I gave oats a rest for a bit, after muffins and porridge and brownie recipes which featured them heavily, but they’re back in circulation again.
I’m not a morning person. At. All. On working days, when I leave the house at 7am, it is literally all I can do to clad myself in something appropriate and launch some cosmetics at my face. I can’t even cope with eating breakfast at this time, nevermind preparing anything, so I generally take something to eat once I’ve reached my classroom. Bacon sandwiches wouldn’t really work in this scenario, but muffins or sugar-free-banana-cookies I can have with a restorative coffee are a good choice, as are these overnight oats for a hungry morning.
These are made the night before – the name’s a bit of a spoiler – but would be ok for up to about 3 days if you want to make a batch. I make it in an old jam jar, or a similarly capacious tupperware as this makes an appropriate amount for me. It’s not a looker, I’ll grant you, but it’s healthy, sustaining and tasty. It’s also really easy to customise to your own tastes.
It’s best to keep using the same size container each time so you can tweak the recipe – some people like their oats drier than others, for instance. My little badgers are revolted by the very sight of these jars, but yours might be more accommodating. It’s a handy breakfast to have up your sleeve if so.
Mine contains:
- 4 tablespoons porridge oats
- 1 tablespoon chia seeds
- pinch of salt
- small handful of raspberries
- milk of choice to fill the jar.
Alternatives:
- Swap the raspberries for: strawberries, blueberries, cherries, chopped or mashed banana, diced apple and cinnamon, mango, dried fruit.
- Swap the milk for coconut/almond/oat milk. Alternatively use Greek yoghurt or a flavoured yoghurt of your choice.
- Swap the chia seeds for flax seeds – or leave out altogether. I add them for a bit of extra nutrition, but I can’t say they add much to the flavour.
Other options:
- Peanut/almond butter (nice with banana) – this works well by mixing the oats and milk/yoghurt together in a bowl and then layering it with the fruit and a few dollops of nut butter in the container you’ll be eating it from.
- Chocolate – nice with nut butter or cherries – mix a tablespoon of cacao (or cocoa) powder in with the oats and seeds before combining with the milk. It’s quite bitter, so a bit of banana or a splash of maple syrup would work well to sweeten it slightly.)
raising badgers 