Pimp My Oat Bran

One of my go-to breakfasts is a big bowl of oat bran cooked with soymilk and fruit on the side. Oat bran is the outer shell of the oat grain and is rich in protein, fiber, vitamins, and minerals. It's so fabulous, it even has its own website! I buy bags of it from Trader Joe's for $3 each that last forever, so it's very inexpensive compared to prepared cereals. I mix in some flax seed meal for a filling breakfast that has 14.5 grams of protein, so I'm full until lunch. (1/3 cup oat bran has 7 grams of protein, 1 cup of 8th Continent soy milk has 6 grams of protein, and 1 tablespoon of flax seed meal has 1.5.) Plus, it's delicious!

But lately, I've been getting bored with my standard bowl, which is

• 1/3 cup oat bran cooked with 1 cup soy milk for 2 minutes, then stirred and left to thicken for an additional minute
• 1 tablespoon flax seed meal and 1 tablespoon maple syrup mixed in after it's thickened

Recently I've tried to add some spices to make it more interesting. Dashes of cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice were both good. I also tried adding a tablespoon of unsweetened cocoa powder...yum! It was like a bowl of warm, mushy Cocoa Pebbles! I added a tablespoon of peanut butter along with the cocoa powder but didn't love it as much as just the cocoa powder.

I'm not sure what else to try. Maybe sliced banana and walnuts? Dried cranberries? I'm not a big fruit-in-cereal person and prefer to have it on fruit on the side, though. Any other suggestions for pimping my oat bran?