Recipes, What I ate

Overnight Oats for Dummies

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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.

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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:

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

Second, the liquid.

I favor Almond Breeze Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk.

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

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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.

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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.

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

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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

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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…

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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:

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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:

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Sometimes I go with fresh strawberries:

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Let’s be honest, I ALWAYS go with fresh strawberries… DSCF2876

Sometimes I go for the fresh blueberries:

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

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Apparently I feel spunky 97% of the time 🙂

Whatever mixins you choose, give it a good mix:

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Then, put you face super close to the bowl and admire the overnight oats in all their glory:DSCF2892

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

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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.

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dscf0214 dscf0573  dscf1094dscf0951 dscf1427  dscf1616

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

I hope you feel OO inspired :mrgreen:

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

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What I ate

Starting the week on a roll… a jelly roll that is

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Sometime last week I accidentally downloaded the $10 Runkeeper pro ap on my iPhone…  I was kind of annoyed because the free Runkeeper pro app I had was working just fine… but apparently my right thumb decided I needed to go the extra mile (no pun intended) and buy the pricey app.

I’ve played around with the full Runkeeper Pro ap a little bit, and wasn’t too impressed until I logged onto the website and saw all the cool information that my phone automatically transmits.  As you may recall, I’ve been working on interval training (since my right knee is opposed to me doing a 5k).  So in the past, it’s been hard for me to tell how fast I was running and how fast I was walking during my intervals.

Enter the fancy schmancy Runkeeper Pro ap for the low-low price of $9.99!  When I logged onto the website I was VERY happy to see that I can get a breakout by interval.  Here’s the stats from my interval this morning which consisted of 5 intervals of 3 minutes walking and 3 minutes running:

Not too shabby on the run times.  Now I can actually work on improving my pace AND my knee strength.  I guess this was a happy $10 accident 🙂

Breakfast #1

I was planning to have eggs for breakfast, but time was not on my side this morning.  Instead I grabbed an Earth Grains 100% whole wheat deli flat and topped it with 1 tbsp Trader Joe’s Crunchy Salted Almond Butter:

My friends Tim and Jaci hooked me up with some Smucker’s reduced sugar red raspberry preserves to try, and I thought this combo would be fantastic:

AB & J:

I was right, it was fan-friggin-tastic!!  I love these reduced sugar preserves just as much as I love the regular blackberry preserves!  Smucker’s preserves are perfection.

Stats on B#1:  225 calories, 30g carbs, 11g fat, 9g protein, 6g fiber

 

Breakfasts #2

My usual overnight oats with strawberries and blueberries:

OO love 🙂

Stats on B#1:  229 calories, 42g carbs, 5g fat, 6g protein, 7g fiber

Lunch

When I was making yesterday’s garbanzo bean salad, I saved some of the veggies for my lunch.  CHOP ONCE, EAT TWICE my friends 🙂

Mixins:

I also added 2 ounces grilled chicken, half a bag of romaine lettuce, and 2 tbsp Ken’s Lite Northern Italian with Basil and Romano dressing:

Whole lot o veg:

Stats on B#1:  309 calories, 36g carbs, 7g fat, 25g protein, 10g fiber 

 

Question for ya’ll:  What are your favorite things to pack for lunch?  I tend to get super bored with my lunches and would LOVE new ideas! 😀

 

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What I ate

Oats worth waking up for

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Yesterday was a fully-loaded Saturday.  I had a wedding shower and a housewarming party to go to, and I felt a tinge of tiredness all throughout the day.  So when I got home around 11pm I was really looking forward to hitting the hay.  I layed down, closed my eyes, deep breath in, deep breath out….  Deep breath in, deep breath out…. and then my eyes opened and I laid on my back looking up at the ceiling.  I was wide awake.  Completely, 100%, ready-to-go awake.

I contemplated watching TV at first, but then decided to put my newly found energy into getting some work cranked out.  So I sat typing away on my laptop until 3:30am when I decided it was time to pull the plug.

Needless to say, I was less than enthusiastic about waking up this morning.  9:30 am rolled around (which is about 2-3 hours later than I usually sleep on weekends)… and suddenly a glimmer of excitement washed over me.  I remembered the amazing overnight oats I had prepared the night before.  Now I was more than amped to get up and tackle my interval training.  All I had to do was keep visualizing the cool creamy oats….

Check this out:

These are not your ordinary overnight oats.  This jar of JIF had about 2 tbsp of peanut butter left in it, so I mixed up my usual overnight oats in the jar and left them to hang out in the fridge overnight.  This morning, I topped the oats off with some blueberries and strawberries:

I COULD NOT WAIT to dive in to these:

Jealous??

