In my current role as Home Economics teacher to kids in Middle School, the theme for 5th grade, is breakfast. We’ve been learning about healthy breakfast muffins, eggs: scrambled, and cooked for a Toasted Western. This past week, we ventured into Overnight Oats, and, Smoothies. Lots of ways to eat fruits, veg, healthy grains, proteins, and fats. For the most part, both went over well, and my willing audience of taste-testers were left with happy bellies!
In its simplest form, Overnight Oats consists of large-flake oats (the ones that take a bit longer to cook) and a milk of your choice: Almond milk, rice, coconut, or dairy. A two-to-one ratio will do the trick: two parts milk to one part oats, stirred, and left overnight in the fridge, and you’ve got yourself a healthy jar to dig into. To add some healthy fibre and fat to the dish, I like to mix mine in a bowl with chia, flax, and hemp seeds, along with this, cinnamon and maca powders – both, good energy boosters. I then pour this into a jar big enough to hold this mixture, with extra space to add some fruit and nuts the next day.
Chia seeds, when they come in contact with liquid become mucilaginous. This means a gooey coating forms around them and it’s this bit that can help take the bad cholesterol out of our body. It also means that they soak up a lot of the liquid in the recipe. When you take your jar out of the fridge in the morning, you might want to add more milk, if your mixture has become thicker than you had planned.
In the photo, you can see the ingredients I used for this particular jar of Overnight Oats:
- ¼ cup gluten free oats
- ½ cup almond milk
- 1 tsp each: chia, flax, and hemp seeds
- 1 tsp each: cinnamon, and maca powders
- 1 Tbsp MCT (coconut) oil
- 1 Tbsp tahini
- 6-8 walnuts
- ¼ cup blueberries
The first four ingredients, I mixed up the night before, and topped it off with the last four, in the morning.
As my 5th graders have learned, there are SO many combinations of healthy fruits and grains and fats, just waiting to be made into Overnight Oats. This is one of the easiest breakfast ideas out there. So easy, it practically makes itself. I hope you have fun putting yours together! So easy, a 5th grader can do it 🙂
cinnamon, maca powder, MCT oil, tahini, walnuts, and blueberries!