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?

Awesome Avocado Dip

You know how Mexican restaurants always serve chips and salsa while you’re waiting for your food to come out? Well, awhile back, I went to a place that served a delicious green dip along with the salsa. It was tangy and creamy and I loved it. I swore I was going to figure out how to make my own. Well, I have finally gotten around to it.

Here’s what you’ll need: 

• 1 medium avocado
• ¼ cup sour cream
• ¼ cup green taco sauce
• 1 Tablespoon fresh squeezed lime juice
• ½ teaspoon salt
• Handful of cilantro leaves 

This recipe is so quick and simple, you are going to love it. First up, the avocado. Cut it in half around the pit. Then to remove that, tap it firmly with your knife to embed the edge of the blade.

Then just twist gently and it should come right out.

The pit is super slippery, so to get it off of the knife, wrap it in a paper towel and it should pull off pretty easily.

It isn’t strictly necessary, but I like to cut the avocado into little cubes before it goes into the blender so you don’t end up with a big chunk of it hiding under the blade. Using your knife, carefully slice it right inside its shell.

Scoop or squeeze the cubes into your blender.

Next up, the lime juice. Mine was really juicy, so I actually only ended up just using half. You’re shooting for about 1 Tablespoon of juice.

After that, add the salt.

I like La Victoria’s green taco sauce. I’m sure any kind of green salsa will work just fine if you’d prefer.

My sour cream was a bit of a heaping measure. As I’m sure you’ve guessed, this is not rocket science.

Last is the cilantro. I know there are some serious cilantro haters out there, so if you’re one of them, go ahead and leave it out. Personally, I love the stuff. It’s strong though, so a little goes a long way. Shoot for something like this.

Throw that into the blender.

Now, just add 2 Tablespoons of water, and that’s it!

Start the blender at a low speed and slowly increase it.

In probably 30 seconds, you’ll have a dip that is amazingly delicious!

And the cool thing is, unlike guacamole, which turns brown in almost not time, this dip stays a nice, bright green for days in the fridge. It’s fantastic!

What is your favorite thing to do with avocados?