Never Ending Week (Overnight Oats)

Do you ever have a week where you feel like the entire week you’re playing catch up?   That’s how it has been for me this entire week.  Catching up on sleep, a sizable to do list and other things that need to be accomplished. 

I order to get everything done this week I’ve been trying to make things easier on myself by planning ahead of time for most of my meals.  When we got home from California on Sunday I made my snacks for work, an entire week’s worth so I can just grab and go in the morning.

I’ve also been making sure to have a good, filling meal for breakfast each morning.  Since my Sunflower butter container was almost empty I tried a new breakfast I read about on Kath Eats, overnight oats.  I put ½ a container of plain Chobani Greek yogurt, 1 tbsp chia seeds, 1/3 cup rolled oats (uncooked), and 1/3 cup almond milk into my sunflower butter (it is just like peanut butter) container and stirred it up before putting it in the fridge overnight.  The next morning breakfast was ready for me and I dug right on in.

Verdict:  I probably should’ve put more milk in because the consistency of mine was a little too thick for my taste.  I would also use a flavored Chobani, the only reason I did not is because the only ones I have left are lemon and pineapple and both sound disgusting with sunflower butter.  Next time I’ll probably use strawberry banana or honey.  I didn’t mind the addition of the chia seeds, they don’t really taste like much, but they contain a lot of good things for your body such as omega-3s.  I calculated the amount of calories for the version I made which was roughly 320, which is pretty close to a perfect morning serving for me.  Also, this breakfast meal is FILLING, a key for me because I eat a roughly 6:25am and don’t eat anything again until 10:30am (when I get my break at work).  I was actually full enough that I considered waiting to eat my mid-morning snack until later in the day.

I would definitely make this again, but I also found many other recipes for overnight oats that I would like to try:

• Overnight Oats with Cookie Butter
• Overnight Oats with Berries
• Coconut Cookie Dough Oatmeal (Want to try this as overnight oats)
• Overnight Oats with Berries, Granola, and Peanut Butter

Hope your week has been better than mine! I’m looking forward for a girl’s night tonight and giving the girls their gifts from Italy!

P.s. Can you tell I've been using my camera recently? The quality of the pictures isn't that great.

Pumpkin Granola

This week seems to be starting out as a 180 from last week, especially in school.  Something about knowing there is a day off from school makes students overexcited all week, so last week definitely felt hectic.  This week students are mostly unaware of our delayed opening at the end of the week so I'm not expecting any craziness until Thursday at the earliest.  Even though it is early in the week it has been a relaxing and productive week.  I've made a lot of progress on my seing project, but I'm not going to share and pictures until it is complete, which I'm hoping will be by the end of the week! Although with football this weekend and the apple festival it might be early next week before I post anything about my project.

So since I'm having a nice relaxing week I thought I'd share a recipe that is so easy and fills the room with a great aroma for you to smell as it bakes in the oven.  I found the recipe here on The Pastry Affair's blog.  I made my own adjustments to this recipe so if you want to see the original recipe  (and nicer pictures) go to the above link.

The first time I made this recipe I used the ingredients below and my mom and I finished the first batch so fast that I doubled the recipe this time around. (I apologize for the ingredients that are cut in half).

The fist time I made this I only have table syrup, not maple syrup and could not find pumpkin seeds or unsweetened coconut.  The second time I used the below recipe and it is even better than the first.

First time batch(adapted from The Pastry Affair:)
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup table syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 cups old fashioned oats
1 cup craisins
3/4 cup sliced almonds
1/2 cup sweetened coconut flakes
1/8 cup ground flaxseed

Second Batch:
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 1/2 cups old fashioned oats
1 1/4 cups craisins
1 cup sliced almonds
3/4 cup sweetened coconut flakes
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds

Preheat your oven to 350.

It is this easy, toss everything but the oats, almonds, seeds, and craisins in a bowl.  Stir until mixed then add the remaining ingredients and mix.  Line a cookie sheet (preferably with edges) with parchment paper.  Spread the granola mixture evenly in the pan.  Place in you oven for 20 min. then mix it around and place back in the oven for 20 min. As the granola cools it will crisp up.

This smells so good while it bakes, the pumpkin and spices are the perfect fall scent.  Make sure to store the granola in an airtight container.

My favorite way to enjoy this delicious granola is in a bowl with almond milk...mmm! (Although I would like to try making this recipe into granola bars)  Hopefully this batch will last longer than a week!  Enjoy!!

Summer Smoothies

I've recently become addicted to smoothies (much to everyone else in the house's disdain for the noise of the blender early in the morning).  It is a combination of the hot, humid weather here in Jersey and my daily reading of (never home)maker's blog.  This woman is incredible, 24 weeks pregnant and still staying active an healthy.  I wish I could currently run as much as she can now at 24 weeks, it is super impressive and inspiring.

Anyway, back to the main point of this post.  Last week her blog was all smoothies and what luck, I had already been making my typical smoothies and was looking for something different and filling.  So when I saw this recipe on (never home)maker's blog I knew I had to make it and boy was I happy I did.  It was DELICIOUS and FILLING.  

What is different from this than my normal summer smoothies? The addition of OATMEAL.  Why had I never thought to add that before?  It adds some great texture to the smoothie and thickens it at the same time.  This left me feeling full for much longer than my normal breakfasts and I've been adding it to most of my smoothies since then.  Also, I've never used almond milk before and I am so happy I did.  It adds just a little bit of sweetness to the smoothie and has a lot less calories than skim milk. Sweet!

I followed the recipe to the T the first time I made it and while delicious, my blender had a hard time processing it.  So the next time I changed the following measurements:

1/2 cup Greek yogurt to 1/4 cup

1/2 cup almond milk to 3/4 cup

1/2 cup rolled oats to 1/4 cup

3/4 cup frozen strawberries to 1 cup

1/2 cup ice <- I prefer measuring in cubes, I used 4 large cubes

I also made this smoothie with 1/2 cup frozen strawberries and 1/2 frozen blueberries.  While it was still delicious, I think the all strawberry smoothie tastes the best.  The longer you let a smoothie with blueberries sit, the more I feel the skins from the blueberries travel to the bottom which does not make for the most delicious ending to a smoothie.

Anyway, I highly suggest that if you like a cool, refreshing and filling breakfast that you try this smoothie!