’s care package because she knows I don’t have a nearby one out here. <3 (Having a Trader Joe’s is kinda on my future relocation criteria. >_>)
   

   I’m so excited to try these!

4. Candles – I love fruity-smelling candles! This one in particular is Cranberry Mandarin, but I also have a Fuzzy Navel one from Bee Natural (obtained from when I went to Philly!) and an amazing Red Hibiscus candle that’s a combination of passionfruit, guava and hibiscus. *-* So basically everything I love rolled into a candle. :D
   

   Here’s my Cranberry Mandarin candle! <3

5. Oatmeal: Especially fitting since that’s this week’s Foodie Friday theme! ;P

A couple weeks ago, I was fortunate enough to win Susie’s flash giveaway and as a result, I received 8 different flavors of Big Slice Apples packets!! <3 I can’t wait to dream up different recipes for each of them! (Although, not gonna lie, there is a very real chance that the convenience of said packages will make me just bring packets with me to work along with a bag of granola for an instant meal option!)

As I am currently landlocked and full of cold (just in case you couldn’t tell from my list of likes up above), I figured I’d go with a tropical-ish theme, so I can feel marginally better about not being able to hang out on a warm sunny beach somewhere. :O I actually caved and turned on my heat for the first time a couple days ago. ;_;

I unfortunately don’t ever have passionfruit or guava on hand (sigh), but mangoes are lovely! The sliced bananas I meant to add in here are unfortunately un-pictured because I’m a genius and awesome at life. (I forgot about them and dug in before I realized what I’d done.) It was still good though. I’d advise you to add the sliced bananas though because yay for fruit!

Be sure to check out some of my past oatmeal recipes down at the bottom of this post! (Will this post never end!?!)

Banana Mango Oatmeal with Big Slice Apples

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup minute oats
• 1/2-3/4 cup almond milk
• 1-2 pieces dried mango, diced
• 1/2 banana, sliced
• 1 package Banana Mango Hemp Seed Big Slice Apples
• 1 tbsp unsweetened shredded coconut

Instructions:

1. Combine oats and milk into a bowl and microwave for 1.5 minutes
2. Add dried mangoes, sliced bananas (not pictured :[ ), and a Big Slice Apple’s Banana Mango Hemp Seed package
3. Microwave for another 30 seconds, then top with coconut and devour!

End-of-Week-ish Recap!

• Have you ever done a visual reflection of your year? Check out my 2014 in pictures! :]
• I shared a super tasty recipe for a fish taco bowl earlier this week! Have you ever made one?
• What are some of your goals for 2015? These are mine!
• I wrote up my thoughts on the sacrifices I made and have had to make in order to keep chugging along through medical school. Sometimes, it really makes you wonder–Is it all worth it?

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Interested in getting to know more about any of your super-awesome co-hosts? :]

• Farrah | blog | facebook | instagram | pinterest | twitter | bloglovin’
• Montana | blog | facebook | instagram | pinterest | twitter | bloglovin’
• Annmarie | blog | facebook | instagram | pinterest | twitter | bloglovin’
• Emily | blog | instagram | pinterest | twitter | bloglovin’
• Esther | blog | facebook | instagram | pinterest | twitter | bloglovin’
• Cassandra | blog | facebook | instagram | pinterest | twitter | bloglovin’

Join us next week for One-Pot Meals!