Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It’s when our body refuels to get ready for the day ahead. Teaching your child good food choices and healthy eating habits is a lifelong skill.
Getting breakfast in a rush leads to some unhealthy choices, sugary cereal, processed foods, heavy carbs – all giving a quick buzz and a horrible sugar crash. Not the best start for us, and definitely not the best start for a child.
Grabbing a pastry as you jump into the car, or a well meaning piece of toast slathered in a preserve, will not give your child the nutrients they need to get on with their day, and can create a sugar addiction. The more refined sugars your child is exposed to the more they will crave, leading to unhealthy choices as an adult.
Including your child in preparing their breakfast helps them to explore different food choices, and builds their independence. There are many different options to make their own recipes for Overnight Oats.
What are Overnight Oats?
Grab a jar, put in some oats, liquids, and fruit, leave it overnight in the fridge, and in the morning you have something that tastes good and is actually good for you! The oats soak up the liquid and transform into a breakfast that tastes absolutely nothing like the good old pot of porridge you cook up on a winter’s morning. They’re not stodgy, they’re very easy to digest, and they really do taste amazing.
I cannot recommend them enough. I’m married to someone who isn’t always impressed with some of the healthy food choices I want to make. He definitely wasn’t interested in adding chia seeds to his diet. Then the miracle of adding them to the Overnight Oats jar made them disappear into the unctuous wonderfulness of delicious goodness in a jar. He’s hooked!
The recipes are so easy, and so versatile. These magical jars suit all dietary choices, and preferences, and your child can have fun making it the night before, and eating with delight the following morning.
What you need:
Clean jar with a lid (jam jar or mason jar)
Rolled oats
Liquid
Fruit
Everything in the jar, shake, put in the fridge overnight, enjoy the following morning!
Basic Ingredients:
1/2 cup rolled oats
2 teaspoons chia seeds (optional, but such a good addition)
1/2 cup liquid (milk, soy milk, almond milk, water)
1/2 cup yoghurt (dairy, coconut, soy, almond)
Fruit (sliced or mashed banana, frozen berries, sliced or chopped soft fruits)
Can add nuts, seeds, coconut, peanut butter, protein powder, the recipes are endless … try out any combinations you fancy.
Set up a table or work surface with the jar, ingredients, and measuring cups and spoons. Show your child how to scoop and pour the ingredients into the measuring cups and spoons – model adding all of the ingredients to one jar so your child can clearly see what they’ll be doing.
Instructions:
Clean jar with lid
Add rolled oats to bottom of jar
Add Chia seeds (if using)
Add yoghurt
Add liquid
Add fruit
Put lid on
Shake
Put in the fridge
The following morning you can add some more liquid, fruit, and nuts if you want to. I eat mine directly out of the jar, but you can put yours into a bowl if you prefer.
Enjoy!