For many reasons, breakfast is considered the most important meal of the day. One of these reasons is because it jump starts your metabolism for the day after long hours of fasting while you were asleep. It may be the most important meal, but eating the wrong selection of food for your breakfast may do your body worse than skipping it at all.
Having a good breakfast as part of your daily routine is essential to building a healthy lifestyle. Not only will this meal fill you up, it will also set your eating pattern, reduce your cravings, and provide your energy to get you going through the day. It’s also been proven that having a nutritious breakfast can help improve your weight management.
Breakfast should be taken one to two hours after you wake up. Many people have a difficult time preparing a healthy morning meal because more often than not, they find themselves running late for school or work, or they just felt too comfortable in bed to spend time preparing their first meal. If you are guilty of always missing breakfast or having very lousy choices of food in the morning, overnight oats is perfect for you.
What are overnight oats?
The concept is pretty simple; instead of cooking oats over heat, you soak it with milk overnight along with other nutritious ingredients as your toppings. In the morning, you will get a nice serving of creamy, pudding-like oatmeal that’s packed with nutrients. Through this method, you get all the goodness you enjoy from a hot bowl of oatmeal, without all the work of preparing it. You just have to grab your drawn up jar of oats and dig in.
Overnight oats are extremely easy to prepare. Having it for breakfast is definitely a delicious way to start your day. Aside from its convenience, it’s also very healthy since oats are loaded with fiber, antioxidants, omega-3 fatty acids, folate, and potassium, which are great for detoxifying your body and keeping your heart healthy. Overnight oats are also portable so you can simply grab your jar and head out, giving you no reason to miss your breakfast.
Putting all these aside, the best part of overnight oats is the fun of customizing it. You can choose whichever ingredients you want to add on your meal; you can mix fruits, jam, nuts — it’s all up to you! There are thousands of ways you can make your overnight oats, so you will never have a boring breakfast again. In this article, you will find some overnight oats recipes with mouthwatering combinations you will surely love.
How to Make Overnight Oats
Before we get into the fancy mixes, here is a walkthrough to creating your first jar of overnight oats with the classic recipe or your base recipe. If you like your breakfast plain, this could easily work for you. If not, this recipe is still worth learning because this is where you can get creative with your concoction.
To start, you need a glass jar that can hold just the right amount of serving you can consume for breakfast. Ideally, it should be able to hold around 250ml or half a pint. Make sure its resealable so you can just grab your jar and eat your breakfast on the go.
Second, fill half of the jar with old fashioned rolled oats. It is highly suggested to add 1 tablespoon of chia seeds on top of the oats to boost your breakfast with more fiber, omega-3 fatty acids and protein. It also enhances the consistency and overall texture of your oats. After this, pour some milk to the glass until the oats and chia seeds are perfectly covered.
Next, you can improve the flavor of your base mix by adding one to two tablespoons of honey or maple syrup, half a teaspoon of vanilla extract, and a pinch of salt. You can also pump up the healthy goodness in your breakfast by adding some greek yogurt. It blends well with the sweeteners and it’s also an excellent source of probiotics, calcium, vitamin B12, and potassium.
Lastly, it’s time to add your favorite fruits, nuts, and sweeteners as toppings. Some excellent choices are:
- Fruits – banana, mango, strawberry, blueberry, raspberry, peach, apple, pineapple, grapes, cherry, kiwi
- Nuts – almonds, peanuts, praline, cashews, macadamia, walnuts
- Sweeteners – chocolate drops, peanut butter, cocoa, coconut flakes, hazelnut butter
You can mix and match these ingredients according to your liking, but here are some fool-proof combinations you can try:
Banana Chocolate Peanut Butter
This flavor will bring back some sweet childhood memories! Simply add two tablespoons of cocoa powder and two tablespoons of peanut butter on the base mix, top it with mushed or sliced bananas, and seal the jar.
Strawberry Cheesecake
Who said you can’t have dessert for breakfast? Just blend three tablespoons of softened cream cheese and 1 teaspoon lemon juice to the base mix, and add strawberry slices on top, and seal the jar. You may also switch strawberries with mango slices or blueberries.
Pumpkin Spice
A classic breakfast treat for autumn season! To create this fall favorite, mix in half a cup of pumpkin puree, 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves, and 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg to the base mix, and seal the jar.
Apple Cinnamon
Apple and cinnamon is simply a match made in heaven. To prepare this, simply add two tablespoons of apple sauce and 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon to the base mix, top it with apple slices, and seal the jar.
Banana Chocolate Chip
Give your breakfast a little decadent taste with this recipe. Just whisk together half a cup of chocolate drops with the base mix, place banana slices on top, and seal the jar.
Tips
Now that you know how to prepare your first batch of overnight oats, here are some helpful tips to make sure you have a great experience making them:
- It may be tempting to use other types of oats, but it’s proven that old fashioned rolled oats yield the best texture and consistency. Instant oats tend to be too mushy, while steel-cut oats remain crunchy even after steeping with milk for hours.
- You may also want to skip the sweeteners or sweetened milk if you are watching your blood sugar content. This will also help you get a better control of the taste of your oats.
- If you want your toppings to be crisp in time for breakfast, simply add them to your meal in the morning instead of mixing them in the jar overnight.
- Adding chia seeds or other dry ingredients to your concoction will soak up some of the liquid, so be sure to adjust the milk accordingly.
- A mixture with the classic recipe is good for up to four days. Adding fruits may shorten its lifespan for up to 2 days so be mindful of the ingredients you put in. Labeling the jars could be a very big help in organizing your oat jars.
- To avoid overeating, stick to jar with sizes not bigger than your ideal serving portion.
- Make your mix vegan by using plant-based milk, plant-based yogurt, dairy-free toppings, and maple syrup instead of honey.
