Tried and True

Happy Sunday ... or in my shift worker world, 2nd Wednesday. The weather here has been fabulous this weekend, and I hope you were all able to get out and enjoy it some.

I've written about a few of my recent culinary experiments, but every meal is not a cooking adventure. Sometimes you just need to stick to the tried and true.

Overnight Oats

One of my favorite go to breakfasts is overnight oats. The beauty of overnight oats is they are a) delish, b) quick and easy, and c) versatile. Once you master the base recipe, there are any number of flavor combinations. Feeling like chocolate strawberry? What about apple cinnamon? Or cinnamon raisin? Yep ... All doable.

Let's start with the base overnight oats recipe.

• 1/3 C old fashioned oats
• 1 scoop protein powder (any flavor)
• Water
• 3/4 C Greek yogurt
• Stevia (optional)

1. Add dry ingredients (oats, protein powder, Stevia, any spices) to the bottom of a Mason jar.
2. Add enough water to the jar to fully moisten the dry ingredients, around a 1/4 C.
3. Stir the Greek yogurt into the oats/water mixture.
4. Put the lid on the Mason jar and refrigerate overnight. The oats will be ready to go in the morning!

Now that we've got the base recipe, let's customize it! There are all kinds of things that you can add to flavor the oatmeal: fruit, nuts, nut butter, spices. All of these except the spices, which are added with the dry ingredients, would be added to the mixture after the Greek yogurt.

As for the finished product, I present to you chocolate berry oats, using chocolate protein powder, raspberries, and blueberries.

Spaghetti Squash with Spinach

Remember the spaghetti squash that I prepped last week? Well, I put it to good use for tonight's dinner. This is another recipe that's easily customizable through the use of different proteins. I've had this with shrimp and chicken, but I'm certain it would amazing with steak, pork, or other seafood types, too.

Here's the base recipe:

• 1/2 spaghetti squash
• 2 C baby spinach
• 2 T grass fed butter
• 1 t minced garlic
• Salt to taste
• 1 serving of seasoned protein

1. Cook the spaghetti squash, pierced several times with a knife to release steam, in a glass baking dish for 45 minutes in a 425 degree oven.
2. Cut the squash in two lengthwise, discard the seeds, and scrape out the "spaghetti" meat. You will use only half of the squash for this recipe.
3. Stir fry the protein in a skillet coated in cooking spray until cooked through. Transfer to a bowl.
4. Add butter, garlic, and spinach to the skillet. Cook until the spinach is properly wilted.
5. Add the "spaghetti" to the skillet, incorporating it into the spinach mixture.
6. Serve topped with the protein.

Tonight's rendition featured shrimp:

This meal is really good for busy nights if the squash has been prepped ahead of time since it doesn't take that long to cook.

You know what else is good for busy nights? Leftovers. Which is probably what we're having tomorrow. Enjoy the rest of your weekend, and have a fabulous Monday!