Admittedly, I was a bit late on the overnight oats craze. I couldn’t wrap my brain around eating cold oatmeal so I just figured it wasn’t for me. But I stand corrected and now admit I couldn’t have been more wrong. Overnight oats is one of the best discoveries of this last year for me. They are quite tasty…dare I say even tastier than traditional hot oats, and you can make them in less than 3 minutes. The best part? In the morning you can grab a spoon, open up the refrigerator door and you’re good to go.
You can’t get easier than these oats for a healthy breakfast. The chia seeds provide omega-3 fatty acids along with fiber and both chia seeds and oats are prebiotics that can help feed your good gut bacteria. Emerging research is showing the important connection between your gut microbiome and your health as well as weight management. Healthy gut, healthy life.
My go to overnight oats recipe was peanut butter and banana but we’ve gotten a whole lot of citrus lately so I made up this twist using oranges and my favorite spice, cardamom. As most overnight oat recipes, this is as easy as it gets. The cardamom provides a hint of floral undertone that works so well with citrus. If you’ve never tried overnight oats, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the flavor and you’ll be very excited at how crazy simple it is!
- ½ cup raw oats
- ½ cup almond milk (can use any type of milk)
- 1 tablespoon chia seeds
- ¼th teaspoon cardamom
- 1 teaspoon of honey
- ½ orange, segmented (can also use tangerines)
- In a wide mouth mason jar, add the oats, almond milk, chia seeds, honey and cardamom. Stir well, put on lid and store in refrigerator over night.
- When ready to eat add orange segments to the top. Enjoy!
Photo: by Laura Cowan
Meri Raffetto is the founder of Real Living Nutrition, triplet mom and author of the Glycemic Index Diet for Dummies and coauthor of the Glycemic Index Cookbook for Dummies, and Mediterranean Diet Cookbook for Dummies.
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