Fervent Foodie

Overnight Oats for Dummies

August 24, 2010 40 Comments

Overnight oats are cold, creamy, and absolutely friggin delicious, especially in the summer time. I get more questions on overnight oats than on any other topic/food/recipe on this blog. I attribute this to the exquisite palates of my readers. Given the confusion, I thought I’d do an “overnight oats for dummies” post.. not implying that any of you are dummies, just that a dummy would be able to follow these extremely thorough instructions.

First up, the oats.

You can use any oats that you like. My preference is for quick oats because they turn out with a fabulous creamy consistency, but I’ve also enjoyed rolled oats and muesli. I usually go with 1/2 a cup of oats, but you can use more or less depending on your liking.

KEY TO SUCCESS #1: These oats are uncooked, straight from the container.

Oaty goodness:

Options for Oats: Quick Oats, Rolled Oats, Muesli, Steel Cut Oats, etc.

Second, the liquid.

I favor Almond Breeze Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk.

I tend to use equal parts of liquid to oats (typically 1/2 a cup of each).

KEY TO SUCCESS #2: The more liquid you use, the runnier your oats will be, conversely the less liquid you use the thicker your oats will be. Thank you freshman year physics class.

Options for liquid: regular cow milk (MOO!), yogurt, etc.

Third, sweetener if you so choose.

I like to add a tsp of brown sugar to my oats.

Options for sweetener: a packet of Truvia, Jam or Preserves, Honey, etc.

KEY TO SUCCESS #3: Keep your eye on the prize and don’t get overly excited and accidently spill valuable OO goodness as I did. Don’t worry. I licked it all up 😉

Fourth, overnight mixins.

My standard oats only have 1 overnight mixin: CINNAMON

Just because I’m boring, doesn’t mean you have to be. The options are ENDLESS. Here are some ideas: Nut butter, chia seeds, granola, chocolate chips, protein powder, PB2, yogurt, nuts, raisins, fresh or frozen fruits – think berries, melons, cherries, bananas, etc.

Fifth, quality time with the fridge.

I’ve said it many a time on the blog: overnight oats are like a gift to yourself. You prep this little bundle of joy the night before, and it’s just ready and waiting for you in the morning… Like a sweet little puppy… That you eat.

Moving on…

KEY TO SUCCESS #4: Be a good little girl and don’t eat your oats for a midnight snack.

Sixth, fresh mixins.

The next morning, the oats will be nice and thick and creamy:

I had to crop this photo because just looking at these oats made me drool all over my desk.

You can mix in ANYTHING ya want to these oats! See the list of ideas under the overnight mixins for inspiration. Other ideas include cereal (add this in the AM so it doesn’t get soggy) and cookies (if you have a ramped sweet tooth like me).

My preference is to add some fresh fruit:

Sometimes I go with fresh strawberries:

Let’s be honest, I ALWAYS go with fresh strawberries…

Sometimes I go for the fresh blueberries:

And if I’m feeling spunky, I go for both:

Apparently I feel spunky 97% of the time 🙂

Whatever mixins you choose, give it a good mix:

Then, put you face super close to the bowl and admire the overnight oats in all their glory:

The overnight oats are eaten COLD… so all that’s left to do is eat your little heart out!

I’d like to end this tutorial with a photo montage of some of my favorite OO’s.

Please close your eyes and imagine sappy graduation music playing (for your completion of the tutorial, of course), then proceed.

Overnight Oats—YOU… COMPLETE ME. <3 <3 <3

I hope you feel OO inspired

BTW – I updated my About Me page. Constructive feedback is welcome and appreciated! FerventFoodie@gmail.com.

