yummy refrigerated oats

I love oats.  However, I tend to get sore throat after eating them frequently.  The Asian thinking is that oats are "heaty".  As such, over the years, I have tried to avoid eating oats too often.

I was therefore tremendously pleased to discover a new way of eating oats.  I have been eating this for the past two weeks and I am happy to say that I have not developed any sore throat yet.

The secret is to refrigerate the oats for a period of time (eg. overnight).  The liquid (in this case, milk and yoghurt) will soften the oats, thereby getting around the "heaty" problem.  Best of all, you can add as many fruits as you like!

INGREDIENTS

5 tbsp organic rolled oats
2 tbsp plain Greek yoghurt
2 tbsp flavoured yoghurt
3/4 cup low fat milk
1 tsp black chia seeds
assorted fresh fruits
handful of dried fruits such as cranberries, apricots and raisins

METHOD

1. Cut the fresh fruits into bite-size pieces.

2. Mix all of the ingredients together in a container.

3. Refrigerate for several hours (preferably overnight) to soften the oats and the chia seeds.

TIPS

1. If you intend to add citrus fruits, do use a glass container instead of a plastic container. I have been wondering about this and it occurred to me that I have not seen jam sold in a plastic container (ie. so far, the jam that I see in the shops are sold in glass containers).

2. Adding rolled oats tastes better than the regular instant/cooking oats.

3. You can use black or white chia seeds. I am given to understand that black chia seeds have more health properties than white chia seeds but either is fine. I only added black chia seeds because they do not come cheap (!) and hence, I decided that I will only buy one type of chia seeds.

4. I prefer Meiji flavoured yoghurt because I find it less sweet than some of the other brands.  They also have a large variety of flavours so I will use a different flavour each day.

5. Personal feedback after consuming this daily for about two weeks - great improvement in bowel movement. Yipee! I am not sure about weight loss though because I have consciously avoided stepping onto a weighing scale over the years. :)