An easy breakfast for one that’s filled with heart-healthy oats and topped with pecans, salt and maple syrup.
Here’s a question for you: what do these three people have in common?
- Chelsea has a fancy-pants job in the city that requires her to leave the house at the crack of dawn to arrive at the office in time for her first meeting. Then she’ll have about five hundred other meetings throughout the day.
- Larry lives in a subtropical town where it’s hot and humid 24/7. He has an oven, but last time he turned it on the kitchen became so hot that he though it was the Second Coming.
- Stephanie is, to be frank, a slacker. She’s going to look for a job one day, but until then will continue to play video games in her parents’ basement. The idea of having to get out numerous pots and pans to make breakfast (or any other meal) fills her with horror.
Okay, think about that one for a second.
What do Chelsea, Larry and Stephanie all have in common? They all should love eating overnight oats for breakfast.
If there’s one c-word that all types of people love to hear, it’s ‘convenience’. (Well, that and ‘comfort’).
Regardless of whether you’re a busy-bee, are experiencing a heat wave, or just don’t feeling like putting much effort into cooking*, there’s nothing like a breakfast that basically makes itself.
*No judgment from me – you may have much better things to do!
As you probably know if you’ve looked at this blog before, I love overnight oats. Mostly because they’re creamy and delicious. But the convenience factor doesn’t hurt either.
This recipe is even simpler than most of my overnight oats recipes. Why? No chopping fruit, no mashing bananas, no grating apples or finding pumpkin puree. As long as you have some rolled oats, yogurt, milk and maple syrup, you’re basically there.
For a more intense maple flavor, I added a little maple extract. But if you can’t find maple extract, don’t worry about it. And if you want to leave out the blackstrap molasses and chia seeds, that’s fine too. If recipes had attitudes, this would be one chilled out person.
There’s only one thing I’m going to be picky about: please, please, please use real maple syrup. Even a bowl of oats as relaxed as this one couldn’t handle being covered in fake syrup.
So, for the sake of deliciousness (and pronounceable ingredients), let’s all just stay away from pretend maple syrup.
(By the way, none of the people mentioned at the beginning of this post are real).
- Overnight oats
- ⅓ cup rolled oats
- ⅓ cup Greek-style yogurt
- ⅓ cup milk
- 1 teaspoon chia seeds
- ½ teaspoon maple extract
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon blackstrap molasses
- 1 - 2 teaspoons maple syrup (optional)
Toppings- Chopped pecans
- Maple syrup
- Pinch of coarse salt
- In a bowl or container, mix together the rolled oats, yogurt, milk, chia seeds, maple extract, vanilla extract, blackstrap molasses and maple syrup (if using).
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap (or put the lid on the container) and leave in the fridge overnight.
- In the morning, stir in a little extra milk if the overnight oats are too thick.
- Top the overnight oats with chopped pecans, plenty of maple syrup and a pinch of coarse salt.
Any thick yogurt should work in this recipe (it doesn't need to be authentic Greek yogurt). Plain, vanilla and maple flavored yogurts are idea.
Substitutions
Blackstrap molasses: If you don't have any molasses, either add 1 teaspoon brown sugar or simply leave them out.
Maple extract: Leave out the extract, and don't omit the optional 1 - 2 teaspoons maple syrup.
Recipe inspired by The Oatmeal Artist
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