Frozen Overnight Oats!

Yesterday I had an almost empty jar of almond butter hanging out in my fridge.
In Steph land that equates to one thing. Filling it with something and enjoying the last few scrapes of nut butter to its full potential.

In the past this could have been warm oats, cold oats, torn up muffins, layered parfaits and the good ol' overnight oat saviour.

The brekky that comes to the rescue when one has limited time to even think about breakfast, let alone create something. Pour, mix, lid and leave the night before and voila! Next morning; a delicious, nutritious and filling breakfast awaits!

 Choc Overnight Oats

 PB & J Oats

 Rich, Dark Choc OIAJ

So when I wanted to use up my almost empty jar of almond butter, I decided overnight oats were the way to go. However I kind of wanted to shake things up a little. So I chucked them in the freezer for the night rather than the mainstream fridge idea :P.

The next morning, I had a frozen, sweet, delicious treat to devour and savour, especially good after a run/ workout when oats give you the energy and recovery you need and the frozen-ness gives you the cooling off factor!

So, without further a do- THE RECIPE!

Frozen Vanilla Protein Overnight Oats:

Ingredients:
Optional- 1 almost empty jar of nut butter (just place in any jar/ bowl if you don't have one like this)
1/4-1/2 cup oats (depending on size of jar- fill jar to half)
1 scoop vanilla protein powder
1/2 banana, mashed
1/2 cup-1 cup almond milk (again, fill until reaching top of jar)

Method:
1. Find jar:

2. Mash banana:

3. Add oats, protein powder and banana to jar:

4. Fill to brim with almond milk and stir:

5.Place lid on top and pop in freezer overnight:

6. Freeze rest of banana to make frozen cherry fro-yo (or whatever type of fro-yo if you so desire!)

1/2 a frozen banana + handful of frozen cherries + 3 big spoons of greek yoghurt- whazzed until smooth:

7. Remove frozen oats from freezer at least 30 minutes prior to eating (I had to heat slightly in a small amount of simmering water in a saucepan) just to soften it a touch.

8. Then I would recommend getting a butter knife and separating it all up into frozen chunks to enable easier eating:

9. And enjoy you're froze breakfast!

I can't profess enough how tasty this breakfast was- and the fact that it was frozen forced me to slow my eating down a little and enjoy the flavours even more (as breakfast follows an 8 hour+ time frame of not eating, I get a little ravenous when eating brekky!!)

So good!

The oats give it a fudgey texture and mouth feel and the banana gives it that slight ice cream taste!
Full of healthy, nutritious ingredients, yet tasting like a truly decadent dessert- my favourite kind of breakfast :D.

Frozen cherry yoghurt- always a winner!

Combine the two and you have quite the combo!

Happy, happy days :)

Until ofcourse, you don't chunk up your frozen oats enough and end up breaking your spoon...

 Well, I'll know for next time! And yes, there will definitely be a next time! I can't wait to try out all the different flavour combos!!

Your turn:
What's your favourite thing to put in an almost empty jar of nut butter?
Favourite overnight oat recipe?
Ever freeze your breakfasts?

I hope you all have a wonderful, wonderful day, eat something utterly delicious and SMILE! Bye for now friendly friends!!:D

If there's a jar lying around...

Hi there friends! Having a good day? Hopefully you are, if not stay tuned for a weird breakfast of mine! Nothing new there though!

I woke up on this particular morning pretty hungry. I also had an almost empty jar of cacao hazelnut butter and a craving for overnight oats. Except I had not prepared some oats to soak overnight. So I placed some oats in a cup, spooned on a lot of greek yoghurt and some oat milk and let sit for a grand total of 30 minutes:

Ta-da!!
So what did I fill my almost empty jar with??

Any guesses??

Banana ice cream! Because everyone knows bananas and chocolate and ice cream and chocolate are best buddies- and I just rolled all three into one! You can literally fill a jar with anything and it will be awesome (when I say anything, you know I'm lying. Do not, I repeat do not put melted cheese, cinnamon and licorice in an almost empty jar) I usually rotate between oats, ice cream, overnight oats and... nope that's it. I should try some new jar fillers.

Pretty purple and yellow spoons to nom with. (Purple and yellow make a pretty good combo actually!)

