Breakfast You Make While You Sleep

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. If you skip breakfast, you ruin your entire day. That's why my healthy, homemade breakfasts are a must for me and I wake up extra early to make them. But when I really have no time, overnight oats are my go-to breakfast on mornings when I'm in a rush. You just dunk the ingredients in a mason jar and place these in the ref and in the morning, you have a healthy, delicious meal waiting for you with minimal or no time to prepare.

This is practically one of the easiest breakfasts to make and there's no culinary skill required. I just need a mason jar, some basic kitchen equipment, and ingredients. I prefer using a wide-mouthed mason jar for this but a regular mason jar works as fine. Just be sure there's a cover.

For your basic ingredient formula you need:

1. Rolled oats. Not the instant one and not the steel-cut (that one you use for regular, slow-cooking oatmeal). Use old fashioned rolled oats. Have these with you because these are very versatile.
2. Milk - I use almond milk or soy milk for my milk but if you're not lactose intolerant like I am, then go ahead and use dairy milk. My ratio of rolled oats to milk is 1 part oats to 1 part and some more milk (like 1/3 cup oats to 1/3 cup plus a little less than 1/4 cup milk) , and you will see why.
3. Chia seeds - you can purchase chia seeds at a health food store like Healthy Options, S&R, or The Superfood Grocer. Chia seeds when soaked have this gelatinous coating that give the oats a nice, thick, creamy texture. That is why my ratio of milk is 1 part and then some more, so our chia has enough room to expand. I do this trial and error. If I see my oats look too thick and crowded, I just add a splash or two of liquid and give it a good stir and I'm good to go
4. Yogurt - Yogurt has all these yummy probiotics that are good for you. They also contribute to the creamy consistency. Use coconut yogurt if you're vegan. The best yogurt though to use for me is low fat Greek yogurt because of the protein content (for muscle!). There are also some recipes that use coconut milk or coconut cream instead of Greek Yogurt or a combination of both.

That's your base. Then you add in sweeteners, spices, toppings, or whatever. Sometimes, fruit is added already during the prep time. For the toppings, I usually place them before I eat them, especially nuts, so they stay crunchy. If I have time, I take photos and upload in Instagram.

Look online and there are so many recipes of overnight oats to choose from. Even restaurants and health food stores have their own versions

Being b🎃sic never tasted so good🤤Falling🍂 hard for these overnight PUMPKIN oats🙌🏼😍 Practically sprung out of bed this AM I was so excited for breakfast🙈Happy hump day everyone🐪💕 Ingredients📝@siggisdairy yogurt, 1/2 cup rolled oats, 1/2 cup almond milk, 1/4 cup pumpkin puree ✨1 banana, 1 tbsp chia seeds, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp vanilla extract + Toppings: walnuts, pecans, chocolate chips (I used @enjoylife chocolate chips and walnuts👌🏻) ✖️ #riseandgrind #eatbetter #beyourbest #nutritionbyRD

A post shared by Rebecca Ditkoff, MPH, RD (@thenourishednut) on Oct 4, 2017 at 3:11am PDT

This is your friendly reminder to prep your breakfast. This Pumpkin Pie Overnight Oats Smoothie Bowl from @miss_whisk is thick and creamy and can be enjoyed hot or cold. It's packed with plant-based protein, and is a nutritious way to start and fuel your day! https://www.instagram.com/miss_whisk/ #recipeoftheday #glutenfree #breakfast #brunch #foodstagram #igfood #oatmeal #overnightoats #vegan #whatveganseat #health #healthyliving #smoothie #pumpkin

A post shared by Bob's Red Mill (@bobsredmill) on Oct 4, 2017 at 6:08pm PDT

New from The Sunny Side Cafe: Ube Overnight Oats! It's a light, healthy treat with the flavors of the islands. Good morning! #thesunnysidecafe #sunnysidecafe #thesunnysidegroup #filipinofoodmovement #trylocalph #yummyph #pepperph #boracay #boracayrestaurants #boracayeats

A post shared by The Sunny Side Cafe Boracay (@thesunnysideboracay) on Jun 24, 2017 at 6:04pm PDT

I have here in this post a few overnight oats recipes for you to try so you literally wake up to a yummy, effortless, and healthy breakfast every single day.

Banana Bread Oats

You can make your overnight oats as a snack.
If you want nuts, place them in a separate container.

This is like a warm hug to wake you up in the morning. Great for pre-workout energy food

You will need:

• Banana
• a sprinkle of cinnamon
• a sprinkle of nutmeg
• 1 tbsp chia seeds
• Almond milk/soy milk
• maple syrup
• sea salt
• vanilla
• rolled oats
• yogurt.

