When it comes for lunch and dinner it’s easy for me to come up with something new, old or borrowed. Breakfast is not that easy. I’m a bread and butter type of girl. If I didn’t know any better I’d still have everyday the same breakfast I had growing up; warm French bread with butter and a cup of coffee with milk.
Growing up in Brazil there were “padarias” (bakeries) in every other corner, which sold fresh bread every hour. Like most Brazilian babies of my generation, I transitioned from the bottle to the coffee and milk, and from the baby cereal to the French bread with butter as recommended by grandma and arguably the pediatrician.
Although I may not be exactly a “caffeine junkie” I’ve no desire or reason to give up my coffee. Now, the bread might be a different story. I love bread too but I’ve been trying to replace it with healthier and more nutritious choices especially at breakfast time.
So… here I’m again posting yet another breakfast recipe. This carrot cake overnight oats is delicious and really filling. Although the carrots and raisins add a natural sweetness to it I still drizzled a little maple syrup and it made this oats breakfast to taste like dessert! I can almost argue that it tastes better than French bread and butter…at least for the moment.
Here are the steps:
Cook the carrots with a cinnamon stick and star anise (optional)
Blend the cooked carrots with almond milk (can substitute for regular milk or other nut milk)
In a separate bowl mix oats, nuts, chia, cinnamon, salt, raisins and coconut.
Mix wet and dry ingredients and let it refrigerate overnight.
CARROT CAKE OVERNIGHT OATS
- 6 medium carrots (peeled)
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 2 cups of unsweetened vanilla almond milk (substitute w/ any type of milk that comes from nuts or cows or ????)
- 2 cups of rolled oats
- 1/3 cup of walnuts or pecans slightly chopped (I used both)
- ¼ of raisins
- 1/8 cup of chia seeds
- 1/8 cup of shredded coconut
- 1 tsp of cinnamon
- pinch of salt
Start by cooking the carrots with approximately 2 cups of water and the stick of cinnamon (and the optional anise). Blend the cooked carrots with the almond milk (use a hand mixer or a blender). In a separate bowl mix all the dry ingredients. Add blended mix. Stir and put in a large container or individual portions. Let it stand in the refrigerator overnight (or at least 6 hours). Eat as is or drizzle some honey or maple syrup.