Sweet-and-spicy gingerbread overnight oatmeal is like a cookie that you can eat for breakfast.
Darrol Henry loves oatmeal, but for some reason he really dislikes hot food. He wants everything cold: soup, stew, oatmeal...everything!
That pretty much makes overnight oats a perfect breakfast for him. It's quick and easy for us to grab on a busy school morning, and it's the perfect temperature for him.
Of course, if you like your food warm like most people do, you can heat this up quickly in the microwave or on the stovetop.
This oatmeal is on the sweet side. Molasses is naturally sweet, and I've added dates and raisins to balance out the heat from the ginger.
The molasses is necessary for that distinct gingerbread flavor, but if you want to cut the sugar down, you can leave out the dates and/or raisins. If I were going to pick one sugary ingredient to lose, it would be the dates.
I feel like the raisins really add an important dimension of texture. My first batch of gingerbread overnight oatmeal didn't have raisins, and I feel like they bring a lot to the table in this recipe.
While this gingerbread overnight oatmeal does have more sugar than I'd normally give my kid, it also has lots of fiber and heaps of iron, so I'm going to let the sugar thing go.
One serving of this oatmeal has just shy of 25 percent of your daily iron requirements, thanks to the oats, raisins, and blackstrap molasses.
It also has almost 7 grams of fiber, which is good for offsetting the sugar. One serving delivers 12 percent of your daily calcium and more than 10 grams of protein without a drop of dairy milk in sight.
Also, it tastes like a gingerbread cookie. Let's not lose sight of what's truly important!
Gingerbread Overnight Oatmeal
Ingredients
- 1 cup vegan milk - (I used regular soy milk.)
- 2 small dates - chopped (about 2 tablespoons, chopped), optional
- 2 tablespoons blackstrap molasses - (Not regular molasses – blackstrap molasses has almost 20% more iron, and I like the flavor a lot more, too.)
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- pinch of cloves
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 4 tablespoons raisins - optional
Instructions
- In your blender or food processor, combine the milk, dates, molasses, and spices. Puree until smooth. If you don’t use the dates, you don’t need to use a blender. Just stir the ingredients together in a large bowl with the oats and raisins, then go to step 2.
- Combine the oats, raisins, and milk mixture in a large bowl. Stir it up really well. Transfer to a wide mouth pint jar (or 2 half pint jars), and refrigerate until morning, then dive in!
Natalie | Feasting on Fruit
I was doing the pin thread and I had to stop everything and come check out this deliciousness! 😮 OMG I want it right now! I love gingerbread, and once you put the word cookie in there I'm hooked <3 Pinning this one in a safe spot for me to try later 🙂
Becky Striepe
Oh my gosh, I'm blushing, Natalie! Thank you!