Procedure:

• Place the banana in a blender and blend with soymilk until you get a smooth consistency. Allow the froth to settle a bit.
• In a mason jar, dunk the oats, chia, a sprinkle of nutmeg, cinnamon, and a pinch of sea salt. Mix all the dry ingredients together.
• Dunk a big dollop of yogurt, a splash of vanilla, and drizzle with maple syrup. 
• Add your banana milk. remember the ratio (1 part oats to 1 part and some more milk).
• Mix the whole thing up. Close the mason jar and place this in the fridge. Go to bed.
• In the morning, get your mason jar and give the contents a good stir. If it's a bit too thick, splash some almond milk until you reach a desired consistency. 
• Top with some more sliced banana and pecans and cinnamon if you wish and eat with tea.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Oats

Chocolate. Peanut Butter. No explanation needed.

You will need:

• Rolled Oats
• Vanilla Yogurt
• 1 tbsp Chia seeds
• Almond milk/soy milk
• vanilla
• 1 tbsp peanut butter
• maple syrup or coconut sugar
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder

Procedure:

• Mix the milk, peanut butter, syrup/sugar, and cocoa powder until you get a chocolate milk like consistency
• In a mason jar, combine well the oats and chia seeds.
• Pour in the chocolate milk and give it a good stir. sprinkle a bit of seasalt and add a splash of vanilla. Mix Well. Cover your jar and store in fridge. Go to bed and dream pleasant dreams.
• Eat as is in the morning or top with desired toppings. I like using banana, nuts (cashews and walnuts), cacao nibs, flax, maca powder, and shredded coconut. 
• Optional: before eating, I take out the contents out of the mason jar and pulse it on the food processor for like 20 seconds until I get a porridge like consistency, like champorado.

Good Morning, Sunshine

This one I added a bit of turmeric powder. Don't get scared. The flavor of turmeric blends well with cinnamon. It also has a lot of nutritional benefits and gives your breakfast a sunny yellow color.

You will need:

• Rolled Oats
• 1 tbsp chia seeds
• Soy/Almond Milk
• Cinnamon
• Turmeric
• Vanilla
• Maple Syrup or coconut sugar
• Yogurt
• Dried Blueberries

Procedure:

Dunk them all  in a mason jar. Since this is the third recipe, you pretty much know the drill already.
In the morning, eat with nuts, bananas, mangoes, and cacao nibs. Add a dollop of coconut cream and a sprinkle of more coconut sugar for sweetness.


Ube Overnight Oats

Love local and lilac with this sweet treat

If you purchased a jar of ube jam from your recent Baguio trip, add a scoop of this to your oats for a pretty, lilac breakfast. If your ube is already sweet, you may skip the sweetener because that and the fruit is gonna make this breakfast so sweet. Since ube is like the new salted caramel or salted egg, I thought if I made ube waffles and ube pancakes, why not make ube overnight oats as well?

You will need:

• Rolled oats
• 1 tbsp chia seeds
• Soy/Almond/Cashew milk
• A scoop of ube jam
• Coconut milk/Coconut cream

Procedure:

Place oats and chia in a mason jar and combine well. Add some coconut cream or coconut milk. Coconut cream makes it so much thicker and richer but milk will do fine. Add your ube jam and top with milk. Stir so the ube jam is well distributed onto the mixture. Alternatively, you can blend the ube and the milk in the blender for a more homogenous consistency of ube milk. Stir well and place in the fridge overnight. Top with fruits of the season. #Lovelocal with bananas, mangoes, cashews, and coconut flakes. For added sweetness, sprinkle with coconut sugar.

Have healthy, happy mornings with your overnight oats! Never skip breakfast and stay healthy!

Vegan Flourless Black Sesame Pancakes Recipe

Here's a pancake recipe that's healthy and yummy. I made this vegan and flourless so it's also super healthy and clean. One recipe makes one serving so just double it up if you want to serve more people. This pancake is much softer though than regular pancakes so be careful in flipping them!

