Super Breakfast

This blog is about a simple recipe which is super close to my heart.

Imagine this: you wake up on a Sunday morning starving for some good, healthy food. You have a long day ahead. First, you need to go and climb. A session can range anywhere from 5-6 hours to 10-12 hours depending on the day and mood. You’ll’ skip lunch cause lunch time would be just after you complete your warm-up. And regardless, you can’t climb after having lunch. Your next meal you are going to have is at 21:00. You need energy to climb whole day and sustain till the evening!

If you haven’t guessed it yet, this is my usual Sunday routine. To sustain this, I need a breakfast which keeps my tummy full and body brimming with energy. It definitely needs to be attractive to my taste buds and also healthy. I achieve this with a breakfast bowl, which is my take on overnight oats. It took quite a bit of experimentation and FAFO-ing to land on a recipe which ticks all the boxes.

To keep myself full, I need something which body digests slowly, solution? Oats. I add protein powder to it, and body needs some fiber to go along with it, solution? Oats. Oats add some protein to the meal themselves, so what’s the best base ingredient? Oats.

I need a soaking agent(?) of sorts to soften the oats. I prefer milk. It’s easier to add protein powder and fruit to it. This combination is already sweet enough, but if you are craving more sweetness, honey is a good option. I add it regardless, cause HEALTHY!!

Next up, we have peanut butter, cause who can deny more protein? More protein needs more fiber, so let’s throw some basil seeds in there. That is followed by a bunch of nuts. I prefer walnuts and almonds over others.

And finally, a bunch of fruits. My usual suspects are bananas, apples and blueberries. I usually switch them with some seasonal alternatives to keep things interesting.

Here’s a handy list:

oats
protein powder
milk
honey
peanut butter
nuts
bananas
apples
blueberries
basil seeds

Preparation

NOTE: Quantities reflect my preferences, change them according to your needs.

Start by adding half a litre of milk and one scoop (24g) of protein powder to a shaker. Shake aggressively till you get a smooth mixture. In the past, I used to add coffee with unflavoured protein powder. That combination works pretty well too! Now, add four tablespoon of oats to the milk base.

Next, take two to three tablespoons of peanut butter. I prefer the crunchy alternative with broken peanuts over the smooth variety. Make sure to mix the butter properly. It loves to stay with its mates, trapping oats around it and forming a weird lump. Definitely not delightful to get a full lump in the middle of mmmmmm.

Add one tablespoon of honey to it and make sure this to mix it thoroughly too. Next up, add as many nuts as you like. In the past, I have experimented with dried dates, dried figs and cashews. Sadly, none of them stuck around. I want to experiment with pumpkin seeds at some point.

Next up, we have our beloved fruits! The biggest complaint I have heard here is about bananas, some people hate how overpowering their taste is in milk. Personally, I love it. My go-to combination is half a banana, a few diced slices of apples and two or three blueberries. I stay conservative on blueberry side cause I find their taste overpowering and kinda yucky when there are too many of them in milk.

All of the ingredients in a jar

Pack everything in a jar and leave it in the fridge overnight. On the side, take a tablespoon of basil seeds and add just enough water to it. It should be just enough for basil seeds to soak it all up and become their evolved(?) version. Anything less, and they taste super weird. Anything more, and it dilutes the bowl wayyy too much. I have started using strainers recently to escape this measurement hell.

Next morning, empty the jar in a nice bowl and add the soaked basil seeds to it. Voila, we are done 🎉.

Itadakimasu

I know these photos are bad, but that’s all I have right now 🙈. Maybe in my next incarnation, I’ll wake up a better food blogger :P.