Eat your oats

We don’t need to write much about how eating oats is considered healthy. We started adding them to our morning routine for that reason.

We tried various kinds and disqualified the instant ones due to added sugars and additives and the taste factor in general. They were a chore to eat. Going through a week eating oats every day in the morning started to feel cumbersome. That’s no fun! Then we came across a recipe by Raymond Blanc of the oats or porridge served at Le Manoir aux quat Saissons. We liked the idea of bringing in seasonal fruits, nuts etc in a single morning meal, which an be different everyday. We started liking this routine. The oats are hearty and fill you up and keep you energetic through the morning well into lunch.

Diversification

Our approach to oats is like mutual funds. We add little bit of many things other than the routine ingredients. This way we get a good coverage of nutrients and if we are wrong about an ingredient or two, they are still in moderation. But we also don’t make the oats a whole week routine, we make it only during work days, so eating them does not get boring.

Routine Fixtures

Some ingredients stay the same for us. Organic Rolled Oats is what we use. (In India organic rolled oats can be found from sources like these) We soak them overnight in some organic whole milk grass fed yogurt and a splash of fresh unsweetened almond milk (this is the only fresh nut milk we get near us that does not come with added preservatives and sugars). We add enough of the yogurt and almond milk for the oats to swim in them. By morning the oats soak up the liquids. We also add a squeeze of fresh lime overnight. We also add spoon of crushed flax seeds. The other kind of fixed portion is in the morning we take the oats and add a grate-able fruit to it – usually an apple, sometimes a pear if its in season.

The Guest Stars

• We add a whole bunch of chopped nuts, seeds and dried fruits based on what is available. Some we soak overnight, some we add in the morning. If we are adding nuts we toast the nuts slightly in a 350 F oven for 10 minutes.
• The other guest stars are nut powders.
• Followed by nut butters
• Followed by seasonal fresh fruit
• Followed by occasional treats like very low sugar content dark chocolate, a drizzle of honey

Nut, seeds, dried fruit Options

Walnuts

Almonds

Brazil Nuts

Pistachios

Amaranth (Soaked Overnight)

Chia (Can also be soaked overnight)

Raisins (Can also be soaked overnight)

Cherries (Can also be soaked overnight)

Goji Berries (Can also be soaked overnight, for adding last minute try putting them in a freezer and they provide a delicious crunch)

Hazelnuts

Macademia nuts

Pecans

Dried figs – chopped

Dried Apricots – chopped

Dates

Cashews

Pumpkin Seeds

Sunflower seeds

Coconut Shavings

Nut powders and butters

Pistachio, Almond, Cashew, Pecan Powders

Tahini, Almond, Peanut, Pistachio, Cashew,  sunflower Nut Butters

Fresh Fruits

Figs, Oranges, Peaches, Apricots, Nectarines, Grapes, Guava, Mango, Pineapple, Bananas – essentially whatever seems right, in season and at home

The Overnight Oats in the morning

As mentioned we start with the ingredients soaked overnight. They generally soak up all the liquids. So we grate the apple or pear in and loosen the mix up with a splash of more yogurt or nut milk. Here depending on the mood and availability we could swirl in some flavored yogurt on hand in the fridge. We follow it up by topping with chopped nuts, swirl of nut butter or a sprinkle of nut powder and some fresh fruit. Below are some exaples of the morning bowl of overnight oats.

This one got a swirl of blueberry yogurt we had on hand. It had chopped apricots, walnuts, almonds, hazlenuts and a swirl of almond butter.

This one had a swirl of tahini, almonds, walnuts, macademia nuts, raisins, fresh banana and pistachio powder

This one had chopped dark chocolate, brazil nuts, walnuts, almonds and fresh orange

And many more. Doing it this way gives us something to look forward to, overnight oats are not boring and infact it also gives us a creative kick-start to the brain everyday.

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