Recipes, What I ate

Chuggin Along

August 23, 2010 16 Comments

Those of you not in the tax world probably wonder what the heck tax accountants do after the April 15th deadline. Whelp, I wish April 15th were the only deadline during the year, but alas we have several big, BIGGER, and BIGGGGER deadlines through the year. The BIGGGGER deadline I’m referring to is the lovely September 15th, which is fast approaching. Most of the work we do outside of “tax season” relates to businesses who extend their tax returns and/or have a fiscal year end and thus a different due date. I’ll leave it at that. People can only stomach so much tax-talk, especially on a Monday 🙂

On top of the tax deadline, the accounting course I’m teaching at a local university starts next week! When things get busy like this, the first thing that gets sacrificed is exercise. It saddens me to admit that fact, but it’s the honest truth. I know it’s all about making time. My problem is when I’m mentally exhausted, I don’t have the energy to do physical things. I’m still trying to find ways to get myself motivated. The busier I am at work, the greater the need for planning meals and batch-cooking. Thus, yesterday morning I did all my shopping for the week and had a mini cookathon.

Breakfast #1

First up on the Sunday cooking agenda was a 3-serving batch of scrambled eggs and roasted broccoli.

Here’s what went into the scrambled eggs:

3 whole eggs
9 egg whites
splash of water
S&P
Red Pepper Flakes
Frank’s red hot

The broccoli was roasted on a cookie sheet (sprayed down with cooking spray) and then seasoned with garlic salt and pepper. I roasted them in a 415 degree oven for 15 minutes.

Good things come in threes?

I added a dollop of ketchup (mandatory) before eating 1 of these 3 lovelies at my desk at work:

Stats on B#1: 163 Calories, 12g carbs, 5g fat, 19g protein, 2g fiber

Breakfast #2

There is one breakfast in the world that would make me actually look forward to a Monday. Overnight Oats, of course!

I made my usual overnight oats to enjoy at my desk at work this lovely Monday.

Keep an eye out for tomorrow’s post which will greatly elaborate on my overnight oats… Can you smell the excitement?!

Stats on B#2: 233 Calories, 44carbs, 5g fat, 6g protein, 7g fiber

Lunch

I don’t buy much lunch meat, but yesterday I had a real hankerin for a toasted sub so I picked some Roasted Deli Turkey and Ham up at the grocery store. I also picked up some Arnold’s Fill’ems. Have you guys seen these? They are basically sandwich thins in long rectangles (for use with hotdogs, sausage, etc). How cool!

For lunch today, I piled a couple slices of turkey and ham atop an Arnold’s Fill ‘em along with some tomatoes, onions, banana peppers, spinach, and sprouts and a squiggle of Wasabi mustard:

Stats on Lunch: 275 Calories, 33g carbs, 2g fat, 25g protein, 8g fiber

Yesterday, I made a grilled version of this same sandwich—except no sprouts and I used a little Italian dressing and hot sauce instead of mustard:

It’s crazy how simply grilling a sandwich makes it taste infinitely more delicious. I’m seriously considering bringing a mini George Foreman to work.. You know the ones that are just big enough to cook a single burger? I wonder if anyone would mind… or if it’s a fire hazard or something.

Warm, crispy, and DELICIOUS:

Random

Over the past week or so, I’ve tried out a few new goodies and I wanted to comment on them (mostly to link up to the products I’ve tried page).

First up, the Kardea Lemon Ginger bar. I was really excited to try this flavor out:

But, sadly I HATED it! Of the 3 flavors I’ve tried thus far, this is the only one I won’t be purchasing again. It just didn’t jive with me. I have one bar left (Banana Nut) and I sure hope it tastes better than this flavor!

I also FINALLY found a FAGE yogurt with the fruit mixins:

Another sad story! I didn’t like this yogurt at all! I GREATLY prefer Chobani and Dannon Greek yogurt to the FAGE.

So sad.

As you may recall, I haven’t had the greatest luck with Larabars. When I found two mini lara’s in my HLS swag bag, I wasn’t too excited to try either of them out.

But surprise, surprise, I REALLY liked this cashew cookie bar! I think now that my palate knows a larabar isn’t supposed to taste like a Luna bar, I’ve become more accepting of them.

