Easy Overnight Oats

Quick and Easy Breakfast 

I thought it would be a good idea to do a breakfast post. A major factor in controlling heart disease is controlling cholesterol, and Breakfast offers many options to be the biggest cholesterol-fighting meal of the day. 

Of course, there is good cholesterol and bad cholesterol, you want to increase one and reduce the other. 
Berries are really good for this, and Blueberries, in particular, are easy for me to eat by the handful.

Whole grains are also great for both of these, but the time-honoured ingredient for scraping out the bad cholesterol is Whole Oats. It says so right on the front of the Cheerios box! Plain Cheerios, not the sugar-frosted kinds. 

Easy breakfasts

An aside about Cheerios, Multigrain Cheerios are about equal to Honey Nut Cheerios health-wise. Looking at the nutrition label, they're almost identical. That's because they're frosted with the same amount of sugar.

Since my visit to the hospital I've learned how to enjoy plain Cheerios - just chop some pears or peaches on top. This breakfast gets me cholesterol-reducing oats and high-fibre fruits, which also reduce cholesterol. 

This is a vast improvement, health-wise, over the breakfasts I was eating up until the heart attack. It often involved grabbing a pepperette and a bagel as I ran out the door

Oatmeal

But of course, Oatmeal is the best thing to eat for breakfast healthwise. It can take a while to cook though, so this Easy Overnight Oats recipe is really helpful. 

It is prepared the night before, and so the rolled oats have hours to soak up the liquid. In the morning, if you're on the run, you just have to warm it for a minute and chop some fruit on top.

Coffee

I am indeed allowed to have coffee. I can have two caffeinated beverages a day, so if I have two coffees in the morning, that's all I get. To reduce saturated fats, I have replaced my regular coffee cream with an almond-based creamer.

Of course, if I have a huge coffee from a coffee shop, that probably counts as two. Starbucks has some particularly big cups. I usually just make it at home. 

Easy Overnight Oats

From Downshiftology

(There are 6 variations of this recipe at the link)

Base Overnight Oats

1/2 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup milk dairy or dairy-free

1/4 cup Greek yogurt or dairy-free yogurt

1 tablespoon chia seeds (I used Flaxseed)

1 tablespoon maple syrup

Instructions

Add all the ingredients into a sealable jar or bowl and give it a stir until it's all combined.

Let it soak in the fridge for at least 2 hours, but it's best to soak overnight for 8 hours. This will yield a creamier consistency.

Top your overnight oats with your favourite toppings and enjoy!

*It's winter in Canada, and that's why I have frozen berries. Instead of topping them in the morning, I add them before it goes into the fridge overnight so they are thawed by morning. But I add pear slices and mandarin pieces in the morning.