Popular Porridges
Tag Archives: overnight
Matcha Yogurt Overnight Zoats
In my never-ending quest to acquire a taste for matcha, I came up with this recipe. By pairing the green powder with some sweet and creamy nondairy yogurt, I managed to replicate the qualities of a matcha tea latte.
My other goal with this recipe was to make a larger portion size. Yes, friends, I have heard you: my overnight recipes tend to be small portions. While I stuck with the 1/4 cup oats (which is one serving when using quick cook steel-cut oats, as I did), I bulked up the recipe using both yogurt and zucchini. In the past, I have never used a full serving of yogurt in an overnight recipe, but this time I did. This gave better flavor and creaminess with the matcha powder, eliminated the need to add additional liquid, and created a more filling portion of overnight oats.
You’re welcome! (more…)
Apricot Pineapple Overnight Oatmeal
Happy Friday! Here’s my final recipe for this random pineapple series. ? Pineapple is shockingly versatile, pleasantly sweet, and wonderfully flavorful, but I’m all pineappled out for a while.
Next obsession, please!
Once again, I used the Kite Hill yogurt (I made this at the same time as I made the Blueberry Pineapple Overnight Oatmeal, to be honest). Unlike the blueberry version, I added a pinch of cinnamon to this recipe, and it worked surprisingly well with the yogurt. I think almond milk yogurt (especially this brand) is a little less tangy than you would generally think of yogurt, so the cinnamon works with it and not against it.
(more…)
Oatmeal Enthusiasts: Meet Kelsey!
Does Kelsey really need an introduction? ? You may know her from her two guest posts, Cookies N Cream Overnight Oatmeal and Spiced Parsnip Oatmeal, or perhaps from her frequent appearances in the “This Week in Oatmeal” series. I have collaborated with her so often that I just assumed I had already featured her as an Oatmeal Enthusiast–turns out I hadn’t! Thus, it is my great pleasure to pass the keyboard to Kelsey and let her tell her story.
Hi there!
My name is Kelsey, but you might know me as @fortheloveof_pb on Instagram. I’m beyond thrilled to be your Oatmeal Enthusiast for February!
At 23, I’ve finally gotten to the point in my life where I’ve made health and fitness a priority. I exercise daily (swimming with a masters’ group, Blogilates videos, and hot yoga are current favorites), and I eat an incredibly “clean” diet: vegan, unprocessed foods with minimal added sugar and oil.
It wasn’t always that way. My favorite food used to be boxed mac and cheese, and for the first two years of college my fridge was regularly filled with frozen mozzarella sticks, cookie dough, and chocolate frosting. And you know I wasn’t baking those cookies.
Right after I turned 21, I contracted an H. Pylori infection, but I wouldn’t know that for almost four months. It was like, overnight, my digestive system just turned on me. I was battling constant heartburn and nausea that kept me up every night. It took four months to figure out what was wrong, but even after the infection was eradicated, I spent another year dealing with the lingering symptoms from this infection.
I realized, in order to combat these lingering symptoms, I needed to overhaul my diet.
Over a couple months, I cut out most processed foods and started eating more fiber. One of the first swaps I made was eating oatmeal for breakfast in place of frozen waffles. I can’t tell you how many bowls of strawberry and peanut butter oatmeal I ate my senior year of college because it was about the only thing that never made me feel ill.
This past May, I decided I was tired of taking medication to manage my symptoms. I had heard stories about people with digestive issues that were cleared up by a vegan diet, so I decided to try it. And it worked. I no longer take any medication and have been symptom-free since July.
Throughout my recovery, oatmeal was a constant in my diet because it was one of my “safest” foods; no indigestion or nausea here, ever. Over time I began to expand my oatmeal repertoire and discovered Lauren’s blog. From there I got inspired. There was so much more you could do with oatmeal than just add strawberries. It was something you could put vegetables in!
And I do – every day. Oatmeal is actually where I get a lot of the veggies into my diet. I love that oatmeal offers the opportunity to “sneak” more fruits and veggies into my diet in delicious ways. Sometimes I think about how ridiculous it is that I’m having, say, chocolate carrot cake oatmeal for breakfast. It tastes like dessert, but its really just fruit, veggies, whole grains, and of course some peanut butter.
