Oats to Go

I eat one of two breakfasts every day when I arrive at work – overnight oats or hot oatmeal. To be more specific, I have overnight oats on mornings that I practice yoga before work and get ready at the studio and hot oatmeal when I get ready at home.

I am one of those people who will never have time to eat breakfast at home before work. I don’t know where the time goes but no matter what time I get up, I always seem to be rushing out of the door. Luckily, I have a system down to make sure that I can still get in a filling and nutritious breakfast. Due to my activity level, I wake up starving and have to get a substantial amount of calories in at breakfast. I find that these two breakfasts always hold me over until lunch.

Overnight oats are an easy breakfast to go because you assemble them the night before in a tupperware or jar and just add the toppings of your choice in the mornings.

Overnight oats also pack well in a cooler if you work out in the mornings.

My other breakfast of choice is hot oatmeal. While I’m getting ready in the mornings (usually after I shower) I put a pot of oats on the stove on the lowest heat setting. I let them slowly cook for 20-30 minutes and make a couple quick stops in the kitchen to give them a stir. The key is to cook them on very low heat. They will slowly thicken and get a great texture.

Once I’m dressed and ready, I head to the kitchen to make my coffee and oats to go. I always pour my oats into a jar (we have lots of random recycled jars – I get lots of inquisitive stares from my co-workers when I use an empty ranch dressing jar!) and throw them in my bag.

When I arrive at work I reheat the oats for about 30 seconds in the microwave (the reason I use jars is so I don’t have to heat plastic) and dig in.

So I’m here to tell you that it is possible to eat a delicious, healthy and hearty breakfast at work! What are some of your favorite on the go breakfasts?

This morning’s oatmeal mixture was a little different. I have really been trying to embrace the steel cut oats but I just don’t love them. Recently Kath has been running hers through the food processor to make Scottish oats so I decided to try that for this mornings pot of apple cinnamon oats. They did cook more quickly and the texture was a little better but I still love my rolled oats!

Lunch today was a favorite with new sides.

Roasted red pepper hummus, spinach and provolone on Great Harvest Whole Grain Goodness. I was thrilled to find sweet strawberries and grapes at the store this week. I am so ready to add some variety to my apple/pear rotation that I’ve been relying on this winter.

I had my second night of safety re-cert for the Y from 6-9 p.m. so I went for another quick run after work. I covered the same distance as yesterday at about the same pace – 3.5 miles @8:30. I haven’t practiced yoga since Sunday – can you believe it?

While I was sitting in safety training and starving, I counted up the hours that I’ve been in some sort of training in the last seven days and it totaled up to 25 hours!!! Good lord!

I made a quick salad for dinner when I got home.

Spinach, carrots, feta, sundried tomatoes, dried cranberries and a Trader Joe’s Masala Burger with a vinaigrette with lemon juice, honey, olive oil and dijon.

Off to make overnight oats and get in bed. Early ashtanga practice tomorrow.