overnight oats

Oatmeal is probably the breakfast food that I have made the most for my kids. Hailey went at least two years straight, if not more, where she ate oatmeal every single day for breakfast. Smart girl….oatmeal is healthy!!

  • It contains vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, and are a source of protein and complex carbohydrates.
  • Oats contain a specific type of fiber called beta-glucan, which helps reduce cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart disease.
  • The soluble fiber in oats helps stabilize blood sugar levels and keep you feeling full.

It’s still a favorite around here and I’ve found plenty of ways to mix it up and keep it fresh.

If you follow me on Facebook, you may have seen the oatmeal-stuffed baked apple that I made yesterday. This was amazing and I had it again today!!

Directions

Use a sharp paring knife to cut out the core and some of the apple to make a nice big “well”. In a bowl, combine 1/2 cup oats, 1/3 milk (or non-dairy milk), 1 egg white, 1 T. ground flax, 1 tsp. pure maple syrup, and 1/2 tsp. cinnamon. Fill the apple and top with chopped walnuts or pecans. Bake at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes.

Alternatively, you can stuff this into a halves of a hollowed out orange (with a little extra maple syrup and some dried cranberries) for more of an Orange Spice flavor!

Orange Spice Oatmeal

 

Something that my kids have been loving lately is Oatmeal Parfaits. While the oats are cooking on the  stove top, I get get the fruit and yogurt ready.  Then, simply layer oatmeal, yogurt, and berries a few times. We like to stir a little honey into our Greek yogurt or just drizzle it on top.

yogurt oatmeal parfait

 

If you are in more of a time crunch in the mornings, I highly recommend this recipe for Crockpot Overnight Steel Cut Oats. I have made these a couple of times and everyone loves it!!! My crockpot tends too run a little hot so I just set it on the “Warm” setting and cook it that way overnight. I also skip the butter and brown sugar and it’s still great.

If you want other ways to eat oats, check out some of these other recipes I have posted:

Baked Oat Recipes (can be made and then eaten all week long)

Zucchini Bread Baked Oatmeal

Zucchini Bread Baked Oatmeal

 

baked bananas foster oatmeal

Bananas Foster Baked Oatmeal

 

Overnight Oat Recipes (eaten cold or warmed up a bit in the morning)

pumpkin overnight oats

Pumpkin Overnight Oats in a Jar

 

Overnight Pumpkin Oats with cranberries and walnuts

More Pumpkin Overnight Oats

 

overnight chia oats with raspberry banana

Overnight Chia Oats with Fruit

 

 

Happy Wednesday!!!

For any new visitors to Healthy Plate Happy Family, this is the one day during the week where I show you a picture of everything that I ate during the day in hopes of showing you how to put “healthy eating” all together.

I have procrastinated putting this post together because of my colossal dinner FAIL.  But I guess you will see that I am living real-life here, with chaos and changes in plans and crabby little ones, and sometimes you just have to roll with it!

First up, for breakfast, I took advantage of a nearly empty Almond Butter jar and made a pumpkin version of Overnight Oats in a Jar.  Now, Overnight Oats can be made in any container you’d like. I just happen to like taking advantage of the little bit of almond butter that is left to blend in with the other ingredients.

Overnight Oats are a super convenient grab-and-go breakfast.  The night before, you simply blend up 1 part oats to 2 parts liquid (usually milk or water) and leave them to combine and thicken up overnight.  The flavor combinations and toppings are endless here!

pumpkin overnight oats

Today, I went with pumpkin because I had a can of it open.  Into the jar (last night) I mixed together:

  • 1/3 cup old fashioned oats
  • 1/3 cup water ( because we were out of almond milk which is what I would normally use)
  • 1 T chia seeds (ground flax seed would work too)
  • 1/3 cup pumpkin puree
  • 1 T. maple syrup
  • 1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice (just cinnamon would be fine too)

Store this in the refrigerator overnight.  This morning, I topped it with some raisins and chopped pecans.  YUM!

 

I had a snack mid-morning of carrots, gluten-free rice crackers, and this Avocado and White Bean Dip.  It is really tasty – like a combination of hummus and guacamole.  And it is usually a little more green, but I made this a couple of days ago.  Perhaps the blinding brightness of the carrots will make up for it!

crackers and avo bean dip

 

After a marathon grocery shopping trip, I came home and made lunch.  Today it was a massaged kale salad, one of my favorite salads.  This salad took me some time to warm up to.  In the beginning, I would make a smaller portion and could eat it as long as it was paired up with a sandwich or soup.  Now, I’ve grown to really like it and it can be my whole lunch.  I love this because of the powerhouse of nutrition – Vitamins A, K, C, calcium, fiber and loads of antioxidants in the kale, plus a little healthy fats from the avocado and olive oil to help absorb the nutrients.  And I haven’t even gotten to the add-ins!

Start with a huge bowl of washed kale (stems removed, leaves torn into bite-size pieces).

big bowl of kale

Make the dressing with a small wedge of avocado (a little less than 1/4 of an avocado), juice from a wedge of lime, 1 tsp. olive oil, a pinch of kosher salt, and a sprinkle of cayenne pepper.  Did you get all of those precise measurements?!?!?!?

avo and lime

Mash them up until it sort of looks like guacamole.

avocado dressing

Dump the avocado mixture into the bowl of kale, and with CLEAN hands, massage the dressing right into the kale leaves.  This will tenderize the leaves making them much easier to eat and more palatable.

salad with dressing

Then your huge bowl of kale will be reduced to a more reasonable looking portion like this.

massaged kale

Taste and adjust seasonings.  I usually like to add an extra squeeze of lime to give it more of a tangy flavor.  At this point, you can cover the salad and let it sit for a little while.  But I don’t recommend refrigerating it for a long period of time, or it will get pretty soggy, at least for my tastes.

Top with lightly toasted nuts (today was almonds), carrots, and cucumbers.  A lot of times, I’ll add diced apples or dried cranberries in as well for a little sweet contrast.

massaged kale salad

 

So I realized this afternoon that Darren and Hailey were going to be gone for the rescheduled Daddy Daughter Dance, so I would be having a little dinner date at home with Jake.  But then he wasn’t feeling well and just wanted to play Monopoly and snuggle on the couch.  Next thing I know, he was hungry for food RIGHT NOW, and I was scrambling to pull some dinner together.  I could tell he wasn’t feeling well because he didn’t really want any of his usual favorites.  He wanted grapefruit, then a homemade popsicle (pureed watermelon and strawberry), and then asked for a treat or a smoothie.  At this point, I was starving too and I also felt like Jake needed a little more substance.  So I decided to scrap my plans for a Greek salad and falafel, and make the treat/smoothie/dinner all into one dish!!!

Behold, the Chocolate Covered Cherry Smoothie!

chocolate covered cherry smoothie

Believe it or not, this thing was so filling that it turned out to be my dinner!  Maybe dinner wasn’t a fail afterall?????

Chocolate Covered Cherry Smoothie

  • a little less than half of an avocado (1/4 to 1/2 of an avocado would work)
  • 1 1/2 cups unsweetened almond milk
  • 2 T raw cacao powder (or cocoa powder would work)
  • 1 huge handful of spinach
  • 1 whole banana, frozen in chunks
  • 1 1/2 cups frozen sweet cherries (this is also awesome with strawberries!!)

Mix all ingredients in a blender until super smooth and creamy.  Add more almond milk to thin or ice cubes to thicken, as necessary.  This made 2 decent size portions.  You could scale back to 1 cup of cherries/strawberries, 1 T. cacoa, and 1 cup of almond milk for an individual portion.

So there you have it for this Wednesday!

 

 

 

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