Matcha, Banana, and Coconut Overnight Oatmeal [Guest Post]

Hi friends. My name is Kelsey, if we haven’t met before. I hang out on Instagram as @amindfulvegan, and today I’m here to share with you a recipe that I posted a photo of on four separate occasions before I realized that I probably needed to cool it.

I’m a little bit embarrassed to be sharing this recipe with you. It features two things that I’ve given my mother an incredible amount of grief for liking: green tea and coconut. I spent 22 holiday seasons complaining about the presence of coconut pie (and one saying “no thank you, that’s got eggs”) and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve turned my nose up at the Diet Arizona green tea in my parents’ fridge. (Seriously though, diet green tea is pretty gross.)

You know what’s also gross? Matcha tea. I had never tried it, so I made some before I wrote this recipe up and that stuff is nasty. It’s grassy and bitter, but not in a good way. My recommendations for eating matcha are the same as the ones Lauren made in a recent post. That’s what a whole banana, and the coconut water, is for–cutting the bitterness. It tones the matcha flavor down to make a pleasant, fresh tasting bowl of oats that I promise isn’t grassy in the slightest.

Then there’s coconut. Coconut is one of those things that, as a vegan, I’m supposed to think is amazing. But honestly, I don’t. I have some very strong feelings about coconut milk, and shredded coconut doesn’t get me excited. What does get me excited is coconut chips. I’m pretty sure they could convert any coconut-hater. They’re sweet and crunchy little pieces of coconut, that my mother swears, “taste exactly like white chocolate.” I disagree with her on that point, but I do really like them. There are several popular brands; like Dang and Bare Snacks, and I think they all taste about the same. They make this recipe a lot more exciting than shredded coconut would, but if you can’t track them down (sigh) feel free to use regular shredded coconut.

Now I realize that spending most of this intro telling you how I don’t really like the ingredients in it isn’t the best way to get you to try it. But, instead of looking at it like a collection of stuff I don’t like, think of how special this recipe must be to get me to eat things I normally wouldn’t. And not just eat it once; I’ve been making this a lot over the past couple months. I’m hooked and I think you will be too.