The funny thing is, even though I eat more adventurously than I ever have, I still eat oatmeal more than anything else. Although, let’s be honest, my oatmeal is often pretty adventurous too. It’s easily my favorite food, and I’m so excited that I get to share it with my family (my Dad posts about my oatmeal on Facebook every time I come home to visit), my friends, on Instagram, and with you all this week! With that in mind, I tried to line up a week of oatmeal that highlights everything I’ve ever considered to be a favorite. I hope you enjoy it and get inspired to try out a new oatmeal flavor!
Saturday: Strawberry PB Oatmeal with Parsnips
I figured I would start the week off with my first oatmeal love, strawberries and peanut butter. Back in the day I would have made this with instant oats and frozen strawberries in the microwave, but today I stepped up my game. I still made instant oats, but I added some shredded parsnips to add some volume and cooked everything on the stovetop. And, because I’m excessive, I made some PB2 to stir into the oats and then topped them with my all time favorite peanut butter from Trader Joe’s. Side note: look how beautiful those berries are! I mean, its January, how did this even happen?! (more…)
Blueberry Pineapple Overnight Oatmeal
Apparently it’s pineapple week on the blog. This occurred for no reason besides me realizing I had numerous bags of frozen fruit being ignored in my freezer. I guess that means you should expect lots of berries and pineapple in your future. ??
Sadly, I also realized that I’m not a huge fan of yogurt in my oats. Perhaps it’s because I prefer to eat my porridge warm. However, I also find the flavor of yogurt in oatmeal to be less cozy and earthy and wonderful. That being said, I know it’s popular, so I will do my best to provide recipes like this occasionally.
(more…)
Papaya Lime & Coconut Overnight Oatmeal
Well, I owe you all a huge thanks for this one. I seriously couldn’t have done it without you.
I have minimal experience with papaya. Since I love mango and pineapple, I just assumed papaya would be like that. One day back in my Newark life, my roommate and I bought a tub of pre-cut papaya. We were so stoked to bring it home and try it.
Ugh, what a disappointment. Maybe it was because it was pre-cut (and thus not “fresh”). Maybe it was because I expected it to taste like mango. Maybe it wasn’t totally ripe when it was cut. Or perhaps I just had really picky tastebuds at the time. (The last option is a definite possibility.)
But now, back to 2015, I made this:
And it was spectacular. (more…)
Peach Poppy Seed Overnight Oatmeal
I know. . . I’ve been pumping out a lot of “fancy” recipes lately. Everything involves blenders or fancy equipment or annoying cooking techniques or expensive ingredients.
But this one’s simple. Super simple.
The beauty behind a recipe like this is that you can top it with anything. Sure, I kept it basic for the photoshoot, but a humble peach + poppy seed base allows for a multitude of unique toppings. So often I resort to my banana base, but here is another base that is equally adaptive. (more…)
Watermelon Coconut Overnight Oatmeal
Watermelon + oatmeal has been an equation that I’ve been trying to solve for quite some time. I tried this Melon Berry Overnight Oatmeal last summer. Truthfully, it was okay. But it most definitely wasn’t my favorite. I’ve been dying to give watermelon another try, but I just couldn’t crack the code. How do you make a watermelon oatmeal that is 1) not too runny, and 2) sweet without being heavily sweetened?
I found two answers to this question. One: use coconut milk. Coconut milk (from the can) is so thick and creamy that it would compensate for watermelon’s . . . well, watery-ness. The other answer came from my partner-in-crime (well . . . sort of. She hasn’t agreed to this title, haha): Meghan from Oatgasm. (more…)
Coconut-Kiwi Overnight Oatmeal Parfait with Lemon Curd
Alright, so I had this super idea for an oatmeal regarding my beloved Pseudo Vegan Lemon Curd. It would have been perfect, but my uncharacteristic carelessness came back to haunt me. See, to make a solid pseudo curd, you need Greek-style yogurt. The store I was in didn’t have that, so I said, “F*** it,” and bought regular SoDelicious coconut yogurt. (more…)
Coconut Latte Overnight Oatmeal + The Best Espresso in NYC
There is a recipe in this post. I promise. To read about my year of drinking an absurd amount of espresso, read on. To skip to the recipe, scroll away, my friends.
