Creamy overnight oats (no-cook) for busy people who still want morning deliciousness

Anyone who is ambivalent towards oatmeal will go from apathetic to all-out passionate, and best yet, this is doable on a daily basis and is as fast and easy as pouring milk over store bought cereal. I was tempted to call this “Bircher muesli for people with lives” but actually I kind of envy people who have enough time to spend an hour making breakfast regularly. Anyway, the point to this “recipe” is that you don’t need to have five different fresh fruits to make a really freakishly delicious (and healthy, potentially) bircher-style breakfast this spring/summer. I mean, go ahead and make it with five fruits in the weekend or if you’re a home-maker or just damn lucky (PS. not suggesting those are mutually exclusive). However, for most of us who just want to avoid eating cardboard-wrapped cardboard for breakfast but have five minutes to prep breakfast, this I promise will make you skip to work (unless you have a leg injury, in which case…sorry). Actually I prefer this over the bircher muesli with grated apple and a whole bunch of other pretty malarkey (well, my citrus version anyway, see below). It’s slightly cooler than room temp, making it truly amazing for spring/summer, and the lack of cooking ensures this doesn’t go gloopy and slimy, just thick and creamy.

Ok, so it helps that I used a dollop of home made citrus curd (more on that later). However even without the curd, this is mightily delicious, and all you need is: rolled oats, real juice, and real yogurt. I added extra yogurt on top and citrus curd with prunes, but you can jazz it up or not with whatever you have around. The key thing is using your favourite real juice (ie not from concentrate) and a mild (ie not too sour) yogurt, preferably of the pot-set variety – my vote goes to Clearwater for this, but if you’re in Nelson, Wangapeka do a lovely version too. Otherwise this stops being creamy and starts being puckery. If you want to make this vegan, I’d use less juice (and a strong sweet/sour juice) and use almond milk – please don’t use soy, it will taste gross. Promise. Apple-juice wise I can’t go past Ashley River Organics at my local market. They also sell their own actual apples – always a good sign! This would be great for a vegan version as the juice is very intense, making up for the lack of acidity in the almond milk.

Aside from being swoonily wonderful first thing in the morning, this has some serious health points, especially if you use citrus juice apparently, or apple. Meh, it’s a bonus but this is mainly just yummy! The citrus version below is my favourite oats-based breakfast alongside Becs’ Posh Porridge!

PS. I actually ate this outside in the morning (fine…11:40-something AM, but I had a very late night/morning!), hence the placement on our footpath. *Does a spring dance*

Creamy overnight oats (general flexible guide)

• rolled oats (quick-cook if you want a really creamy version, old fashioned if you prefer) – about 1/2c per person (doesn’t sound like much but this is very filling)
• enough of your favourite not-from-concentrate juice to ensure the oats are swimming but not don’t stray too far. Opt for less rather than more, as you can always add more juice the next day
• some mild plain yogurt
• optional: anything else you can be bothered throwing in – I halved prunes, you could use chopped dried apricots or whatever other dried fruit. If you can be bothered, some flaked almonds for crunch won’t go amiss, but are not super necessary.

Pour juice over oats and dried fruit. Cover and let sit on the counter overnight. The next morning, stir through enough yogurt to make it even creamier/to your desired consistency – add more juice if too thick, or a bit of water if too strong. Eat.

Luxurious creamy citrus overnight oats

• rolled oats (quick-cook) – about 1/2c per person (doesn’t sound like much but this is very filling)
• Charlie’s orange and mango lemonade (I’m normally reserved with imported fruit things, but this stuff literally makes my eyes roll to the back of my head, esp in this)
• mild pot-set plain yogurt (the stuff with honey isn’t necessary, as this is already very sweet)
• halved prunes (just a few)
• optional: dollop of citrus/lemon curd (optional)*

Pour juice over oats and prunes. Cover and let sit on the counter overnight. The next morning, stir through enough yogurt to make it even creamier/to your desired consistency – add more juice if too thick. Dollop with more yogurt and citrus curd to pretty-fy.

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*For the citrus curd, I modified this recipe by using a bit of lime juice (admittedly bottled, shhh) as I ran out of lemons, left the zest in, cooked it a little less and didn’t bother straining, and added a few drops of tangerine oil. You bet it was amazin! I really recommend a little lime juice – I’ve really never had better lemon curd! Haven’t had any problems with the shorter cooking time – it is a little more bubbly and not as thick (ie dollop-able) which is fine by me! It was still pretty thick when I turned off the heat to whisk in the butter though. No scrambled eggs either, reducing the need to strain the mixture. Also made way more than a cup! Great beginners recipe, loe that it took barely any time even though I’d never tried home made lemon curd before.

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