Besides, look how stinkin cute it is:

Annnnd I also tried the cherry pie larabar:

And I liked it! Crazy talk!

Dinner

Dinner went unpictured, but deserves a notable mention because the BF and I hit up Applebees after work. Now this may not sound too exciting to most of you, but to me it was a definite highlight of the week. Ok, I know the week just started, but I feel confident saying it will be a highlight 🙂 We don’t usually see each other during the workweek, and the past weekend was.. lets just say “not the most cheery.” So it was ESPECIALLY lovely to have a nice dinner together. Not to mention the fact that Applebee’s had a special on cabernet tonight (only $3.50 a glass!!). I went with the steak on the under 550 calorie menu, and it was delicious! By the way, I’m also a BIG fan of the Shrimp & Island rice on the under 550 calorie menu as well. Check ‘em out!

QUESTION: When work/life gets super busy, how do you keep up on your exercise and eating healthy?

Recipes

Yogurt Pancakes

August 22, 2010 8 Comments

When I woke up this morning, my belly wanted WAFFLES. Get in my belly! But, I thought I’d be adventurous and make pancakes instead…. Yes, making pancakes over waffles is being adventurous in my book. I know it is in your book too.

Honestly, I can’t remember the last time I’ve made pancakes! It’s been years for sure. Criminal.

I perused the internet for a good Greek Yogurt Pancake recipe, but wasn’t finding exactly what I wanted. So I decided to “marify” some of the recipes together along with a few of my own special touches, and hope for the best.

Problem: I don’t own a griddle… or a flat pan for the matter. I do have some sort of electric pan I got for Christmas a few years back and never used…

What is this thing anyway??

Google tells me it’s an electric skillet, but I’m not sure what it’s intended use is… Gotta be intended for pancakes, am I right?

First up, I mixed up the dry ingredients which included:

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Bowl ‘o dry:

Once combined, I added in the wet stuff:

1/2 cup Stonyfield Farms Plain Fat-Free Organic Yogurt (Greek yogurt would also be fabulous)
1 egg white
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp + 2tsp Almond Breeze Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk (or however much it takes you to get to desired “pancake batter” consistency”)

Wet stuff:

Next up, I sprayed the skillet with some cooking spray, and once the skillet was hot (I went with 350 degrees) I dropped the batter in 1/4 cup increments:

Meanwhile, I heated up the blueberry sauce that was leftover from my blueberry cheesecake bites.

Luckily, I remembered one very important rule of pancake makin’ (which I learned from my mom): once the air bubbles start popping in the middle of the top of the pancake it mean’s it time for flippin!

Allllmossssssttttt thereeeeee:

These pancakes smelled AWESOME by the way. The yogurt gives them a tangy delicious scent, which combined with the cinnamon was down right droolworthy. On to side two:

Shortstack on to my plate:

I topped the pancakes off with the blueberry sauce and 2 tbsp of Smucker’s Sugar Free Syrup:

Down-the-hatch.

Welcome to Pancake Heaven!!!!!

All I can say is YUMMMMMMM! Next time I make these, I think I’ll try and use almond flour. I keep seeing it in the store, and needed an excuse to buy it 🙂

Stats per pancake (no fixins): 73 calories, 14g carbs, 0g fat, 4g protein, 0g fiber

Stats on the four-cake shortstack (no fixins): 293 calories, 57g carbs, 0g fat, 15g protein, 0g fiber

Recipes, What I ate

Dinner in under 10 Minutes

August 21, 2010 5 Comments

Change of plans! Due to the torrential down pour that’s being dumped on us in northeast Ohio, there was no cooking out today.

Instead, I was left with the task of cooking myself a dinner using only ingredients I had in the house. I opened up the pantry to find a bag of Carba Nada pasta begging to be eaten:

I also happened to have some grilled chicken breast leftover from Tuesday night’s cookathon, and in the deep dark depths of my freezer I was lucky to find a single serving of Classico Fire Roasted Tomato & Garlic pasta sauce. Just another perfect example to validate my love and obsession for freezing foods in individual servings 🙂

Batch cooking your meats saves a TON of time throughout the week, but towards the end of the week the meat (especially chicken) can start to get a little dry. When I make pasta sauce with any sort of meat, I like to steep the meat in the sauce, which makes it nice and juicy and tender.