2014 was the year of the bagel. For 2015, Allison and I set out on a different adventure: visit the best coffee shop in 30 NYC neighborhoods according to Thrillest.
(Of course, we weren’t completely pleased with their choices, as some incredible shops were noticeably absent, and there were THREE shops in Midtown . . . but we attacked the list regardless.)
Allison likes to switch up her order–ranging from iced lattes to cortados to cold brews. I stick to the same order every time: espresso. Call me hardcore, but I love the hit of a well-done espresso. I like being able to truly taste the quality of the shop’s roasting. Some espresso is too bitter and harsh and needs a bit of simple syrup (or honey because I’m “one of those vegans”–go ahead and berate me in the comments; I can handle your lambasting), while others are strong but mellow, perfectly sippable on their own.
Typical: Allison’s cortado, my espresso
My favorites? Well, I’m so glad you asked. 🙂 (more…)
Traveling? Here’s How to Make Oatmeal Anytime, Anywhere [Guest Post]
This is a follow-up to Lauren’s previous travel guide, 10 Tips for Eating Oatmeal When Traveling. Wendy, a regular reader on the blog, has some more ideas to share. You truly can have oatmeal whenever, wherever!
Hi fellow oatmeal lovers! I’m Wendy from The Nomadic Vegan, and I love to travel to new parts of the world I’ve never seen before. Contrary to what you might imagine, since I became vegan I’ve found that it’s generally quite easy to find healthy and tasty vegan food while travelling, even in countries where the traditional cuisine is not that vegan-friendly. Even so, I do like to be prepared to make a meal for myself here and there if I need to, and I’ve found that overnight oatmeal is the perfect meal to take on the road and can be made practically anywhere. Also, I just really love oats (don’t we all??), so I end up making this for breakfast most days, no matter where I’m travelling. It took a bit of experimentation to get it right, though; when I first tried overnight oats I didn’t really like them that much, at least not compared with stove-top. Through trial and error I finally got my overnight oats just about perfect, and I’d like share what I’ve learned with you so that all you oatmeal addicts can also have oats wherever you go.
First, let’s dispel a couple of myths about overnight oats.
Myth No. 1: Overnight oats must be soaked overnight.
That’s right. It turns out that “overnight oats” is a bit of a misnomer, because you don’t have to soak them overnight. You can, of course, but it’s not necessary. Three hours or so should be plenty for your oats to plump up.
Myth No. 2: Overnight oats must be soaked in a refrigerator.
While you might as well throw them in the minibar if your hotel room has one, you’re not going to get food poisoning and die if you don’t. They’ll be fine just hanging out on your bedside table, and in fact they’ll soak even more quickly at room temperature than if chilled. Note that I’m talking about vegan varieties of overnight oats here; I can’t say what might happen if you let cow’s milk sit out for too long.
OK, so this is looking promising so far as a portable, go-anywhere meal, since we don’t need a refrigerator or a cooking device of any kind. So what do we need? Basically, the necessary ingredients can be broken down into four general categories.
Ingredient No. 1: Oats!
This one’s pretty obvious. When making overnight oatmeal, my personal preference is for rolled oats rather than steel-cut. They are also more widely available, so depending on where you’re travelling they may be your only option.
Ingredient No. 2: Liquid
At home, I almost always make oats with soy milk, occasionally with coconut milk, but never with water. The idea of watery oats seemed really unappealing, but I knew that I would not always have access to plant-based milk when travelling. So what to do? The solution is powdered plant-based milk. Yep, it exists! While it’s often sold in health food stores, you can probably find soy and coconut varieties in an Asian market for much cheaper. I’ve even seen powdered coconut milk in the “ethnic food” section of my regular neighbourhood grocery store. But if you can’t get powdered milk, then, to borrow one of Lauren’s ideas, tea-steeped oats can also be really great, though I’d recommend a fruity tea or one with lots of spices. Fruit juice works too, though I try not to use it too often as it’s not a whole food. If none of those options are available to you, then yes, you can use just plain water, but in that case I highly recommend Ingredient No. 3 (if you’re using a liquid other than water, then this step is optional).
