Overnight Oatmeal and the Start of Rotations

Around here 2014 is the year of rotations. As a student in medical school, my husband will be in and out of hospitals from January to December of this year sampling specialties, observing procedures, learning tons of material, and sleeping very little. We have had to rethink the morning routine since his morning now starts at 4am, and part of this plan was developing a way to streamline breakfast. Our coffee pot we got as a wedding gift has a cool clock/timer function, so that is now set up to brew automatically in the morning, and breakfast has switched to pre-portioned, ready-to-go containers of overnight oatmeal.

What is overnight oatmeal? It is a mix of several breakfast items all in one bowl. It is convenient and healthy. It is cold oatmeal that you can add many flavor combinations to. You can choose to mix ingredients in one large bowl and divide into smaller containers or mix each serving individually. We decided to make one large batch on Sunday so my early riser would have breakfast each day. I will post the numbers for an individual serving and six servings side by side.

Overnight Oatmeal

Ingredients for Base:

1/2 cup old-fashioned oats // 3 cups old fashioned oats
1/2 cup milk of choice // 3 cups milk of choice
1/4 cup of Greek yogurt // 1 and 1/2 cups of Greek yogurt
1 Tbsp chia or flax seeds // 6 Tbsp chia or flax seeds

Directions:  Stir and scoop into as many containers as desired.

Flavor Combinations for Individual Servings:

1 Tbsp of lemon curd and 1 Tbsp of dried blueberries
1 Tbsp of PB2 or peanut butter and 1 Tbsp of raisins
1 Tbsp of chocolate protein powder and 1 Tbsp of PB2
1 Tbsp of craisins and 1 Tbsp of chopped walnuts

-- You can add ingredients in whatever amounts you think work best. 1 Tbsp just seems to be a good ratio for individual portions. Feel free to get creative with flavor combinations, and remember if you want to add anything crunchy, you should add it in the morning if you want it to keep its crunch.
 
Thank you, mom, for passing along this recipe. It has been so very helpful!