Black sesame seeds can be found in a Japanese grocery store. Aside from this, you can also use this to make salads or other Japanese-inspired meals. I buy my flax already pre-ground (it says flax meal on the package) at health food stores.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup oat flour (measure 1/2 cup rolled oats, place them in a blender, and process until finely ground)
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• pinch salt
• a packet of stevia to taste
• 1/3 cup soy milk (or any type of nut milk) + 1/2 tbsp. apple cider vinegar, left to sit for 5 minutes
• 1 tbsp flax meal + 3 tbsp water left to stand for 15 minutes until sticky like an egg
• 1/4 tsp. vanilla
• 1/2 tbsp. toasted black sesame seeds, ground with a mortar and pestle

Procedure:

• Whisk together oat flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and stevia.
• Combine milk, flax + water mixture and vanilla. add this gradually to the dry ingredients until just combined
• Stir in the ground sesame seeds. Let stand for 5 minutes.
• Heat the pan. To make sure the pan is at the right temperature, sprinkle a few drops of water. They should bounce and sizzle. Spray pan with cooking spray.
• Place 1/4 c of pancake batter on the pan and cook until the edges are bubbly and the pancake is easy to flip. Cook the other half until brown, but not burnt. Remove from pan and repeat for the remaining 3 pancakes.
• Drizzle the pancake with nut butter. Top with desired fruit/nuts. I used strawberries and pumpkin seeds in mine. Serve with maple syrup. 

Enjoy breakfast!

Smoothie Bowl Recipes

Smoothie bowls are like yummy inspirations in the morning. They're super fun to make, pretty to look at and take photos of, and they're full of things that are good for you. If you find consuming a bowl of fruit too hardcore, give all those fruits a new look by turning them to a smoothie bowl, and add a few nutritious ingredients too for more texture and crunch.

Basically, a smoothie bowl is a bowl of a really thick smoothie topped with delicious ingredients (fruit, nuts, seeds, etc). The smoothie in this bowl is very thick, almost like melted or soft ice cream or soft sherbet, with a more scoopable consistency than your regular smoothie. They're perfect not just for breakfast but for snack on a hot day, and with us living in a tropical country and having an abundance of fruits, take advantage of this awesomeness because I have here three smoothie bowl recipes you would surely love. As you get more creative, you can create your own combos and flavors, depending on what you feel like and the fruits that are in season. This is even so much cheaper than eating the ones in health food stores! DIY is the way to go.

For my smoothie base, I start with mostly frozen fruit. I freeze bananas ahead of time (they're usually the main ingredient having that nice, creamy texture and natural sweetness). I prefer the regular lakatan bananas since they're much sweeter and less starchier. I buy frozen berries, especially if they're not in season. I also like doing my smoothie bowls in a chilled, frosty bowl so chill your bowl for around 30 minutes, I usually stick my bowl in the freezer as I do my workout before breakfast and while preparing food. That will get my bowl nice and cold so the smoothie stays cold longer. Also, work with less fluid (usually soy milk, fruit juice, or coconut water), half (or a bit less) than what you would use for regular smoothie.

So let's make these smoothie bowls:

Chocolate Peanut Butter Sweetness

Smoothie:
Frozen bananas
1 tbsp peanut butter
1 tsp cacao powder
1 tbsp coconut sugar
soymilk (you can substitute with any other nut milk like hazelnut, cashew, or almond)
1 scoop of vanilla protein powder (optional)

Toppings:
sliced bananas
sliced strawberries
coconut flakes
chia seeds
granola
chopped chocolate (I used 70% dark chocolate)

Blend the ingredients for the smoothie until scoopable consistency. Pour in a chilled bowl and decorate with your toppings.

Tropical Gorgeousness

Smoothie:
Frozen bananas
Frozen mangoes
Passionfruit
Frozen peaches
1 tbsp coconut sugar
soymilk

Toppings:
mangoes
nectarines
strawberry
granola
toasted coconut
chia seeds
a few mint leaves for color contrast and garnish

Blend smoothie ingredients and place in a chilled bowl. Decorate with toppings and serve!

Strawberry Sweet

Smoothie:
Frozen bananas
Frozen mangoes
Frozen strawberries
A packet of stevia or 1 tsp coconut sugar
Soymilk or coconut water (soymilk just makes it creamier)

Toppings:
strawberries
mangoes
chopped dark chocolate
chia seeds

Blend smoothie ingredients and place in a chilled bowl. Decorate with toppings and serve!

I personally prefer starting off with the chocolate smoothie bowl. It's so gorgeous and sweet it's hard to believe it's breakfast when it tastes like dessert, Then you can graduate to the more fruity bowls with a bit more tart and sweet taste, Then eventually, you can work on green smoothie bowls, getting more veggies in the system.

Show me your smoothie bowl by tagging me in your photos @bambikitty. Let me know your favorites!

