Overnight Oats




In an effort to clean up my eating I’ve starting brainstorming go to recipes for weekday breakfast and lunch.  Those seem to be my trickiest meals in keeping clean.  Not because I’m eating cheeseburgers but because I’m not eating enough good stuff.  My typical breakfast is cereal and while that isn’t the worst thing in the world it’s not the best either.  Recently I’ve started doing overnight oats and I’m really liking it so I thought I’d share the recipe and ask you to share any of your healthy breakfast recipes too.
Overnight Oats
adapted from Skinny Taste

1/2 cup old fashioned or quick oats
1/2 to 3/4 cup almond milk (test to determine what you like best)
1/2 banana, sliced
1/2 tablespoon chia seeds
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon chopped pecans (or anything you have on hand)
1 handful of berries (Andy prefers his berries soaking with his oats overnight, I prefer mine fresh)
A pinch of salt and honey

Place all ingredients in a jar/bowl, shake/stir, cover and refrigerate overnight. Before eating, add any fresh berries or crunchy topping and enjoy.
 
 
Here’s the thing with this recipe, there are never ending variations and you don’t even have to measure once you make it once or twice.  It’s super healthy and it’s so easy to make.  A few things we’ve found after trying different recipes:
You can substitute cow’s milk for almond milk but skim or lower fat milks are thinner so you’ll need to add a little more. I have successfully used coconut too but almond if my favorite.
- The banana dissolves and helps thicken the oats, it’s yummy!
- If you throw the berries in overnight with the oats you can easily substitute frozen berries or any frozen fruit here.
- You can add yogurt too, which I’m sure is delicious, but my standard grocery doesn’t sell coconut milk yogurt and I wanted to keep this dairy free.
- You can easily make a handful in advance for breakfast all week.
- This size portion is pretty big, I find it keeps me full for a while, much longer than cereal.  

Anyone have any healthy breakfast and lunch recipes you want to share?   I’m all ears!
 
- Heath
PS lots of variations here!

2 comments:

  1. This looks delicious! Do you eat it cold or heat it up in the morning?

    We have been making fresh smoothies for breakfast almost every morning. They are pretty filling and quite yummy! We just use ice, almond milk, a little low fat vanilla yogurt for thickening, 1 grapefruit, 1 banana, spinach, carrots, and berries if we have them. This makes 2 big smoothies! My only concern is the sugar but I'm thinking its healthy because its all fresh??!!

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    1. Dinah - you eat it cold. Your smoothie sounds good too! Sugar is usually a concern with smoothies but I think I've read a good ratio is 3 to 1 veggies to fruits, which seems high but it's just something to keep in mind. Unfortunately we wake up so early we try not to make smoothies since our blender is loud and we have neighbors :)

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