So, while I was waiting for the pasta water to boil, I put the pasta sauce in small pan and added about 3 ounces of grilled chicken and my typical pasta sauce barrage of spices: S&P, Red Pepper Flakes, Dried Oregano, Dried Basil, Onion Powder, and Garlic Powder. All you really need to do is open up your spice cabinet and toss in a few shakes of whatever sounds good to you 🙂

Once the water was boiling, I dropped a serving of the Carba Nada pasta into the pot. Carba Nada only takes 5 minutes to cook (awesome!) and is only 140 calories (AWESOMER!), 24g carbohydrates, 12g protein, and 6g fiber. And it ACTUALLY tastes good.

While the sauce and pasta were getting their grooves on, I made a small side salad with some lettuce, tomato, onion, and Ken’s Steakhouse Light Balsamic Dressing.

Dinner is served my friends!

Pastalicious

Chow time!

Dinner in under 10 minutes… sure tastes good!

Stats on dinner: 398 calories, 48g carbs, 8g fat, 32g protein, 13g fiber

If you are interested in trying out the Carba Nada pasta, I recommend ordering from Netrition because they have $4.95 flat-rate shipping. (I also order my Mama Lupe low-carb tortillas, PB2, and Joseph’s Bakery products on this site)

QUESTION: What’s your favorite done-in-under-ten-minutes dinner?

What I ate

Fake-Out Dippy Egg(s) & a Giveaway Winner!

August 21, 2010 5 Comments

First off, breakfast!

I’m a big BIG fan of eggs for breakfast. I’m sure you have all heard the debates on whether or not the egg yolk is good for you. Well, I’m no nutrition expert (that is for sure), but I tend to follow the “all things in moderation” type of thinking. In any given week, I eat eggs for breakfast (on average) 4-5 days. In an effort to help out my cholesterol levels, I typically only eat 1 whole egg per breakfast along with a few egg whites (usually 3). This way I get my beloved eggs and my much needed protein without taking in too much cholesterol.

During the workweek, I often make up a large batch of scrambled eggs or baked eggins that I divide up into several containers and then pair with some sort of veggie. I love this grab-and-go breakfast during the week, but on the weekends I take the time to make the eggs fresh and how I actually prefer them: dippppppppppy.

Today, I made my dippy eggs fake out. First, I scrambled up three egg whites that I seasoned with S&P and red pepper flakes. When the egg whites were almost cooked through, I added a whole egg to the pan and seasoned with S&P:

I cooked the eggs for precisely the amount of time it takes my bread to toast (that is an exact unit of measurement 😉 ), then I flipped the whole egg over for just a few seconds until the top set up but the yolk was still ooey gooey.

Egg whites onto the plate:

Dippy egg on top and 12 Grain Bread along side:

Then I broke the yolk and let it ooze down over the scrambled egg whites:

Mmmmmm… I love a good egg yolk.

Using this “fake out” it’s like I’m getting a plate full of dippy eggs, but only the cholesterol and fat of 1 whole egg. YUM.

ADORA GIVEAWAY WINNER!!!

First thing, first, I copied all the comments into Excel because that is what any self respecting accountant would do 😉

Then I removed comments that didn’t count (ahem, Allison… 7 posts still only gets you 4 entries… haha)

Then I used Random.org’s true random number generator to select a winner….

And the lucky winner is:

Hallie at Healthy Twists!!!!!

Yay! Hallie, please email me your mailing address (ferventfoodie@gmail.com) and I will forward to Adora!

Keep an eye out for another giveaway next week! All I can say is I’m super excited :) And thank you everyone for checking out my blog. Each of your comments brightens my day!

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