Experimenting with Overnight Oats

Hello Everyone! 

Even though I have given up refined sugar for the most part. I still occasionally have the craving for something sweet. When I was out of town recently, I thought I would treat myself to what looked like a healthy treat. It had nuts and seeds and just a small dollop of chocolate on top. It was completely vegan and organic, so I figured, it can't be so bad right? Well, I took a bite and it was so so sweet. Like sickeningly sweet. I know my taste buds have changed, but I am pretty sure I'm not the only person would would have thought this particular thing was just way too sugary, plus it was really oily as well, so I basically threw it away. It wasn't worth it. 

Upon returning from my trip, I decided to start playing around with Overnight oats recipes. Mainly, because they are so easy. You prep them the night before, and then in the morning you have your breakfast all ready to go. If you've never heard of "Overnight Oats", it's basically just oats with some sort of non-dairy milk sitting overnight in the fridge. The oats get soft and I've heard that many people just eat them cold. I personally like to heat mine up, but that's a personal preference. 

I found two recipes that I recently tried. The one pictured above was to curb my sweet tooth, but I did not use any refined sugars. I used coconut nectar, and vegan chocolate chips sweetened with monkfruit. The recipe I used was this one. I used organic unsweetened soy milk for the milk, and I used organic cacao powder instead of cocoa powder as it is more nutrient dense. It turned out delicious. I did heat it up in the morning, and that made the chocolate chips nice and melty. I might add a sliced banana next time. It was a perfect morning treat. 

The next recipe I tried was a blueberry muffin overnight oats recipe. It was good, but nothing spectacular, I had actually created something similar on my own without a recipe, so I wasn't too thrilled, but it still tasted good. I did sweeten it with coconut nectar again. I think I'd add a banana next time. This time I stuck to just blueberries, because I wanted to see if it tasted like a blueberry muffin. It did not, lol. I'm not sure what to add to make it taste that way. Maybe lemon zest? Anyways, I did not add the yogurt, since I am vegan and dairy free, however, there are unsweetened dairy free yogurts you can find at your local health food store if you want to add that. For all I know, that's what would have made it taste like a muffin. 

When I threw together my own version of Overnight oats, I put 1/2 cup of oats, 1 cup soy milk, unsweetened, 1 tsp ground chia seeds, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp nutmeg, and a pinch of ground ginger. In the morning when I was heating it up, I added a tiny bit of maple syrup to sweeten it and added a banana and some chopped pecans to top it off with. It was delicious! 

I won't share my last recipe, because it really wasn't great, lol! I had one failed attempt. I had some apples I had to use up, so I baked them all day in my mini crockpot with lemon juice, cinnamon and nutmeg. I think my downfall was that I used too much lemon juice. I made two jars of what I was hoping would be like apple pie overnight oats, but it was super bitter. I forced myself to eat the first jar because I didn't want to waste it, but couldn't get through the second jar and ended up throwing it away. Here's a recipe I probably should have tried in case you are interested in the idea of Apple Pie Overnight Oats. 

One thing I will say about overnight oats is that it's the first time in a long time that I've actually enjoyed eating oatmeal. There's something about the texture, it doesn't get overly cooked, and I've always hated overcooked oatmeal. It's just way better this way, and if you are also not a huge fan of oatmeal, I recommend trying overnight oats. It's a whole new experience!