A few months back, if you'd given me the choice between porridge and overnight oats, then porridge would have won. I'd tried overnight oats once before and declared them inedible! I'm not a huge porridge fan either to be honest, even though I have it for breakfast most days and have a T- Shirt that says, 'Porridge, breakfast of champions!'.
But then something changed. Instagram showed me the way! I saw an idea by My Plastic Free Home. She used an empty but not yet cleaned jar of jam to make her overnight oats in. The idea being to not waste the last bits of jam in the jar. I'll admit, I decided to try this, not because I thought I might suddenly like it, but because it would make a great video and a way to showcase how to use our beeswax wraps! Always about creating content!!
I suppose I should really explain what overnight oats are. I guess its basically cold porridge. Rather than cooking your oats in water or milk just before eating it, you soak the oats in milk overnight. By the morning they are ready to eat. It sounds pretty grim, well it does to me anyway. BUT, with a bit of something extra added into the mix its pretty good. There are all kinds of recipes you could follow. The beauty to me is that you can add whatever you have available or whatever tickles your fancy. This is just what I did to convert me!
How to make Overnight Oats
Pour 3 dessert spoons of porridge oats into an almost finished jar of honey or jam. I prefer the smaller oats to jumbo oats.
Add a good handful of seeds.
Spoon in some nut butter or broken up nuts.
Add some blackberries (we had frozen ones left over from last autumn, but your preferred fruit would work just as well).
Spoon in 2 dessert spoons of yoghurt, I used a dairy free soya based yoghurt.
Top the rest of the jar with the milk of your choice.
Screw the lid back on and put it in the fridge overnight.
In the morning, give it a good stir to mix it all together and enjoy your breakfast!
I should probably add, although I am sure it is obvious, that you don't have to wait until you have almost finished a jar of jam, honey or nut butter before you do this! A clean jar would work just as well. I just love the idea of getting every last morsel of food out of every jar!
Yoghurt isn't necessary either, it just gives it a thickier, creamier feel to it. If you added raspberries and whisky, you could almost be having Scottish cranachan for breakfast!
Here are a few more hints to make your overnight oats as waste free and eco friendly as possible.
Top Tips
Buy organic oats from your local refill shop. Organic farming is much kinder to the environment and by buying them from a refill shop you can forego the need for any packaging waste. Either take a tupperware box or one of our organic cotton produce bags.
Refill shops are also great for buying loose seeds and nuts. You can make one of our beeswax wraps into a pouch and bring them home in a reusable wax wrap rather than a paper bag.
If you can, forage for blackberries in the late summer and autumn. They freeze really well and can be added to the jar when frozen. Or take out enough for a few days and keep them in a bowl covered with a beeswax wrap. Or if you are lucky enough to have a garden, have a go at growing your own organic fruit.
Befriend someone with an apple tree! Offer to take some of their windfalls, stew them and freeze them in small portions to take out when you need them.
There are more and more milk refill stations popping up everywhere. Our local refill shop does oat milk refills and there are two dairy milk refill huts close by. So you can use your last plastic milk bottle to fill up over and over again.
If you have any other top tips for overnight oats or porridge please do share them in the comments. Anything to make my breakfasts better is always appreciated! If you have never tried this before, and now have a go, please let me know what you think!