Hello to all my 92 SG followers, my SG friends, anyone on SG who stumbles upon my humble SG page and, of course, @missy & @rambo.
This week's blog homework is to describe something new that I've tried recently. Well, that was this morning.
I've not posted a blog lately that hasn't been blog homework or WCW, but I will be posting a blog about my goings on shortly. One of those things is that I've been going to the gym, working with a personal trainer, and trying to improve my eating habits so that I can lose weight, build lean muscle mass and get off some, if not all, of my medication.
I'm not a morning person. I get up, get dressed, check my glucose, take my medication, grab something from the refrigerator and pantry for breakfast (usually an Isopure protein drink OR a granola bar and yogurt cup), and the lunch I made the night before, if I'm taking lunch to work instead of buying out, and I'm out the door, usually in 30 minutes or less.
So this new thing I've tried recently? Overnight Oatmeal.
I actually saw some stuff about it on the internet a while back. I like oatmeal a lot, but kind of forgot about trying overnight oatmeal. I obviously don't leave myself time to cook oatmeal in the morning and instant oatmeal has too much processed sugar (I'm diabetic). So, since I'm going to the gym and trying to improve my eating habits and nutrition, and breakfast was the last meal I haven't gotten around to improving, I decided it was time to give overnight oatmeal a try. Yesterday, I bought a variety of ingredients to make different varieties of overnight oatmeal: old fashioned rolled oats, strawberries, bananas, blueberries, chia seeds, ground flaxseed, vanilla extract, natural peanut butter, cocoa powder, ground cinnamon, ground cloves, ground nutmeg, plain Greek yogurt, raw almonds, cream cheese and unsweetened almond milk. Already had honey and raw pecans (from my parents' pecan trees). I mixed up 8 different varieties of overnight oatmeal, though some of them were similar: Chocolate Peanut Butter, Strawberry Cheesecake, Blueberry Oats, Strawberry Chia, Blueberry Pecan, Flax Blueberry and Vanilla, Peanut Butter and Strawberries, one I call Super Fruit (bananas, strawberries and blueberries), and one other I can't remember. I wanted to make Pumpkin Spice, but I couldn't find the canned pumpkin at the grocery store I usually shop at so I'll have to look at another store. I put each variety in a separate mason jar as seen in the photo below...
Into the refrigerator they went.
This morning, I grabbed one; it was the Super Fruit, and took it to work with me only to find that we are out of spoons at work 😧! I didn't bring one because we usually have plenty of spoons. So I had lunch (a chicken salad sandwich on Dave's Killer Powerseed Bread and some trail mix) for breakfast. One of my coworkers brought me a spoon from wherever he went out to for lunch and I had my breakfast for lunch. It was soooooooo good! The oats and chia seeds soaked up much of the almond milk, and combined with the yogurt, the oatmeal was so creamy. The fruit added natural sweetness, along with the two tablespoons of honey I added.
Besides being extremely tasty and healthy, the thing I like best about overnight oatmeal is that I can make up a week's worth of breakfasts ahead of time, put them in the refrigerator, and just grab and go on my way out the door for work.
If you're interested in overnight oatmeal recipes, just search Google for overnight oats recipes. Or follow these links, from which I tried a few of the recipes and plan to try more next time:
50 Best Overnight Oats Recipes for Weight Loss
8 Classic Overnight Oats Recipes You Should Try
There are quite a few recipes from the first link that I want to try, plus I want to make a peanut butter and banana variety. But before I get to those, I'm looking forward to trying the varieties I made last night.
If you like oatmeal, you should give overnight oatmeal a try... if you haven't already. It's sooooo tasty and healthy. It's going to be my breakfast staple from now on!
Stay Tuned...
DeadGuitarist
