Overnight Oats - new favourite breakfast

As the weather starts getting a bit warmer, I'm less keen to have porridge for breakfast.  I'm not terribly good in the mornings although I know I'm much better when I do have breakfast, so I've spent most of the winter trying to eat porridge or have a protein shake which my very tolerant husband made for me, while I'm drying my hair.

My ideal scenario is always to have my breakfast while I'm actually at work, after I've woken up a bit, but unfortunately my new job doesn't have great kitchen facilities, so I either need to eat before I leave the house or have something I can take with me and eat at my desk.  Hence the winter of multitasking.  Recently I've started experimenting with overnight oats, this is my favourite recipe so far.

It's really easy to make, tastes delicious and keeps me going until lunchtime without any problems.  It also comes in at under 250 calories.  Obviously (with the overnight bit) I get to make it the night before and conserve my time in the morning for getting out of the door without falling over/sleeping.

Banana and Peanut Butter Oats

1/3 cup rolled oats

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp vanilla (I use vanilla paste)

1 tsp chia seeds

1 tsp peanut butter

1/2 banana finely chopped

1/3 cup unsweetened almond milk.

Then you just ditch everything into a watertight container (I use small tupperware people on pinterest tend to use Mason Jars because they photograph better and, you know, Mason Jars and Pinterest.  In real life I'm happier with bad photos and no broken glass in my handbag), shake and pop in the fridge.

I should probably add, that as much as we liked it, I did make it for my parents in law at the weekend and they were not particularly enamoured with it.  They both looked particularly relieved when we offered them an alternative breakfast instead.

Weekend Breakfasts

I'm a big fan of weekend breakfasts, usually because I tend to only eat two meals at the weekend.  I keep thinking that I would like to open a breakfast club, but I have no idea how I would make it work. This week's offering was a breakfast quesada, with some gorgeous freshly ground coffee which a friend brought me back from her recent travels in Columbia.

The breakfast quesada was super simple to make and would be excellent for children, should you have them. 

I took two mini wraps, spread a thin layer of peanut butter on one,  placed some thin slices of banana on top of this, quartered some strawberries and added these to the banana and then scattered a few chocolate chips over the top (these were left out on the very tolerant husband's version because of his chocolate allergy)

Once topped with the other mini wrap, the quesada was lightly toasted on both sides by dry frying. This is just enough to start cooking the strawberries and bananas and make them really juicy and gorgeous. 

Breakfast of champions

As usual, the very tolerant husband and I have been doing dry January.  But without the irritating insisting people sponsor us part and just not drinking.

Obvious upsides of dry January are always getting more done at the weekend, better sleep and more enthusiasm (from me) when it comes to cooking first thing.   I've been  trying out a new breakfast this month. It's taken a couple of goes to perfect it, but I think I'm nearly there. 

The first time I tried this I did individual hashes in ramikins but they were too deep to get the whites of the eggs cooked while retaining the runny yolk. If you want to make it veggie just leave out the bacon.

Baked eggs with sweet potato hash
1x sweet potato, peeled and diced
1x onion diced
2x rashers of bacon sliced
2x eggs
Butter
Salt
Pepper
Paprika
Pinch of sugar
Coconut oil

Peel and dice the sweet potato, toss with coconut oil and half a teaspoon of paprika.  Preheat the oven to 180C. Cook for 20-30 minutes or until soft and golden.

Caramelise the onion and bacon in the butter, with the sugar and a pinch of salt and pepper.

Mix the potatoes with the onion and bacon mix and set to one side.  I normally do this the night before.

Preheat the oven to 220C. Place the potatoes/onion/bacon mix in a cast iron frying pan. Make a small dip in the middle and crack in the eggs. Put in the oven and cook for 10 minutes or until the eggs are baked to your liking.  Serve with strong coffee.