Happy Oatmeal Recipes

Remember how we were forced to eat oatmeal as a child? How was the experience? How we managed to finish our breakfast back then, or how we cheated our way to finish breakfast was always a mystery. But if you're one of those children who weren't fans of oatmeal, I get you.

The thing is, there is reason why our parents or grandparents or maybe our yaya made us eat oatmeal in the morning as opposed to the colorful cereal we would rather have (with super cold milk please!). It's actually good for us. It's got fiber for our digestive system, B vitamins and minerals, protein for all you bodybuilders out there who want to repair and build lean muscle, and most of all, carbs for energy. Oatmeal also keeps you satiated longer so you don't go looking for a candy bar or a bag of popcorn before lunchtime.

Some people think of oatmeal as "sad" food, being a beige bowl of mush so I got you covered with recipes that make oatmeal happy. I like making my food pretty and Instagram-worthy. Pretty food is happy food! Also, I chose things that make oatmeal pretty to also be very healthy and nutritious, so eating healthy doesn't always have to be such a chore. Eat a rainbow of happy, healthy colors as they say.

Whole Grain Rolled Oats are very versatile as you can cook them to other things besides oatmeal. 

Personally, I prefer whole rolled oats because they're quite versatile since I can make them into oatmeal, pancakes, granola, mug cakes, and even blend them into smoothies (more on that later). They also cook fast, only 5 minutes. If you have no access to a stovetop or a microwave,  say you're in the office or a dorm, go ahead and use instant oats (I also have a recipe for that). However, as much as you can, try to use old fashioned whole rolled oats.

Awesome Bowl

I have no real name for this so I just called it awesome because of all the awesome toppings it has. It's got banana and strawberries for good carbs, and superfood such as chia seeds and goji berries. Strawberries and goji berries are high in vitamin C and antioxidants you need to combat diseases. Chia seeds have omega-3 acids which help fight heart disease and keep your skin and nails healthy. It's also good for mental health, I don't know if I can call it a beauty bowl, a happy bowl, a good morning bowl, or what not so I just called it awesome bowl.

How to make your awesome bowl: Cook your regular oatmeal (by regular, I mean Old-Fashioned Rolled Oats.). Top with sliced bananas, sliced strawberried, goji berries, and chia seeds in a pretty fashion so it's all so perfect for Instagram. Drizzle with some honey and serve.

Tropical Vacation Bowl

The tropical vacation bowl takes you to your favorite tropical destination with the tropical fruits I chose as toppings. I chose a rainbow of  bright, contrasting colors to inspire you in the morning. Each fruit is available all-year round here in our tropical country. The color of the dragonfruit doesn't matter. I just like the magenta color because it looks so pretty contrasting with the green kiwi and yellow mangoes. This is best in the summer where mangoes are super cheap and super sweet.

How to make your tropical vacation bowl: Cook your regular oatmeal and top with sliced kiwi, sliced mangoes, and sliced dragonfruit. Be creative on how you arrange this. Sprinkle some chia seeds for more omega-3 goodness. You can top this with Greek yogurt if you wish. For this recipe, I used coconut sugar as a sweetener and also added toasted coconut flakes for more crunch and texture. 

Chunky Monkey 

The chunky monkey is created for all you people who want something faster than the 5 minutes to cook your oatmeal. It takes its inspiration from a soda fountain dessert. It's got chocolate (and who doesn't love chocolate?) and bananas and I healthified it by adding a dollop of Greek yogurt and chia seeds,  I made this for someone who really wants to ease into oatmeal for breakfast slowly if an all-fruit and superfood topping intimidates you at first. It's a beginner-friendly oatmeal that's a hit to children. It tastes somewhat like the ice cream treat, with the yogurt adding just the right balance to the sweetness and the walnuts adding more crunch and texture.

Quaker Oats also has flavored instant oatmeal for those with no access to a stove or for those who want something fast. 

How to make your chunky monkey: Use chocolate-flavored instant oatmeal and prepare according to package directions. Top with a dollop of greek yogurt and arrange with slices of banana and sprinkle cinnamon for some warmth and chia seeds. Add some walnuts and you got some crunch too. No need to sweeten as the chocolate oatmeal is sweet enough as it is. 

These pretty recipes totally make my day. They're easy, they're fast, and they're delicious. My favorite has to be the awesome bowl because it's super filling and it keeps my energy up and running throughout the day. Try making these recipes yourself and tag me in Instagram @bambikitty when you do. It makes my morning so nice to see everyone eating a very healthy and happy breakfast. See? Oatmeal doesn't have to be sad.

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