Overnight Oats, Breakfast Of Champions

During my backpacking journey around Europe, I had a lot of good food. You have to try some local cuisine of course and that’s not always very healthy (think pizza in Italy or bradwurst in Austria). That included breakfast, because although fresh croissants and kaiser rolls are amazing, it’s not what I normally eat for breakfast.

I’m all for clean eating and using fresh and healthy ingredients. So now that I’m back home it’s time to start my clean eating regime again. Starting with breakfast. I used to be a very bad breakfast eater. Or non-eater. I skipped breakfast for years, then started on a liquid breakfast, something I could just quickly guzzle down before heading to lectures, but I could never eat bread. I just couldn’t get it down. It’s safe to say breakfast wasn’t my favourite meal of the  day. Yet it’s the most important.

Overnight Oats

On my search for clean eating recipes and ideas I came across oats. Oats are very healthy, they have no additives, are nutritious and keep you feeling full for a good while so no need for early snacking on unhealthy things! Perfect!

At first I tried to make hot oatmeal in them morning, with water not milk, fruit, berries and some cinnamon. Although I liked it and could actually eat away a whole plate in the morning it wasn’t the best breakfast ever. That’s when I discovered overnight oats. It’s safe to say I now love oats, and look forward to breakfast! Seriously, I’m excited about eating my breakfast now, after years of skipping it and eating (or rather drinking) processed stuff just to get some breakfast in.

So I thought I’d share my overnight oats recipe with all of you, and it’s really easy. This is something you prepare the night before, hence the name overnight oats.

Ingredients (for 1 person)

• 90 grams steel cut oats
• 120 ml water
• 120 ml milk (can be replaced with almond or soy milk, I use soy)
• fruit or berries for topping (as much as you like)

Put the oats in a bowl, make sure the bowl is big enough to also hold the water, milk and your topping of choice. Add the water and the milk. Make sure it’s evenly spread over the oats, if not whirl it around a bit. Cover the bowl of oats with something (I use an upside down plate) and put the oats in the refrigerator for the night.

I love raspberries and brambles in my oats but since they’re not in season right now I used some I still had in my freezer. So because I want them to be defrosted properly in the morning. I take what I need out of the freezer, put them in a strainer with a little bowl underneath for the liquid that comes off it and also put them in the refrigerator overnight.

In the morning take everything out of the refrigerator. The oats look a little dry now, but get out a spoon and stir it around a bit. You’ll see that it becomes really nice and moist.

Now it’s time to add the topping of your choice. Just put it on top and you’re done! I usually stir my topping through it so I have some fruit and berries with every bite.

So there you have it, an easy breakfast recipe for overnight oats. Hooray for healthy and clean eating. You can vary with the toppings as much as you want, the options are endless! Enjoy.

What is your favourite breakfast?