The Mix: Steel-cut oats cooked with two ripe bananas, topped with toasted coconut, pistachios, and dried cherries
The Story: Coconut entices my kids, who often don’t stop moving long enough to take more than three bites, to clean their plates. I once marginalized coconut as a nice complement to chocolate. But given how my kids adore it, coconut recently won prime counter real estate beside staples like salt, butter, and cinnamon.
Melissa's KitchenI coat chicken and fish in raw coconut and then panfry the coating to a golden crust. I always add a half cup of toasted coconut to my bi-weekly batch of Maple Granola. And I use it to amp up the flavor of my mother’s old banana muffin recipe.
With the latter in mind, I riffed on Bec’s idea of cooking a banana into a pot of oatmeal. Since we had an entire bunch of spotted, soft bananas, I added two. Further inspired by Bec’s clever way of using up aging fruit, I foraged in the pantry for the oldest bits I could find. I couldn’t remember when I bought pistachios or dried cherries, so I set them out for the kids alongside a ramekin each of their beloved toasted coconut.
The Workout: A triathlon of a different sort: I sent my son off to preschool, chased my daughter at the park, and squeezed in 35 minutes on the spin bike before school pickup.
The Instructions: Follow the Quick Soak Method on the McCann’s steel-cut oats can: “Before going to bed, boil four cups of water in a pot, add one cup of oatmeal. Simmer 1 minute. Cover pot and store overnight in refrigerator. The next morning cook the oatmeal on low for 9 – 12 minutes; stirring occasionally.” Stir in two mashed ripe bananas five minutes before the oats finish cooking. Top with a splash of half-and-half (or milk or cream), a tablespoon or two of toasted coconut, and small handfuls of unsalted pistachios and dried cherries.
—Melissa
