A few months ago, I became very frustrated about how breakfast was going in our house.
I don’t like it when we’re stuck in a rut food-wise, and we were certainly stuck. With needing to get my oldest son off to school and make sure that I was fueled for a day of doing schoolwork, most often it was me making one breakfast for my boys and then later making something else for myself. Most often, I would make my boys either toast or cereal, and since I’m not a huge fan of giving cereal to my kids all the time, they were finding themselves pretty tired of toast.
I imagine some of you are thinking at this point, “well… what about oatmeal?” Oatmeal had been something that I had never learned how to make properly and each time I would try to make myself eat it, I would be eating a soggy, gross, mushy, pasty mess. Yuck. I didn’t like it and neither did my children.
Well, one day I bought another container of oats, for anything other than oatmeal, and saw a recipe on the back for something known as “overnight oats”. Hmm.
I looked at the ingredients and thought to myself that maybe it wouldn’t be as disgusting as all the others I had tried. So, I made up one of them, a portion for myself and for my husband, popped them in the fridge, and went to bed moderately hopeful.
The next morning my husband ate his before work, but he’s always been an oatmeal guy. Knowing that it would be a hard sell for my kids, I didn’t make any for them without trying it myself first. Once they were fed, I sat down hesitantly and started at the contents of my jar. One spoonful to my mouth, wow. It was actually pretty darn amazing. Not mushy, not pasty, not disgusting. It was delicious.
Once I coerced my oldest to try a bite, he was hooked too. And so began my love for overnight oats.
And when I love something, I always want to share with all of you!
I’ve finagled the recipe a few times and once in a while I change it up, but for the most part this is how I do it. It’s always delicious and my kids love it.
Apple Cinnamon Overnight Oats
- 3/4 cup of old fashioned oats
- 1 cup of milk (whatever kind, I vary between whole milk and almond milk)
- ½ cup of chopped apples (or more if you’d like)
- 1 tsp of cinnamon
- ½ tsp nutmeg/allspice (optional)
- ¼ cup pure maple syrup or honey
Pour oats into the bottom of a mason jar. Pour milk overtop of the oats, then follow with the apple, spices, and the maple syrup or honey. Seal with lid and shake to mix and place in the fridge for at least a few hours, preferably overnight. Easily doubled or tripled in order to make more!
Generally, I make a full serving for myself and my husband, but then make 1 ½ servings for my kids and split it between them. It’s a hearty and healthy breakfast that my kids now long and request to have (YAY). Sometimes I will change up the fruit to pears instead, or I’ll do peanut butter and bananas. Whatever we do, I feel good about providing them a breakfast that is filling and refined-sugar free, but still feels like a treat to them!
Now it’s your turn: what are your favorite breakfasts that your kids love to eat? We want to know!
