diary of a foodaholic: Overnight Oatmeal

So oatmeal is my favorite breakfast to make in the morning, but with the summer heat coming the last thing I want is something HOT for breakfast. Enter overnight oats. Perfect for a girl on the go, now there's no excuses that you didn't have time to make breakfast because these are prepared the night before!!

I like to use just 1/3 cup of oats and then mix in some flax meal and chia seeds to bulk it up. If you don't have chia seeds, then double up on the flax. If you don't have flax either, then just use 1/2 cup of oats.

Overnight Oats

1/3 cup mixture of old fashioned oats and oat bran (or just all old fashioned oats)

1 tsp flax meal

1 tsp chia seeds

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup almond milk + 1/2 cup water

1/2 banana, mashed

In a bowl, combine the dry ingredients - oats, flax, chia, and cinnamon. Make sure you stir the mixture around before adding the wet ingredients to prevent clumping.
Next, slowly pour in almond milk and water combination while carefully whisking oat combination to combine.
Mash half of the banana with a fork in the same measuring cup you used for the almond milk and water. Add to your bowl of oats and thoroughly combine together. Your mixture should thicken up quite a bit from adding the mashed banana.

Pop into your fridge and forget about it until the morning!! The oats will plump up and absorb the liquids so these will essentially be "cooking" in the fridge over night.

Goodnight oatmeal! See ya tomorrow.

Next morning, assemble your toppings which could include: nut butter, jam, granola, fresh fruit, frozen fruit, chocolate chips, cereal, yogurt, maple syrup, protein powder, etc.

I chose to slice up the other half of the banana, strawberries, cherries and heat up 1 tbsp of maple almond butter in the microwave so I'd be able to swirl it on top more easily.

Ready to assemble:

Add any liquid or fluid ingredients on top of your oat base. This would be a good time to add nut butter, maple syrup, jam, yogurt, or protein powder.