Overnight Oats: A Most Nutritious Method

Use sprouted rolled oats to maximize the nutritional content of overnight oats.

Sprouted rolled oats have been sprouted before they were cooked and rolled. The sprouting process enhances nutrition by allowing the seed to germinate.  Sprouting awakens enzymes that can deactivate the antinutrients like phytates and potential allergens like lectins. Sprouting also converts some of the empty-calorie, stored starch into vitamins and other nutrients that eventually would become a little seedling if the germination process were to continue to fruition. The rolling squashes the little seeds flat with heat, and irons them out so they don’t need any additional cooking, although you can certainly warm up your overnight oats if you like them warm.

I eat these chilled, as a dessert. Honestly, I don’t miss ice cream when this is waiting for me.

START WITH THE FOLLOWING GENERIC BASE TO MAKE YOUR OVERNIGHT OATS

(Buy ingredients online if you don’t live near a health food store)

Pick a 1/2-1 pint jar with a lid. First, mix together the following dry ingredients. I use a fork.

• 1/4 cup sprouted rolled oats
• At least 2 tsp of chia or any small seeds like flax or sesame. I like to use a mix of 2 tsp chia, 2 tsp buckwheat, 2 tsp hemp hearts. The more seeds you add, the thicker it gets. I like buckwheat for the crunch, chia for the minerals, and hemp hearts for the slightly nutty flavor.
• 1/8-1/4 tsp salt
• Spices. I use 1/4 tsp cinnamon when I’m making blueberry overnight oats, which are my current favorite.
• If you don’t have seeds on hand use 2 Tbsp peanut butter (or any nut butter) to thicken, or just add it for the flavor
• If you want to add sugar I’d recommed 1 tsp brown sugar (I like the flavor better than granulated).

Now add the following wet ingredients to your overnight oats.

• 1/4 cup plain whole milk yogurt (Greek or regular)
• 1/3 cup milk (cow’s or almond or soy)
• Extracts. I use 1/8-1/4 tsp vanilla
• If you want to use a liquid sweetener instead of a dry sugar, I like to add 1 tsp of maple syrup, but honey or agave nectar work too.
• You can add fresh or dehydrated fruits now or later after it’s firmed up. I add 1/4 cup of blueberries and let them sit overnight. Other fruits I add later. Due to their high sugar content, I’d advise keeping the dried fruits to 1 Tbsp or less, ideally. If you add jelly, do it after the ferment becuase the jellly’s sugar might negatively affect the yogurt’s lactobacilli.

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  extract when I’m making blueberry overnight oats. Stir everything together vigorously before adding anything delicate, like fresh fruits.

• Fruits. Fresh or dehydrated. I add 1/4 cup fresh blueberries and fold everything together gently being careful not to bust the berries.

BOOST NUTRITION BY FERMENTING YOUR OVERNIGHT OATS

If you let the jar sit, covered for 8-12 hours the yogurt’s live cultures should start doing their thing again, and start multiplying. I recommend plain yogurts, which have healthier more robust cultures than yogurts flavored and loaded with sugar and sweeteners. This fermentation will help to boost probiotics and prebiotics, which are good for your gut and immune system. After fermentation, you can refrigerate for about 2 more days before it starts to get a bit weird.

Or skip that step and refrigerate for 8-48 hours.

Here is the suite of grain products I like to use. I include links to many of them on my shopping list.