new best friend

I often ask my 5.5-year-old son, "How do you know you won't like it if you don't try it?" I had to ask myself the same thing the other night as I was getting ready for bed and a short sleep before my alarm rang at 4:45 the next morning. I like oatmeal and I like oatmeal for breakfast. Getting up at 4:45 for a 6 o'clock shift doesn't leave a lot of time for washing my hair (it's very short so I fall victim to bedhead without fail), getting dressed, cooking oatmeal, and driving to work. I also got rid of my microwave many months ago and so I needed another breakfast option for oatmeal.

I've seen overnight oats around the internet before but those overnight oat recipes involved a slow cooker. I had tried that method before a couple of times and never had any success. Then I remembered that I had seen overnight oats and breakfast cookies on Alison's blog, Mama's Weeds, and how she loves them. A quick google search turned up many recipes for uncooked overnight oats (and many amazing blogs) and I decided to take a deep breath and mix up a bowl myself.

Two words. Yum and O.

Twice now I've made them the night before a day shift. The next morning I've eaten what I had time to eat and dumped the rest into a container with a lid and taken it to work to finish off on my morning break. Yesterday afternoon, I made a bowl to take to work on the night shift. I just mixed them up and put it in the fridge while I was napping (I've found that two or three hours of soaking is just as good as a full overnight) and enjoyed them later that evening. I have a bowl going in the fridge right now for tonight's shift.

The rough recipe I've been using is:

• one rather ripe banana, mashed
• 1 blob (maybe 1tbsp?) of natural peanut butter
• 1 blob of honey (mine has solidified)
• a good dash of cinnamon
• 1 - 2tbsp of ground flax seed
• 1/2c rolled oats
• 1/4c oat bran
• approx. 2/3c milk (any kind)

I add in raisins or dried cranberries and I've also soaked wheat berries in boiling water in a thermos and added them just before I'm ready to eat. Yesterday I threw in a little bit of milled chia seeds (I would prefer non-milled but I have a bag of milled seeds to use up) and today's bowl has chia as well as hemp hearts (shelled hemp seeds).

I had been afraid it would taste like cold, soggy cereal but it doesn't. Not at all. It's tasty, filling, and good for you. Try it. You just might like it. I think I've found my new best friend. Or at least a very good breakfast date.