My Health Chronicles: Eating Healthy within Budget – Mini Overnight Oats #1

Hi Steemians, I have recently met a new friend in Steemit, @rin , and I did mention that if I have my old health chronical archives I will be sharing with her.

While I am still digging for my past archives in my backup drive, I have decided to share with her and the rest of those who want to eat healthily with my most recent recipe for overnight oats.

Before I continue, let me clarify that I am not a health freak, but I do try to keep a healthy range of food intake and exercise to learn and increase my metabolic rate up at the same time to keep any trace of tumor markers at bay after I had some health complications back in 2014; but that is for another story and testimony to tell (one day).

Let’s get back to my new experimental recipe.

I used to love making full overnight oats last year during my watchful diet and exercise routines, but I also realized that not everyone is fond of taking it in large portion; moreover the price is could be a little high for some who does not like to have just for breakfast. So I have re-designed my meals to fit my most recent 8 hours, 16 hours diet routine for frequent smaller meals.

I just started it and have realized that it suits me better because I will not feel bloated / bored with the food and I could have more snack variance throughout the day as well; keeping my tiny meals colourful and interesting, as well as keeping it within budget.

So I came up with a great plan when I saw these SUPER CUTE jars that I found from IKEA a month ago.

Please click on the image to go to the Malaysian site. Courtesy from IKEA Malaysia.

And instead of using it for its design purpose, I have decided to “tweak” it for my use.
So this is what I came up with.

The size is not huge, about 150ml capacity, this serves perfectly for small eaters.

And these containers served perfectly for its purpose; of course, if you currently have your own container you can use whatever you need. But as I am learning to be more environment friendly to this beautiful planet I am in, I try my best to adapt to more easy to handle glass containers.

Back to the recipe!

So this is what I have for my Mini Overnight Oat

• 1 teaspoon of chia seeds (the baking spoon range)
• 2 table spoon of rolled oats. (I used this because it has higher fibre)
• Soy milk (preferred reduced sugar / sugarless – for those who is going sugar-free)
• 2 table spoon of natural yogurt (I used Nestlé natural yogurt, because my housemate got me this)
• 2/3 – 1 table spoon of goji berries. (please use others if you are taking diabetic medication)
• 2/3 – 1 table spoon of red raisins. (If you do not want any sugar, always look at the ingredients chart)

Because goji berries and raisins naturally have sweetness, it lessens the sourness of the natural yogurt and helps balance the bland taste of roll oats. If you are using less sweetened soy milk you should be able to enhance this recipe’s taste as well.

The great part of this recipe because it IS called “overnight oats”, you can prepare it at least 8 hours prior and store it in a fridge; and chia seeds works perfectly well soaking up with the rolled oats and its nutrient is well preserved.

Usually this recipe can last for 3 – 5 days; so preparing it in a sealed jar like this one in the fridge will help keep this tiny refreshing meal longer. But I prefer to use it off within 3 days so that whatever I consume it is as freshly made as possible.

All my ingredients are of organic quality. In Malaysia it is a little pricey for organic produce, but I can confidently say it cost only approximately MYR 2 per jar (or maybe less, depending on what product you use) if you do not over pack your ingredients.

I hope you find my little cost effective wholesome kick-start meal to help your body absorb the best nutrients at the start of the day.

For calorie wise, I didn’t really count it, according to the raisins I have, 1 tablespoon is approximately 14.18g; and 1 serving (50g) is 156 kcal / 656 kj. So it will round up only about 44 kcal / 186 kj.

I hope you enjoyed this health sharing as much as I have enjoyed preparing it.

Please click on the logo to read why I have this project of 1000 SBD at the first place.