Oatmeal is a yummy, hearty and healthful breakfast. But unless you eat the instant stuff, oatmeal is probably not on your normal weekday breakfast roster. It can – and should – be with this easy recipe that you assemble the night before.
My go-to weekday breakfast has always been a bagel. 
I’ve been eating bagels for breakfast five times a week for more than 20 years. I am so very tired of bagels. Yet I refuse to add cooking a breakfast to my morning routine. It takes me every bit of two hours to get out of the house in the morning (thank you to the dogs, the kid, and whatever I forgot to iron the night before) so getting up earlier than 5 am to have time to stand at the stove for ten minutes is totally out of the question. So what is the solution to my bagel problem? Easy overnight oatmeal, of course.
This oatmeal recipe is loaded with good-for-you ingredients and lots of protein and fiber to keep you from needing to visit the snack machine before lunch. 
And it is totally prepared the night before so you can grab it from the fridge and go. My daughter hates oatmeal, but if she didn’t, she could easily eat this in the car on the way to school. I choose to savor it at my desk while starting my workday. It is accompanied by my standard large thermos of seriously dark roast coffee that goes everywhere with me before 10 am. For the record, I consider my coffee consumption a public service.
The best part about this oatmeal is you can put whatever you want in it to sweeten it up and make it taste interesting. 
Like crunchy? Toss in some granola right before you eat it. Are you a syrupy kind of person? Bring along a small container of pure maple syrup. Banana and honey work beautifully too. My favorite combination – in part because I generally eat a late lunch and need a little more substance in my breakfast – is raisins, pecans and brown sugar. While that is what’s in the recipe below, substitute whatever you like. Just be sure to pack it the night before so you don’t hustle out the door and forget your toppings!
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup old fashioned oats
- 2 T chia seeds
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 c unsweetened vanilla almond milk
- 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
- 1.5 T pecans, coarsely chopped
- 1.5 T raisins (I use a mixture of golden and regular)
- 1 T brown sugar
Instructions
- Add oats, chia, cinnamon, almond milk, and vanilla extract (in that order) into a 2 cup container with a lid.
- Lightly shake to combine ingredients and place in refrigerator overnight.
- Prepare your toppings and a spoon to enjoy your oatmeal on the go. I use pecans, raisins and brown sugar in a small reusable 4 ounce container with a lid.
- In the morning, stir in your mix ins of choice immediately before you eat your oatmeal.
- You can eat your oatmeal cold or leave it out for a half hour to come to room temperature.
I find it necessary to give a shout out to Collegetown Bagels in Ithaca, NY for setting the very high bagel and cream cheese standards I grew accustomed to many years ago. Your veggie cream cheese is simply unmatched elsewhere on the planet. If more places made bagels and cream cheese like you do, I probably wouldn’t be looking for other breakfast options. Rest assured, though, that I will be spending the summers in the Finger Lakes region of Upstate NY just as soon as I can make enough money from this blog to quit my day job. And I will gladly have one of your bagels for breakfast every morning when I’m in the neighborhood that’s high above Cayuga’s waters.
Enjoy!
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