Overnight Oats (For Humans)

Sorry, no pictures. Mostly because I think food pictures are gross, but also because the oatmeal would look like poop in a picture and nobody needs to see that.

Breakfast has always been my hardest meal of the day. I eek out every minute of sleep I can get, so cooking anything outside of a toaster isn’t going to happen. Everything quick is absolutely horrible for you: waffles, pancakes, breakfast sandwiches, cereal. All sugary carb filled lovelies that make fitting in my pants less than ideal.

For many months I did a protein shake in the morning and it worked ok. I was still pretty starving halfway through the morning, but it was healthy. I don’t know what happened, but eventually I just couldn’t do it any more. My stomach would just seize up when I brought the glass to my mouth and I could not force myself to drink it.

That led me back to my search for a quick, grab and go style breakfast that wasn’t terribly unhealthy. I landed on the idea of overnight oats and gave them a try. There are tons of recipes out there, some really involved and out of my league, but the general rules I have found work well and can be modified to your preferences.

In general:
Liquid and oats in a 1:1 ratio
Add fruit for flavor and natural sweetness
Use chia seeds and/or flax seeds for fiber and omegas
You can sweeten it up even more with a small amount of honey or maple syrup

This is the current combination that I have been making:

3/4 cup unsweetened plain Almond Milk
1 cup plain oats
1 banana smushed up
1 tablespoon chia seeds
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder (hersheys is what I use)

Combine it all, it will be extremely liquidy, put in an air tight container (the fancy people online use mason jars, I use a tupperware container) and put in the fridge until morning. I’ve been making this for several weeks and it never turns out quite the same although some days I have a 4 year old helping me and lord knows how much of what he puts in it. This last time he added so much chocolate it was nearly black. It has tasted good every single time no mater how it has turned out though. I make a double batch each time so I can eat it two mornings in a row. I’m not sure how long it stays fresh for, but two days has been fine. When Wyatt eats it, I add 2 teaspoons of honey to make it a little sweet otherwise it is a bit bitter from the unsweetened chocolate.

I found one recipe that substituted peanut butter instead of the banana but that was absolutely horrible tasting and I threw the entire thing away. I don’t recommend that, but there are others that look really good like one with pumpkin and nutmeg that I really want to try.

This fills me up all morning, I tend to eat less for lunch and it satisfies my craving for chocolate without resulting to eating a candy bar. I rarely use honey, so really it is low calorie and no sugar added except from the banana.  I’d recommend playing around with it and finding a combo that you like.