A foodie's quest to turn up the heat through strength and conditioning with whole food and a hungry mind.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Overnight Oats – The Basics & Beyond

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!


I rarely post on the weekends, but I wanted to make a separate post on how I prepare Overnight Oats since they are used in a lot of my recipes. You can be very creative with add-ins or just make plain oats. The best thing about this is you can have several varieties available to use at the same time.

Oats are very versatile and very healthy; soaking them makes it easier for your body to digest and absorb more nutrients. When soaked, their soft texture gives a comforting feeling and they are great for evening use since your body digests them slowly. No sudden spikes in blood sugar to worry about….if you worry about that stuff.

The following steps have shown up in past posts, but I’ve changed it up a little to make it easier to follow.

Overnight Oats

1. Pour 2 cups of plain rolled oats in a container with a lid (I use almost empty 32oz yogurt containers to make use of the stubborn yogurt on the sides.

2. Add 1/2 cup of *powder/flour/puree choice*, a 1/4 cup of *Add-ins (if desired)*, and up to 1 ½ tablespoons *spice of choice*. 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract can be added if it’s fitting for your desired flavor. Softly shake everything around until you see the top of the oats.

3. Add 12 – 18 drops of plain or vanilla NuNaturals liquid stevia, 1 tablespoon NuNaturals NuStevia Baking Blend, or 2 – 3 packets of NuNaturals Stevia Powder and a dash of sea salt. (If you must, 2 tablespoons of sugar, honey, or agave will work too)

4. Add water, milk of choice, or juice of choice (apple works well) until it reaches the top of the oats (I sometimes use Zevia Soda for the liquid and omit adding any sweeteners)

5. Stir to combine making sure the powders are well incorporated (I sometimes find unmixed clumps at the bottom), close the container and let sit in the fridge for at least four hours and up to 5 days; it won’t last that long though.

If you can't tell, I really like plain non-fat Chobani Greek yogurt!


This liquid will be nice and absorbed within a few hours.


To make plain overnight oats, skip steps 2 and 3 and just add water.


*Powder / Flour / Puree Options*

- Peanut Flour

- Protein Powder (I mix and match whey, soy, and egg white protein powders that are unflavored or sweetened with stevia)

- Unsweetened Cocoa Powder (use 10 drops of NuNaturals Cocoa Bean Extract to compliment this)

- Instant, Non-fat Dry Milk Powder

- Pumpkin or other squash puree

- Overripe Mashed Banana

- Unsweetened Applesauce

*Add-in Options*

- Dried cranberries, banana, raisins, cherries, apple, apricot, dates, or other dried fruit

- Fresh or frozen fruit like the dried options above

- Raw or Dry Roasted Peanuts, Almonds, Pistachios, Cashews, or other favorite nut

- Raw or Dry Roasted Pumpkin Seeds, Sunflower Seeds, or Chia Seeds (Chia seeds really make things thick since they gel once in liquid.

*Spices*

- Cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, allspice, turmeric (use very little), or other spice you like


These choices give you plenty variations to try and enjoy. Start slowly with just the basics to get a feel for how yours will turn out, and then start getting creative.


Some of my favorite combos include:

Choco-Nana Peanut Butter Goodness

1/2 Peanut flour and 1/2 cocoa, mashed banana, vanilla extract, NuNaturals Cocoa Bean Extract, NuNaturals liquid stevia, and dry roasted almonds

Peanut Pumpkin Pie

Peanut flour, pumpkin puree, vanilla extract, NuNaturals liquid stevia, pumpkin seeds, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and allspice


Anything But Plain Vanilla

Vanilla whey protein powder, frozen cherries, vanilla extract, NuNaturals liquid vanilla stevia, and cinnamon


Zevia Oats

Unflavored protein or dry milk powder, chia seeds, and Zevia Crème Soda (there are many Zevia flavors and I’d like to try them all)


I’ll post more recipes since I’m always trying new combinations. Not all are a success, but I’ll pretend those never happened and only share the good recipes.

I think for St. Patty’s Day, I will try a mix the “Anything But Plain Vanilla” combo with 1/2 a cup of frozen spinach, and 1/2 frozen banana all blended together. I don’t know what it will be like yet, but I’ll post pictures. Hopefully it looks as good as Chocolate-Covered Katie’s green mint smoothie pictured below!


Do you plan on wearing and eating green today? Do you have any special occasions to attend for this day?


I just have a green shirt and green smoothie that will hopefully bring me some pinch-free good luck! Kelley and I will be going to a neighborhood party tonight; hopefully we present ourselves well since we’ve never really met them before!

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