A steaming bowl of oats topped with fresh fruit and slivered almonds used to be my go-to breakfast in the morning. Then it became overnight oats because I no longer had enough time to cook my oatmeal in the morning. Now, it’s an oatmeal breakfast smoothie because I realized that it’s even better this way since I don’t need to wash any dishes afterwards. Score! Here’s the quick and easy recipe for you all. Be warned, you may get addicted to this one because I added a secret ingredient.

So at face value, it may seem like any other smoothie. However, I have a gnarly sweet tooth, so I added an ingredient that you may not be expecting: pitted dates. I first came across dates at the farmer’s market, and I’ve been addicted to them ever since. They are very sweet though, so I have them sparingly. Recently, I tried adding them to my smoothies when I want some added sweetness and it has worked out wonderfully. I just knew I had to share with you all.

In this recipe, I also add some rolled oats. Rolled oats are superior to quick or instant oats because they contain more fiber and are less processed, meaning they contain more of the beneficial nutrients that we’re after. (1) They also have a coarser texture, so that’ll be interesting once it’s blended with the other ingredients, trust me.

This recipe also calls for some frozen fruit, 2/3 a cup of frozen strawberries and 1 small ripe banana to be exact. I want to emphasize the need for a ripe banana in this recipe especially because we’re going to sweeter-than-usual, which is why we’re also adding in a couple of dates. If you don’t use a ripe banana, it’ll cancel out the sweetness of the dates. Frozen strawberries are easily available, or you could also freeze your own fresh strawberries. Make sure they’re also fully ripened so that they’re not too tart. Finally, we’ll be adding a cup of milk and half a teaspoon of vanilla extract. This will tie everything together wonderfully, adding just the amount of milkiness to other ingredients without making the recipe too rich.

Blend, blend, blend! Use your best, most high-powered blender to make sure everything is well-incorporated. I love my trusty Vitamix for anything and everything smoothie-related because it blends everything without fail. If you don’t have a high-powered blender, don’t worry, a single-serve or small blender will do the trick too. I used a Nutribullet before investing in my Vitamix, so I have fond memories with that machine as well.

Don’t forget, all this is dependent on how well you blend the ingredients together. It’s not meant to be chunky so take your time and make sure those rolled oats pretty much disappear. That’s when you know it’s done. Enjoy!