Yeh, so the oats weren't as creamy or 'cooked like texture' as regualr overnight oats, but they were still pretty good!!

Ice cream and chocolate hazelnut butter:

With some cheesecake-y flavoured oats- that's like seven desserts in one!

Now, if you don't have a jar lying around, bowls work fine too:

Smoothie bowls for the win!
This particular smoothie was 1 frozen banana + 1 handful red grapes + 3 big scoops greek yoghurt + 1 handful of kale + 1 handful of spinach + sprinkle of chia seeds+ 1/2 cup almond milk- whazzed up until smooth.

Topped off with some almond butter granola:

Deee-lish!

Oh breakfast, how I love you so!

Yes, I may have over-filled this particular smoothie bowl and yes I may have spilled it a little bit.... but it was awesome, so I don't care!

We are not even going to talk about today's breakfast.

Ok, we are, because I need to vent. Or simply tell someone ;)

See I headed out for my run at around 6:10am thinking 'that's plenty of time before school!' then I realised I now run for like an hour and a half (see, I don't track my time I just come home when I'm tired) so I raced in the door, saw that I only had 20 minutes before we had to leave for school, jumped around trying to make lunch, and shower and stretch and gulp water and wash my hair and get in my uniform... so breakfast was some very quickly prepared oats with peanut butter that I scoffed down in 5 minutes! I hate eating rushed meals!! I was super hungry too!! Must plan that better... maybe overnight oats. Yep definitely overnight oats!

How about you?
What do you typically fill your almost empty jars with?
Do you like/ have you ever tried banana ice cream?
Ever have simply no time for breakfast? What do you eat when you're short on time?

Have a fabulous day friends! Bye! :D

When I want oats... but not hot.

Yesterday morning I woke up (clap on the back Steph) jumped out of bed, checked the time.... and realised that it was only 5:30am.

Of course, any sane person would rug back up in the warmth of their bed and shut their eyes for another blissful hour or so and sometimes I would do just that.

But I was WIDE awake! Like buzzing with energy and there was no way my body was lying back down into the stillness of sleep.

So, naturally, I didn't. Instead I decided to burn off some energy on the treadmill (it was a lovely cold and rainy day yesterday... so I wasn't keen on running outside).

30 minutes later with legs like jelly after a little speed run, I could feel the stomach rumbling! I knew what I wanted; oats. I knew what I didn't want; something hot. I knew what I didn't do last night; prepare cold overnight oats. I knew that wasn't going to stop me.

Ingredients at the ready!

Into a bowl I mashed 3/4 of a banana (ate the other 1/4 because I was hungry)

I then added in a teaspoon of cinnamon and a heaped tablespoon of raw cacao powder:

Next into the bowl of goodies went three big spoons of greek yoghurt and a sprinkling of chia seeds:

Mix-y mix:

This here, my friends, is the ultimate 2-minute whip together chocolate mousse. Take a minute here and taste-test. Actually, maybe don't... one taste test may not be enough!

Seriously though, this mousse is the perfect texture, sweetness and it's chocolate so...
Ok, back to the oats!
Add em' in! (around 2 big handfuls)

Along with 1/4 cup almond milk (or any milk) and stir to combine:

Either leave to thicken in the bowl or tranfer to an almost empty jar of nut butter :)

This was my home-made cashew butter. It was a bit crumbling and because the oats are cold they wouldn't melt the nut butter, so instead I simply added it straight into the mix for even distribution:

Pop into jar:

And leave to sit in the fridge/ freezer (I chose freezer because I wanted mine extra chilly).

 Around 30 minutes later and your oats should be fairly thick and delicious (overnight is definitely preferable ;)

 Chocolate mousse-y goodness

 So I guess you could say these are over-30-min oats instead of over-night. Ahh well, they were tasty perfect fuel for the day!

Nom.

Your turn:
Do you ever wake up full of life way too early in the morning so just decide to get up?
Do you ever make overnight oats in the morning?
Favourite add-ins for overnight oats?

That's all from me this terrific Tuesday. Have yourself a wonderful day, acknowledge all the amazing things that happen (no matter how small) and as always, eat something delicious! Bye for now friends!!