Peanut Butter Overnight Oats

I love overnight oats. It’s a quick meal that you can throw together the day before and have something delicious and hearty to wake up to in the morning with no work. This recipe uses peanut butter, which gives it an extra dose of protein to help keep you full until lunchtime. Feel free to use whatever kind of nut butter you like.

Here’s what you’ll need: 

• 1 Tablespoon peanut butter (or other nut butter)
• 1 ½ teaspoons honey (or sweetener of choice)
• ⅛ teaspoon salt (optional)
• ¼ teaspoon vanilla (also optional)
• ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
• 3 Tablespoons quick oats
• 3 Tablespoons old fashioned oats or other rolled cereal
• ⅓ - ⅔ cups milk (any kind of milk will work) 

You might have noticed there seems to be a theme to this recipe. Basically, it’s really flexible. I’m going to show you what I used, but feel free to adjust it to your liking. First up, put the peanut butter, cinnamon, salt, and honey into a container with a lid. As I said before, feel free to use any kind of nut butter you like. I used crunchy peanut butter to add a little bit of well… crunch. You can also use agave or stevia for the sweetener, if you prefer it. I just love peanut butter and honey together, though.

Last goes the vanilla. I’ve said it’s optional, but I highly recommend it.

Stir that all together. I always use natural peanut butter which is much runnier than conventional. If you’re using one that’s thicker, you might need to microwave it for a few seconds to make it easier to stir everything together.

For the cereal, I like to use a combination of quick oats and this 5 grain rolled hot cereal. For me, it creates the perfect texture.

Whatever kind of rolled cereal you choose to use, add a total of 6 Tablespoons of it.

Stir until it’s nicely coated with the peanut butter mixture.  

Next up is the milk. I’m lactose intolerant, so my favorites are either Organic Valley, lactose free skim milk, or rice milk. If you like one of the other countless milks, any of them will work just fine. As for the amount, if you like your cereal drier go with the lesser amount and if you like it wetter, go with more. I like mine on the wet side so I added a little over ½ cup. Whatever you choose, pour it over the cereal mixture.

Stir that together.

To give you a frame of reference, I had about ½ inch of milk over the top of the oats. Put the lid on and place the container in the fridge overnight.

In the morning, it will still be in layers a bit. Don’t panic.

Just give it a quick stir, and it will be fabulous! Seriously, you’ll be surprised how delicious something that simple can be. And if you don’t typically like hot cereal or oatmeal, you should give this a try. It’s a whole different experience.

What’s your favorite weekday breakfast?

Perfectly Peeled and Pared Pineapple

Well, I bought another pineapple, and as promised, I’m going to show you how to prep it. I’ll be honest, I used to be pretty intimidated by whole pineapples. So much so, that I refused to buy pineapple that wasn’t already processed for me. I know they make tools that are supposed to make it “super simple”, but I just don’t have room for something like that. A few months back, I had some incredible pineapple on a buffet. Then, I came across some pineapples at the store that smelled amazing, so I just decided it was time to get over my fear and dive it. Turns out, it couldn’t be easier!

To pick a good pineapple, try to find one that has a fair bit of yellow on it, but even more importantly, smell the bottom of it. If it’s ripe, it will have a wonderful pineapple aroma. Lay your pineapple on its side and cut off the top.

Turn it around and cut off the bottom.

Now you have a flat surface for it to stand on.

You should be able to see a line of eyes around the edge. Place your knife behind one of those and slice all the way down.

If there are still eyes or seeds, make another thin cut in the exact same place until it looks like this.

Now place the knife behind the next row of eyes and slice all the way down again.

Repeat until you’ve gone all the way around the pineapple.

Now, cut vertically, straight through the middle of the core.

Two perfect halves.

Now take each piece and cut it in half.

Nothing too difficult yet, huh?

Place your knife just above the core and cut at a 45° angle to the board.

Don’t throw the core away though. Pineapple Sweet Tea is to die for!

I like to just cut each quarter in half lengthwise and then slice pieces that are something like ½ inch thick.

I have discovered that fresh pineapple is fabulous with vanilla yogurt. Seriously, if you haven’t tried it, do. The yogurt really mellows the acidity and the whole things just becomes sweet, fruity, creamy deliciousness. For yogurt, I prefer smaller pieces, so I cut each piece into the quarters and then slice.

So there you have it. It literally takes about 5 minutes and you have pineapple for snacking, for yogurt, and a core for making pineapple water, or even better, Pineapple Sweet Tea. As a bonus, I’ve been finding pineapples consistently for around $3, which makes it way cheaper than the already processed stuff.

What kind of produce are you intimidated by?