Overnight oats are trending. According to Pinterest, there were 5 million overnight oats pins in 2015, a whopping 211% increase over 2014.

If your goal is to eat a better breakfast and more whole grains, here’s how it can be ready for you to eat each morning. You can eat the oats at home or grab the jar on your way out the door. It’s that easy!

Check out the recipe below.
 
 
WHAT ARE OVERNIGHT OATS?

Overnight oats are a way of preparing oatmeal by soaking the oats overnight, instead of cooking them. Raw oats are soaked overnight in your choice of liquid: drinkable yogurt or kefir, milk or nondairy milk (almond milk is splendid), water, yogurt/water mix, or whatever.

The soaking turns oatmeal into a cold breakfast cereal, although you can certainly heat it.

You can use rolled oats, steel-cut oats, and even instant oatmeal; although given that the latter is ready in a minute in the microwave, we’d focus on the first two.

The mixture sits in a lidded jar overnight (or for at least 6 hours) as the oats absorb the liquid. When it’s time for breakfast the next morning, the oats are plumped up, soft, and ready to eat, cold or heated, plain or with the toppings of your choice.
 
 
RECIPE: OVERNIGHT OATS

There is no right or wrong ingredient or proportion: It’s how you like your oats. Here’s a guide for your first batch; you take it from here.

Ingredients For 1 Serving

 
Preparation

1. MIX the oats and liquid in the jar with the optional peanut butter. Tamp down with a rubber spatula or a spoon so that all the oats get moistened.

2. PLACE the jar in the refrigerator overnight. It’s ready to eat in the morning. If using peanut butter or other nut butter…

3. BLEND the peanut butter briefly before refrigerating, just enough so that you’ll have swirls of it the next day. (We whisked it briefly.) When you’re ready to eat…

4. ADD the sweetener, microwave if desired, and add your toppings of choice.

[1] One of our favorites: strawberry overnight oats. Here’s the recipe from A Pumpkin And A Princess.

[2] Chocolate overnight oats (photo © Ella Olsson | Unsplash).

[3] Blackberry overnight oats (photo © Micheile Dot Com | Unsplash)

Add Your Own Touches

You can customize the flavors with your favorite ingredients, by adding anything from nut butter to fruit purée to the jar. For example:

 
Don’t like sweet foods? Experiment with savory recipes, from caraway seeds to red chili flakes.

CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR HOME PAGE, THENIBBLE.COM.

For National Soup Month, here’s an easy recipe from Davio’s Boston, one of several locations in the excellent Davio’s Northern Italian Steak Houses in Atlanta, Manhattan, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and later this year in Los Angeles.

A side of goat cheese crostini turns the soup into a first course or a sophisticated “soup and sandwich” lunch.

RECIPE: HOMEMADE TOMATO SOUP

Ingredients For 6 To 8 Portions

______________________________
*While butter adds a nice flavor note, you can substitute oil if you’re avoiding cholesterol, want a vegan option, etc.

†You can buy the tomatoes crushed or whole. Steve buys them whole and hand crushes them.
 
Preparation

1. MELT the butter in a stock pot; add the onions and cook until translucent. Add the tomatoes and chicken stock. Simmer for 1 hour.

2. ADD the cubed bread and simmer for 45 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside until cool. Purée until smooth with an immersion blender or in a regular blender or food processor. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

3. SERVE: Bring the soup to a simmer. Plate and garnish with the optional yogurt, then with the basil and parsley. Serve with the crostini.

Goat cheese crostini are delicious with soup
or a glass of wine. Photo courtesy Wines Of
Sicily.

RECIPE: GOAT CHEESE CROSTINI

Ingredients For 4 Servings

 
Preparation

1. TOAST the baguette slices.

2. BLEND together the goat cheese, dill and minced garlic. Spread evenly over the toasted baguette slices.

3. GARNISH with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and some lemon zest and fresh-ground black pepper.
 
DO YOU KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BRUSCHETTA
AND CROSTINI?

In Scotland, January 25th is a national holiday that celebrates the birthday of the great romantic poet, Robert Burns (1759-1796). On Burns Night, family and friends gather for an evening of good food and company. A traditional Burns’ Supper is served.

This year, instead of cooking a traditional Burns Supper (smoked haddock, beef pie, haggis, colcannon, tatties), we’re taking the sweeter road:
 
 
BURDICK SCOTCH WHISKY CHOCOLATES

Available for only three weeks each year, this special box of chocolates blends Scotch whisky into every piece.

There are ganache-filled chocolates made with some of the finest whiskys, including Highland Park, Macallan, Springbank and Talisker. They are accompanied by Glenfarclas bonbons and Lagavulin and Whisky Honey truffles.

The chocolates are available now through January 28th. Get an extra box for Valentine’s Day, at BurdickChocolate.com.

 
 
OTHER WAYS TO CELEBRATE BURNS NIGHT

 
Here’s more about Burns Night.
 
 
WHISKY VS. WHISKEY

Whisky is the Scottish spelling of whiskey, a term that originated in Ireland. The alternative spelling was chosen to differentiate the Scots’ national product from Irish whiskey.

The “whisky” spelling is used in Canada, Japan and Wales, as well as Scotland.

In the U.S., a 1968 directive from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms specifies “whisky” as the official U.S. spelling. However, it allows the alternative spelling, “whiskey.”

Most U.S. producers prefer to include the “e,” as do we. Without it, it looks like something is missing.

[1] What a way to celebrate Burns Night: with Scotch whisky chocolate (photos #1 and #2 © L.A. Burdick Chocolate).

[2] You can pair the chocolates with glasses different Scotch whiskys.

[3] The poet himself: Scotland’s Robert Burns (photo Wikipedia).

Ironically, distillation was discovered in the 8th century in Persia—a country that has not permitted the sale and consumption of spirits since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Here’s a brief history of whiskey.
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*The mouse honors the famous Burns poem, To A Mouse.