A couple of weeks ago, I was just craving chocolate. Everybody gets that right?! I had already planned on making these pumpkin oats for my snack, but I knew that the best way to satisfy a chocolate craving is just to eat some chocolate. So, I came up with the idea for these chocolate & peanut butter pudding oats, and I have been hooked ever since! They are warm, fudgy, make a pretty generous bowl, and not too bad on the macros, either!

The Ingredients

Let’s chat a bit about the ingredients that make up this recipe.

• Quick-cooking Oats: For this recipe, I used a half serving of quick oats. I decided to go with quick oats because they soak up moisture quickly, which equals a faster cooking time. To prepare this dish, you’ll just need 1/4 cup of dry oats, which helps keep the carbs down.
• Pumpkin: I love the addition of pumpkin here. First of all, it adds some micronutrients to the dish.  Pumpkin actually contains quite a few vitamins and is very low in calories. I also love how creamy and smooth pumpkin is; it helps to give the oats a fudgier texture.
• Water: This is what you’ll use to help cook the oats and the pumpkin. I use 120 g of water for cooking, and then add more, as desired, to mix in with the sugar-free chocolate pudding mix. If you would like your oats to be thicker, start with 100 g of water and then add more as necessary.
• Sugar- Free Instant Chocolate Pudding Mix: Sugar- Free Chocolate pudding mix is what makes these oats sweeter and helps to make the oats thicker and more pudding-like. If you are concerned about artificial sweeteners, this is probably not the addition for you. If you wanted to still try this recipe out, I’m thinking additional cocoa powder and your sweetener of choice would work to sweeten these oats.
• Cocoa Powder: Cocoa powder helps to give the oats a little extra boost of chocolate flavor. I used just 5 g of it, and it really helped to amp up the chocolate. I use this black cocoa powder from Amazon, but any type will do.
• Chocolate Chips: I love adding chocolate chips onto warm oatmeal! They get all melty, and I think it really helps to make it feel more like a dessert. I prefer mini chocolate chips to distribute the chocolate a little more, but regular chocolate chips would also work just fine.
• Peanut Butter: Just like the chocolate chips, the peanut butter gets irresistibly melty on top of the warm oats. If you wanted to save some fat grams, you could prepare some pbfit instead. However, it won’t be quite as indulgent as the real deal.
• Optional Additional Sweetener: Everyone has a different preference when it comes to sweetness, but you might want to add some additional sweetness to your oats. Some options that would work well are Stevia, swerve, or any other calorie-free sweetener. You could also sweeten it with a few grams of real granulated sugar, but don’t forget that will add some more carbs. My personal preference is to eat my chocolate oatmeal bowl with a serving of greek yogurt and then top it with a serving of sugar-free syrup.

The Prep

Another thing I love about these oats is that they are ready in just minutes. All you need to do to prepare them is mix some ingredients, zap the oats in the microwave, stir in a few more items, and top with peanut butter and chocolate chips. This makes it the perfect afternoon snack or even macro-cap!

The Macros

The macros for this recipe are rounded to 6F/33C/5P or 189 calories per serving. I think it’s pretty affordable macro-wise for something rich, warm, and comforting. If you’re looking to add some more protein to this dish, I have a few options for you.

• Greek Yogurt: This is my preference for adding some protein to these oats. I top mine with a serving of Kirkland’s non-fat greek yogurt and then sweeten the whole dish with 30 g of sugar-free syrup. This adds 18 grams of protein, and the whole bowl with well over 350 g of goodness is just over 300 calories. Amazing! You could also use pre-sweetened greek yogurt. I’m thinking a coconut or vanilla-flavored yogurt would be especially delicious!
• Protein Ice Cream: If you wanted to, you could make this really dessert-like by adding a serving of protein ice cream or even your favorite light ice cream. Is there anything better than a warm dessert and ice cream slowly melting over it? Not in my book!