This week I’ve returned to eating overnight oats as I’ve committed to a month of 7:30 AM yoga (gulp) which means a speedy breakfast is needed.
While eggs are brilliant when you have the luxury of a little more time, overnight oatmeal is great ‘fast food’. Carried to work or eaten as soon as you roll out of bed it needs very little attention aside from a few minutes preparation before bed.
The combinations for overnight oats are endless – once you have the basic oats, milk and yoghurt base you can add anything you like. This recipe marries natural partners banana and peanut butter – as well as being very tasty, the peanut butter will give your oats a bit of sticking power; there’s nothing worse than eating breakfast and feeling hungry and hour later.
In one 2012 study published in the British Journal Nutrition, women who ate a breakfast of oats with peanut butter reported fewer cravings, less hunger and better appetite control than those eating plain oats.
The best way to know if this works for you is to try it – from my own experiments I’ve found eggs, nut butters or protein rich smoothies are the best breakfast choices for keeping hunger at bay
Ingredients
(makes 2 servings, can be kept in the fridge for a couple of days)
- 1 mashed ripe banana
- Generous tablespoon natural peanut or almond butter
- 1 cup / 100g of steel cut oats
- 1.5 cups / 375ml milk of your choice (I used almond milk with vanilla)
- 1 tablespoon chia seeds
- 1 tablespoon flaxseed
- Sliced banana / blueberries to top
N.B. chia and flaxseeds add texture and fibre, but other nuts and seeds can be used instead – just reduce the liquid by 1/2 cup if not using chia.
How to
- Mash the banana on a large plate using a fork until you have a pulp – the riper the better as it will be easier to mash and sweeter, which means no need for sugar. Add the nut butter and mix together with a fork until you have a smooth paste.
- Measure the oats and seeds into a large bowl. Pour over the milk and nut butter and stir all the ingredients together – at this point it will look as though there is too much liquid, but the chia and flaxseed will absorb the excess. Transfer to a jar with a screw top or cover the bowl and place in the fridge overnight. Empty jam jars are great as they can be popped into a bag for work and reused daily.
- In the morning give the oats a good stir and pour into a breakfast bowl. Top with sliced banana, a slick of nut butter and enjoy.
Tilt Nutrition 