Maple Cinnamon Refrigerated Oatmeal

I've got a crazy commute. I only live about 10 miles away from where I work but those 10 miles are separated by water. So I either take the ferry across or drive 60 plus miles in heavy traffic to and from work. I chose the ferry. It's expensive and you're at the mercy of their schedule, but I really hate traffic and lets face it, driving a stick shift for 3 hours in stop and go traffic is... well, I'll use the word tiring. Taking the ferry allows me to relax, read, write, play games or even nap. Because of this, however, I spend around 12-14 hours away from the house between the commute and work. Now I fully admit I am not a morning person of ANY kind and waking up at 4 am (to be at work at 7) is difficult for me, to say the least.

This is the reason for my most recent obsession - super quick, basically already prepared, breakfast foods.  Hot or cold it doesn't matter. I just don't have time in the morning to prepare anything but I need to eat. I've been focusing a lot lately on oats. And while I like basic instant oatmeal, sometimes I don't even have the few minutes it takes to prepare and microwave it (a few minutes late to the ferry can mean I miss it and the next one doesn't come for an hour! Yikes!). Imagine my jubilation when I found something called refrigerator oatmeal! Basically you take the oats and any flavorings/fruit, put in a small container, add milk and yogurt. Shake. Put it in the fridge overnight and it's ready to grab and go in the morning. Crazy awesome, right? Now I couldn't wait to try it out but I didn't have any yogurt so I added a little more milk. And I recently learned about Chia seeds and how healthy they are for you so I added some of those too - with a little more milk since they can absorb somewhere near 10 times their size in liquid. And what do you know? I've found a new favorite breakfast! I've only tried one flavor profile so far but I've got many more planned for the future. This particular recipe is 2 servings for me (the oats and chia seeds really fill me up) and the texture is still the same on day 2.

Maple Cinnamon Refrigerated Oatmeal
3/4 cup regular rolled oats
1 cup milk of your choice (3/4 cup if you don't add Chia seeds)
1/2-1 tsp cinnamon
1 Tbsp Sugar Free Maple syrup (I want the flavor without all the calories and sugar)
1 1/2 tsp Chia seeds

Layer all ingredients in a small container (I use a mason jar).  

Put lid on and shake well. 

Put in refrigerator overnight and it'll be ready to eat in the morning.


As with most recipes, add more of what you like and less of what you don't. I'm planning to add our homemade blueberry and blackberry jellies next! And when I buy some yogurt, I'll try that too. Do you have a flavor idea? I want to hear about it!

Oh and we're planning to go camping this weekend, so I'll make a few of these up ahead of time and just add the milk the night before we want to eat them! How cool and convenient is that?!

Anyway as you can see I'm really excited about this deliciously easy grab and go breakfast. Give it a try - you may like it too!