Overnight Oats

Some folks just don’t like eating oats. I’ve been told it’s boring.

Well …. YOU are boring. 

Oats are so boring you can actually make it very interesting. 

Growing up, mum used to dump an egg, milk and honey in my oats, cook it to a custardy yumminess and serve it to a delighted me. Don’t go eeww … custard IS made with eggs.

Just last week, a visiting good friend was talking about overnight oats. That triggered a childhood craving for oats …. but with a new and modern, healthy twist … no cooking and raw.

You know, it saves a ton of time in the morning. Just prepare it the night before and it’ll be nice and ready when you’re rushing for time the next morning. 

It’s yummy and keeps you energised til lunch …. sometimes I still don’t feel hungry at lunchtime and just have a light snack. How good is that? And that’s even after a tough 2-hour tennis game. Of coz that also depends on how much of the oats you consume.

This is my portion …

(I use a 200 ml jam jar)

3 - 4 heaped tbs rolled oats

1 tsp chia seeds (this makes it gooey. I love gooey oats …. oats are meant to be gooey. You can omit this if you don’t want it gooey. It’ll be a little coarser. I’m not a horse. I don’t like coarse and gritty down my throat)

1 tsp honey

1 good pinch of cinnamon

milk (filled to about 3 quarters of the jar)

Stir everything together and then add the fruits. You can also add the fruits just before eating.

diced peaches

blueberries

Put the lid on and leave in the refrigerator overnight. 

Yeah … overnight …. why do you think it’s called OVERNIGHT oats?

Tons of options:

Almond / soy milk

Yogurt (dilute a little)

Nuts

Other spices

Chocolate chips / syrup

Cocoa powder

Coffee

Raisins

Bananas

Your fav fruit

Whatevers ……

DO NOT be boring

Jaffa Cake Muffins

Orange and chocolate.

One of the best partnership ever created. 

Marsha hates fake orange flavours. So do I. Well, any fake flavour is horrible anyway. 

Marsha made these. Marsha tempted me. Marsha, this is all your fault for ending my no desserts and no sugar diet.

I shall start that stupid diet again after I’ve finished this lot. Maybe I’ll give them away …. but I’ve already eaten two. One more won’t hurt …. maybe I’ll keep 3 and give away the rest. Maybe I’ll keep them all …. just maybe.

My whole place smells so refreshing, so citrusy, so who needs a room freshener anyway.

The recipe is so simple. 

Blitz everything together, stir and bake. 

I’m at a phase where I’m totally not in the mood for creaming butter and sugar. I wanna blitz things together. Stir. And bake. 

You may call me lazy. Go ahead. Lay-zee….

We deserve to be that every now and then. Pamper yourself. Put your feet up. Enjoy some ME time.  Find an easy recipe, quick and simple, not a ton of utensils and bowls to wash after. Have a muffin (or two, or three, oh come on, you know you wanna) with a nice cuppa. (Not necessarily in that order).

I’ve made an orange pudding quite similar to this in that you blitz the whole orange and everything else and just dump it in the oven. That was awesome too!

This muffin turned out light and moist, unlike the usual denser muffin texture. I guess if you’d just put it in cake molds, you can call it a cake. (Marsha said that too).

Meet Marsha Thompson @ The Harried Cook. 

Nah … she’s not that harried. She likes being harried. She’s happily harried. 

INGREDIENTS

1 whole orange (unpeeled, quartered and seeded)

1/2 cup fresh orange juice

1/2 cup butter, softened 

1 egg

1 3/4 cup plain flour

1/2 cup caster sugar

1 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

pinch of salt

3 oz mini dark chocolate chips

METHOD

Preheat oven to 180ºC. 

Grease a 12 cup muffin tray or use liners or muffin cups. (I just pressed a square of baking paper into each hole...maybe that's why it looks so weird. See partial pic at bottom of page)

In a blender or a food processor, purée the quartered orange and juice until smooth. (Mine wasn’t very smooth but it worked out well. Next time I’ll try it a little chunkier for some citrusy bite).

Add the butter and egg and buzz until combined. Transfer mixture into a mixing bowl.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Fold this into the purée until completely combined.

Stir in chocolate chips.

Spoon batter into muffin cups.

Bake for about 18-20 mins (I baked a little longer, about 25 - 30 mins).

Remove from the oven. Cool in tin for awhile before removing and serving.

* I discarded the liners once out of the oven (they get soggy while cooling) and left the muffins on a rack to cool.