Worth waking up for:

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What I ate

Short and sweet

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Breakfast #1

First thing first, as soon as I opened my eyes this morning it was all about EGGS.  I cooked up a 3 egg white scramble with S&P and Frank’s Red Hot, 1/2 cup oven baked potatoes, 1/2 of a Thomas’ multi-grain English muffin, and a dollop of ketchup (of course!):

Stats of B#1:  168 calories, 31g carbs, 1g fat, 16g protein, 5g fiber

Breakfast #2

 A couple hours later, I eagerly dug into my overnight oats.  I made the usual version, but subbed in blueberries for strawberries and added a tablespoon Bear Naked Maple Pecan Granola:

Creamy deliciousness:

Stats of B#2:  259 calories, 49g carbs, 6g fat, 8g protein, 8g fiber

The BF’s Breakfast #1

When we were on vacation in Charleston, we had breakfast at Hominy Grill twice and it was DELICIOUS.  Both times, we considered ordering their fruit and granola parfait, but opted for pancakes and omelets instead.  Ever since then, the BF has been craving the parfait, so being the nice lady I am, I made him one for breakfast this morning:

 

This parfait consisted of 1 container Dannon Vanilla Greek Yogurt, 1/4 cup Bear Naked Maple Pecan Granola, and 1 sliced banana:

 

Jarrod said he REALLY like the parfait.  Only change we’ll make for next time is to use strawberry yogurt instead.  YUM!

Stats on the parfait:  345 calories, 66g carbs, 5g fat, 17g protein, 5g fiber

Lunch

Lunch was 2 ounces of leftover chicken from last night’s Cajun pasta atop a Light Flat-out Italian wrap with spinach, tomato, onion, and a few drizzles of fat-free Italian dressing:

I wrapped everything up burrito-style, then cooked on the george foreman grill for about 5 minutes until it was heated through and the wrap was crispy:

YUM!

Stats on the wrap:  220 calories, 28g carbs, 4g fat, 28g protein, 12g fiber

And with that, it’s off to make some dinner!

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What I ate

Saturday eggs, smoothies, & tuna salad

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This morning I woke up bright and early to try and pick up on my interval running (even though I had already decided to take a week off of high-impact excercise)…  I was able to get 1.5 intervals in before my knee started hurting 🙁  Looks like I’m going to be in the walking group at the Healthy Living Summit.

 

Breakfast of champions

After my disappointing run, I wanted a delicious breakfast to perk me up.  I cooked up 1 egg sunny side up, and had a piece of Country Hearth 12 Grain bread with sunflowers and a half a cup of oven baked potatoes:

Why are egg yolks SOOOO delicious tasting?  I find them oddly decadent!

Stats: 250 calories, 37g carbs, 7g fat, 12g protein, 2g fiber

Soon after downing this delicious breakfast, I was already feeling hungry and decided to make a fruit smoothie. 

I threw the following into the blender:

  • 1 container Yoplait Strawberry Greek Yogurt
  • 1/2 cup Almond Breeze unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk
  • 1/4 cup fresh blueberries
  • 6 medium strawberries
  • 1 cup fresh spinach
  • 1/2 cup ice

This puppy definitely filled my belly up!

Stats on my smoothie: 199 calories, 32g carbs, 2g fat, 14g protein, 4g fiber

After watching me down my smoothie, Jarrod got jealous and decided he wanted a smoothie too.  So we threw the following into the blender:

  • 1 scoop optimum nutrition whey chocolate protein
  • 1/2 cup frozen sliced bananas
  • 1 tbsp JIF peanut butter
  • 1/4 cup ground-up quick oats
  • 1/2 cup Almond Breeze unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk
  • 1/2 cup ice

This doesn’t look like much, but I tried a sip and it was AMAZING: 

Tasted like a shake you’d get at a hamburger stand.  I’m going to try and make a lower-calorie version sometime!

Stats on Jarrod’s chocolate peanut butter banana smoothie: 377 calories, 39g carbs, 12g fat, 33g protein, 6g fiber

  

Lunch

A little before lunch, I headed over to my mom’s house for some quality time with the fam.  Just as I was about to leave, I locked my keys in my trunk…  😯 What am I, 16 again?  When I was younger, I had the joy of consistently locking my keys in my car.  Actually, the day I first got my license I locked my keys in my trunk and had to have my dad come rescue me…. Oh joy….

Once I got the key situation all worked out, I headed home to make a tuna wrap for lunch.  Here’s what went into the tuna salad:

  • 1 can chunk light tuna in water, drained
  • 1/4 cup red onion
  • 1/2 a chopped roma tomato
  • 1 tbsp Ken’s Steakhouse Lite Creamy Ceaser Dressing
  • S&P

Then I added a few slices of a ginormous banana pepper I grew in my backyard garden:

I put the tuna salad atop a Light Flat-out Italian wrap with 1 cup of spinach:

Then I wrapped everything up burrito-style and grilled on the george foreman grill for about 5 minutes:

DELICIOUS.

Stats on the tuna wrap:  282 calories, 28g carbs, 9g fat, 32g protein, 12g fiber

 

I’m hoping to try out a new recipe for dinner tonight.. I have a few ideas in mind.  Maybe a nap will help things come to fruition 🙂

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