Peanut Butter Oatmeal

This quick, easy, and delicious peanut butter oatmeal recipe is the best healthy breakfast for peanut butter lovers!

Breakfast peanut butter oatmeal

If you’ve never tried peanut butter oats, prepare to fall in love.

With a thick and creamy texture, cozy peanut butter oats are one of my all time favorite comfort food breakfast recipes.

You simply add everything to a saucepan, heat until thick, and enjoy the high protein peanut butter hot cereal with chocolate chips or your toppings of choice.

The recipe can be vegan, gluten free, low calorie, low in saturated fat, cholesterol free, added sugar free, and high in fiber, calcium, iron, potassium, and protein.

Readers also like this Protein Banana Bread

Peanut butter oatmeal flavors

Chocolate Peanut Butter: Craving Reese’s peanut butter cups? Stir in a tablespoon of cocoa powder and an optional teaspoon of Dutch cocoa powder before cooking.

Peanut Butter Banana: Mash one ripe banana into the oatmeal before turning on the heat and stir in a fourth teaspoon of ground cinnamon. Or caramelize a banana by heating the fruit in the microwave or in a pan on the stove. Add the sweet, caramelized banana to the finished oatmeal.

Coconut Peanut Butter Cookie: Use coconut milk, and stir in a handful of shredded coconut at any point while preparing the breakfast oats. Top with Coconut Balls.

High Protein Oatmeal: As written, the recipe already has over 14 grams of protein. For an even higher protein breakfast, stir in a scoop of your favorite plain, vanilla, strawberry, chai, or chocolate protein powder before heating.

Peanut Butter & Jelly: Swirl a spoonful of grape or raspberry jam into the hot oatmeal just before serving. Garnish with finely chopped peanuts.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookie: Add a fourth cup of raisins and a fourth teaspoon of ground cinnamon before cooking the oatmeal. You can also add chopped dried dates or figs.

Also try these 3 Ingredient Peanut Butter Balls

Ingredients for healthy peanut butter oats

The recipe calls for rolled oats, peanut butter, milk of choice, pure vanilla extract, a little salt, and sweetener of choice.

For vegan peanut butter oatmeal, choose any plant based milk, such as almond milk, soy milk, flax milk, oat milk, or coconut milk.

Optional add-ins or toppings include mini chocolate chips, mashed or sliced bananas, chia seeds, fresh strawberries, blueberries, or Homemade Nutella.

Sweeten the recipe with pure maple syrup, honey, coconut sugar, date sugar, brown sugar, agave, xylitol, stevia, or your favorite all purpose sweetener.

The amount of sweetener will depend on your own taste buds, what type of sugar or sugar free sweetener you choose, and whether you use sweetened milk and nut butter.

Feel free to swap out all of the peanut butter for almond butter, Coconut Butter, macadamia butter, or cashew butter.

Or for a low calorie option, substitute two or three tablespoons of powdered peanut butter or peanut butter flavored protein powder.

To feed a family or overnight guests, simply double, triple, or even quadruple all of the ingredients. For larger serving sizes, use a large pot for cooking the oatmeal.

What type of oats?

We created this recipe using rolled oats, like the ones sold by Quaker.

Quick oats, steel cut oats, or instant oats will also work. The cooking time will be shorter for quick or instant oatmeal and longer for steel cut oatmeal.

Or substitute an equal amount of spelt flakes, kamut flakes, or quinoa flakes.

While oats are naturally gluten free, they are often processed in a facility that also handles wheat products. If you are serving the recipe to someone who cannot have any gluten, look for certified gluten free oats offered by companies like Bob’s Red Mill.

Leftover peanut butter? Make Peanut Butter Brownies

Step by step recipe video

Watch the peanut butter oatmeal recipe video, above

How to make peanut butter oatmeal bowls

Stir the rolled oats, salt, sweetener, milk of choice, and peanut butter or powder in either a medium saucepan or large microwave safe glass measuring cup.

For stove top oatmeal, bring the saucepan to a boil. Then continue to cook over low-medium heat, stirring frequently as it thickens to prevent sticking.

Or for no bake microwave oatmeal, cook on high power for two to three minutes, or until thick. The cooking time will depend on the wattage of your specific machine.

Once the pb oats reach a thick porridge consistency, remove the mixture from the heat and stir in the pure vanilla extract.

Transfer the cooked oatmeal to a cereal bowl. Garnish with toppings as desired, add a spoon, and enjoy hot for breakfast or snack.

This is a single serving recipe. However, if you do find yourself with leftovers or wish to make the breakfast the night before, refrigerate leftover oatmeal in an airtight covered container for up to about four days. Eat cold, or reheat on the stove top or in the microwave, adding a little extra milk to get it creamy again.

We have not tried using an Instant Pot or slow cooker for the recipe. If you experiment, be sure to report back for other readers.

For a make-ahead version, try Peanut Butter Overnight Oats

Tips for measuring in grams

Using a scale means measuring and cleaning up are so easy when cooking.

If you wish to make oatmeal with a food scale instead of using cups and tablespoons, below are the amounts to use.

Measure out 45 grams of rolled oats, 180 grams milk of choice, and 30 to 45 grams of peanut butter, depending on how peanut buttery you wish to make the bowl.

Also remember to add the salt and vanilla extract, which are both too small of amounts to accurately measure on most food scales.

If adding a banana, one medium banana weighs around 120 grams.

The recipe was adapted from my Banana Oatmeal and Pumpkin Oatmeal, as well as from this homemade Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal.

More Peanut Butter Breakfast Recipes

Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie

Chocolate Banana Bread

Protein Bars

Peanut Butter Muffins

Cereal Bars

Vegan French Toast

Chocolate Smoothie