Ingredient No. 3: Flavour enhancer
No, I’m not talking about MSG or any other weird chemical that doesn’t belong in your food. I just mean something with flavour that will permeate the whole bowl of oats. One great option is PB2, which, as a side note, is a vegan traveller’s best friend. Now don’t get me wrong; I love real, whole, full-fat peanut butter, and when I’m at home that’s what I eat. Years before the invention of PB2, I even lugged around a jar of peanut butter on a 25-day trek through the Himalayas in Nepal, and I didn’t regret it for a second. Peanut butter and crackers was what got me out of bed at the crack of dawn every morning on that trip (along with the dawn itself, which was pretty incredible). But there are times when you don’t want to carry half your weight in peanut butter, and now you don’t have to. PB2 weighs next to nothing, and it can stay in your backpack for months without going bad. What do you do when you ask for a vegan meal in a restaurant all you get is a plate of tasteless, boiled vegetables? Bust out your PB2, add a little extra water to turn it into a sauce, and BOOM! Those boring vegetables just became a tasty gado-gado. No matter what unappetizing dish might appear in front of you, odds are that PB2 will give it the extra zing it needs.
But anyway, back to oatmeal. Add a tablespoon or two of PB2 to your oats, and you’ll have yummy peanut buttery goodness in every bite. Another option is applesauce, which is often sold in handy individual packets that are just small enough to make it through airport security. And of course, you could always just mash up a piece of soft fruit yourself; bananas and kiwis work well for this.
Ingredient No. 4 Bulk
When I first tried overnight oats, what put me off was that the portion looked so puny compared to a serving of stove-top oatmeal. This is understandable, since it’s generally recommended to use half the amount of liquid when soaking overnight as you would when cooking oats on the stove. Over time, though, I’ve discovered a couple of tricks that will allow you to add almost as much liquid as you would for stove-top, which really helps to bulk up your bowl of oats. The first trick is chia seeds. These little guys just love to soak up liquid and will expand to several times their original weight and size when immersed. It’s true that they’re more of a specialty product and thus might be hard to find when travelling, but this is one pantry staple that I’m happy to carry around with me. Since you’ll only be using a tablespoon or so at a time, they’ll last you a long while. And, unlike flax seeds, they don’t have to be ground up and therefore don’t go rancid easily. But if I haven’t sold you on chia seeds, you could try shredded coconut, or even coconut flour, for the same effect. Coconut in either of these forms will also soak up a lot of liquid.
And that’s it! You can now have a delicious, satisfying bowl of oats wherever you go in just a few easy steps. To see how this works in practice, let’s take Lauren’s recipe for Applesauce PB2 Overnight Oatmeal as an example. If you’re heading off on just a short trip, you can prepare your ingredients for each day’s oatmeal in advance.
In this case, I mixed the oats, PB2, chia seeds and a pinch of salt in a plastic baggy. After that, all I had left to pack was the sachet of powdered soy milk and the applesauce. You could probably even mix the powdered soy straight in with the other dry ingredients if you wanted to. Throw them all together with some water and, voilá! You’ve got oatmeal!
If you’re setting out on a longer trip, then obviously you’ll need to pick and choose which ingredients to bring with you. The great thing is, though, that oats are available just about everywhere, so you can replenish your stocks as you go. And, while you might not find all the other ingredients mentioned here, no matter where you are you should be able to find at least one from each category, which is all you need. And of course, in addition to the basics described here, you can add whatever local fresh fruit or other ingredients you come across.
So, whether you’re lounging on a beach in Costa Rica, climbing a volcano in Indonesia, or even suffering through an 81-hour bus ride across West Africa (in which case, dear Lord, do I feel your pain), you can take comfort in the knowledge that a creamy bowl of oats is right at your fingertips.
Have you ever made your own oats while travelling? What’s the most exotic locale where you’ve fuelled up on a bowl of oatmeal? I’d love to hear about your own experiences in the comments section below!
Wendy is a long-time traveller who loves to explore new places, languages and cultures. She shares her own travel stories along with tips for making vegan travel healthy, fun and easy at The Nomadic Vegan. You can also follower her on Facebook and Twitter.
