We all make excuses as to why we don’t eat breakfast: not enough time, not enough cooking materials for a healthy breakfast, no access to a stove, and so on. Making your breakfast ahead of time can be a real life saver, especially when you’re struggling through a brain fog of four back to back classes and no food in your stomach. One of the easiest, quickest, and most versatile breakfast ideas that has been becoming extremely popular for the on-the-go person is a jar of delicious overnight oats. Taking less than 10 minutes, you can prepare a healthy breakfast the night before and have it ready to take along with you for class the next day. Check out a few of these great recipes for overnight oats. Feel free to alter these recipes to your liking.
The basic recipe:
1/2 cup of old fashioned oats
1/2 cup of milk (soy, almond, skim, whole, whatever type you desire)
1 container: a thermos, a mason jar, a storage container, anything with a lid. Reuse an old peanut butter jar, it would be the perfect size. Or go to your local Michaels or grocery store and pick up a set of glass jars. I got a set of 12 for 7 dollars at Walmart (pictured above).
***Keep the oats to mik ratio to 1:1. That means, if you want 2 cups of oats, up your milk to 2 cups
The mix-ins:
Strawberry Banana:
1 container strawberry banana flavored yogurt (aim for a Greek style yogurt to boost your protein!)
½ of a banana
¼ cup of sliced strawberries
Chunky Monkey:
1 container banana or vanilla flavored yogurt (again, go for Greek styled!)
1 tablespoon of nut butter
½ of a banana
Handful of dark chocolate chips
Pumpkin Pie
½ cup of pumpkin puree
1 tsp of vanilla
1 tsp of cinnamon
½ tsp of nutmeg
Maple syrup and brown sugar to tastse
Banana Nut
½ of a banana
1 tsp cinnamon
Handful of almonds
½ tsp of vanilla extract
Maple syrup to taste
Mixed Berry
¼ cup of sliced strawberries
½ cup of mixed blueberries and raspberries
2 tbsp of natural strawberry jam
Apple pie
1 container vanilla yogurt (again, aim for the Greek!)
I small apple, chopped
½ tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp cinnamon
1 ½ tsp honey
1 tablespoon maple syrup
Handful of chopped nuts, optional
Stick the jars in the fridge overnight and they will be good for the morning!