My long, CHILLY run this morning–8.5 miles thankyouverymuch–certainly did.

Just FYI, it flurried here yesterday.  So, just because I got to run Friday morning in a t-shirt, doesn’t mean we’re out of the woods yet.  But almost.  This morning, it was sunny, but COLD.  Sure doesn’t feel like we’re just days away from May around here…

I’d had thoughts of splurging on the granola Andrew put in my Easter basket (with the amount of sugar found in many store-bought granolas, I find it hard to justify it as an ‘every morning’ breakfast), but I needed something WARM.

Obviously, oatmeal was the ticket.  But how to top it??  I’d already eaten a pre-run banana, so another one to sweeten the bowl wasn’t appealing.  Biscoff spread was sounding good, but what would serve as my protein?  Well, let’s just say the concoction I whipped up may have been the best yet!  Here’s the breakdown:

-instant oats in the microwave (after many old-fashioned oats on the stovetop bowls, I think I’ve finally realized I like the texture of instant better.  plus, I was hungry!)

-1/2 tbsp each dried cranberries, golden raisins and crystallized ginger

-1/2 tbsp Biscoff spread

-1/2 tbsp chopped coconut-flavored almonds (Emerald brand–fantastic!)

After mixing with 1/4 C vanilla Silk soymilk (can I just say that I am beyond-words excited that Andrew is a fan of this?  post on that coming soon…), it looked a little more like this:

Terrible picture, I know, but at least you see the whole thing.  The soymilk gave it just a bit of sweetness, just the way I like it.

I suppose those of us up north still have a few days to enjoy our warm breakfasts before spring really gets here…if it ever does!