Oats & Chia Pudding with Lots of Love! Part 1

Happy February, the month of love! Oh and I know I'm a bit late, but Happy New Year! I've so missed sharing all of the healthy love through blogging. It was an extremely difficult decision for me to put down the blog for a while. I wish I could've done it with a proper I'll see ya again message, but I just didn't get that far. Please know that I love every single person who reads this blog and I pray for you.

As you know with previous posts when I last left off I was toward the end of my pregnancy with our newest addition.  I'll share some pictures. So on July 2nd in 2016 (yeah, it's really been a while since I posted) our lives tremendously changed, and the Lord gave us Lukas. He is currently 19 months old and an incredible joy in our lives. Starting over with a little one was an amazing decision for us. I love being an older mom. It's so different than momming in my early 20's like I did with the older two young men who will forever light up my life (ages 14 and 17 now...big boys). I take things a lot more slowly and has truly allowed me to tune into his needs.

I don't know that I'd put a label on how we are choosing to parent though I think I could say it is fairly gentle and akin to what is now called attachment parenting. We are fans of nursing, co-sleeping, and baby wearing. I will share about a lot of those topics in other future posts.

So for the month of January my husband and I decided to do Whole 30 just for a reset even though we eat really well a majority of the time. Sometimes our bodies need a rest from certain foods and as a health coach I like to walk my talk and do the things I recommend to my clients. It was a good month for both of us. It left me with a craving towrad the end of the month though...oatmeal, I really, really wanted some oatmeal. Kind of a weird craving huh?! I'm sure looking through Pinterest and at other food blogs didn't hurt either. Also it's winter time and there's nothing like a bowl of warm, toasty oats in the morning.

Naturally the foodie queen that I am didn't just want oatmeal, I had to have it with chia pudding. When I was younger I absolutely hated oatmeal, but that was because I was under the impression that oatmeal came from those horrible artificially flavored packed where my mom always added too much water and it was just gross. It wasn't until I had made the switch to a whole foods healthy eating lifestyle that I realized oatmeal didn't have to be that way. Truth, I prefer steel cut oats, but we were out so for this post I will show you the recipe with organic gluten free rolled oats. I purchased the oats from Nuts.com.

Here are the oats after sitting overnight in 1 cup of filtered water with 1 tbsp of raw, unpasteurized apple cider vinegar (you can also use whey or fresh lemon juice) always in a glass container. Glass is a safer nedium for food.Years ago as I was learning about what foods were healthy I also learned about better ways to prepare foods. A lot of grains in particular are received by our bodies when soaked overnight. The soaking allows more nutrients to be released and be better digested. Our early ancestors prepared grains in this way, but those old ways of doing things got lost in our sea of microwaves and drive thrus. I soak the oats right before I got to bed so they will be ready in the morning. You want to soak them for about 8 hours. After soaking I rinse them lightly in a mesh strainer with filtered water then put them into a pot.

Hopefully this doesn't make anyone crazy, but I don't measure the amount of water that I put in with the oats to cook them at this point. I just barely cover the top of them and put the burner on low to medium heat. They cook very quickly, in just a few minutes so don't go anywhere, and do stir them. Add more filtered water if it looks like you need it. At this point you will determine your preferred texture.

I always like to add a bit of healthy fat to any grains that I'm eating because that is also going to aid in digestion and nutrient absorption. I opted to use ghee. If you are not familiar with ghee, you can read about it here and how to make it as well.

If you are not of the persuasion to want to make your own you can certainly purchase some. I purchased the 4th and Heart brand from Thrive Market (this is my affiliate link) because having a ghee made from milk that came from grass fed cows is extremely important to me.

I just grabbed a cereal sized spoon and added two spoonfuls of the ghee to the oats. Other healthy fats you could add would be grass fed butter or organic unrefined coconut oil.

I also usually like to add a pinch of Himalayan salt to add minerals to my food and balance the sweetness from whatever I add later. I didn't in this case because the ghee has Himalayan salt in it.

After this point you basically have a blank canvas to add whatever in the world you might want to your oats to make it a meal. Are you excited? Yes, I am a big foodie dork, I know. I'm okay with that though. So my middle son loves to load his oatmeal with organic peanut butter, organic maple syrup, fresh blueberries, a pinch of Himalayan salt, and organic cinnamon. I happen to love the taste of peanut butter, but I don't eat it because peanuts are really bad for your gut since they are way hard to digest. Due to the way peanuts are stored they also contain a mold toxin, I'm pretty sure even the organic ones. So you say why do you let your son eat it, well because he really loves peanut butter, he eats it sparingly, I do purchase organic for him, and it's just not a hill that I want to die on with my teenager. I find it's more important for me to give me lots of great, healthier options, only ban the worst of the worst, and then that way he will continue to make better choices as he grows up. If he chooses to ditch the PB later, than he can do so.

I've decided to break this post up into two so it will be shorter for you to read through and if all you wanted was a bowl of healthy oatmeal, there you go! I'll dress it up for you in the next post. I'll leave the recipe for you below for easy deciphering. Happy Oating!

Healthy Oats

1 Cup Organic Gluten Free Rolled Oats
1 Cup Filtered Water
1 TBSP Raw Unpasteurized Apple Cider Vinegar

Soak overnight for 8 hours in glass dish.

Strain/rinse oats.

Put oats in pot, cover with filtered water, cook on low to medium heat.

Remove from heat, add 2 Cereal Spoons Ghee, mix well.

Top it with whatever makes your heart dance!

Stay tuned for part 2!