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!

WIAW Post #2: Green Foods Month

I thoroughly enjoyed my first "What I Ate Wednesday" post last week and am happy to be a part of this fun foodie program!  This month's WIAW theme is "Going Green" which has come just in time for my addition of baby bok choy for snacking.  This smaller version has a sweeter flavor and provides a satisfying and healthy crunch which I love.  I like to eat it like you would celery and spread natural peanut butter on it for a real treat.  I have more "green" foods in the works that I'll share next week.

Simple to pull apart and wash for a very healthy quick prep snack.

This week's menu of meals I cooked on Sunday are mostly different than what I usually cook.  I made a tasty quinoa pilaf with broccoli, cauliflower, and tomatoes for Kelley and me to have on Meatless Monday, and for Tuesday, I took the sweet potatoes we have every week and made a Coconut Sweet Potato and Black Bean Casserole.  I also made a sweet potato tuna casserole and a white bean with tomato and tons of veggies slow-cooker soup for the rest of the work week.  I think next week will be less thrilling in order to exchange time in the kitchen for time with the wife, Kelley!

Breakfast - Some leftover sweet potato and black bean casserole with baby bok choy and sliced turnips as finger foods.  French press coffee with fresh ground nutmeg, cinnamon, and dash of vanilla extract.  I finished up with a cup of Arrowhead Mills Corn Puffs mixed with Kashi GoLean Crunch cereal.  I'm not the biggest fan of the Kashi cereal since there's more ingredients than I consider necessary, but it's a nice change from the ordinary.



Leftover nutmeg after the "grind"....



I got Kelley hooked on the Puffed Corn, it's awesome....just "puffed corn" for ingredients!



Another great WIAW Green Week item!

Snack - Not much here; just 2 bags of green tea mixed with two bags of vanilla rooibos tea and 5 drops of liquid stevia.  I had a small handful of dry roasted and unsalted soy nuts too; that left me ravenous for lunch!

Lunch - Kelley and I are fortunate enough to work in the same office together, and we always go for a walk outside before returning to heat up our homemade (with love from me) lunch for the day.  It really bugs Kelley when she asks what's for lunch while on our walk, and I refuse to tell.  I like surprises, no matter how small, so it's fun to keep her guessing....I don't think she feels the same though.  Sorry, Kelley!

White beans and veggies before the immersion blender...it's good either way!

Anyway, today's lunch was the slow-cooker white bean tomato and veggie stew/soup that I ran an immersion blender in really quick just to make it a little creamy.  I'm a fan of finger foods, and had okra and green beans that I dehydrated for a crunchy after lunch snack. 

Getting ready to dehydrate; these things get about a quarter of their "hydrated" size.  I forgot to take a pic after dehydrating...

I love the okra; have you ever tried dehydrated (not fried!) okra?  I suggest you try it soon if not.  I had another mix of green and red tea I brewed to accompany my lunch as well.  I do have a box of Annie's Homegrown Chocolate Bunny Grahams, but I've been uncontrollable after opening the box, so I left it untouched today.  But tomorrow, those bunnies are toast; well, more of a sweet cracker, really.

Kinda Snack - Just another mug of green tea mixed with a peppermint herbal tea was my afternoon snack.  I've mentioned before, on my first WIAW post, that I eat most of my food when at home and comfortable.  So, it's not unusual for the low amount of food until dinner.

Dinner and Snacks - This part of the day lasts about 3 hours as I tend to eat slow and try to enjoy/appreciate my food.  I started with a big salad mixed with watercress, arugula, steamed veggies, left over qunioa pilaf, and salsa with balsamic for dressing.

Forgot the picture, so I used this as a reference salad pic; looks good to me!

After the salad, I had two different cups of pureed squash, carrots, a little frozen fruit, protein powder, NuNaturals Stevia, and unsweetened almond milk in the freezer.  After finishing the second cup, I refilled with frozen chopped carrots and apples, roasted pistachios, cinnamon, NuNaturals Liquid Stevia, Chobani Plain Non-fat Greek yogurt, and unsweetened almond milk.  I always have a few homemade baked goods to pair with these cups, and today was no different.

Sugar-free PB Thumbprint cookies....apples added to hide background which didn't work too well...

I meant for the cracks to be there.....

I sampled a few NuNaturals products that the company was so generous to provide (review and giveaway contest to come soon) and am very pleased with the results.  The baked goods for today were Peanut Butter Oatmeal Thumbprint cookies and a very, very dense Pumpkin Banana Protein Bread.  I'll post these recipes soon, but if you just can't wait, e-mail me and I'll send them to you.

I wasn't lying when I said this bread is Dense...with a capital "D"

Ahhhh, another tasty day has come to an end; but don't fret, there's always tomorrow for more good food! We received the punching bag yesterday, and expect the stand to hang the bag to arrive today.  I can't wait to try it out!

Is there any fun fitness equipment that you currently or want to own?  I say get it; whatever you enjoy doing, you're more apt to stay consistent, and exercise should be a high priority for good health.