Saffinity: A world of odds and sods

Not Quite Vegan Overnight Oats

AKA when Substitutions go well.

Good Morning!

I’ve left you guys for a while haven’t I, sorry about that. Things get a bit crazy around here right now, we’ll have an evening where we’re nice and quiet and then a week of non stop. (Hence why I usually type up my blog posts at work before shift or on lunch break…)

Now this blog is called “odds and sods” and I do apologize to the people who started reading this expecting it to be a knitting blog… for a while it was, however things in my life are always changing and always moving. This is why I called this Odds and Sods, so that anyone who came here would understand that you’re getting anything and everything.

That being said, this post is all about FOOD!

See I made a rather long post about my weight issues and such, and I’ve mentioned how I’m mostly happy with who I am now. However, that doesn’t mean that I don’t monitor my weight and try to keep it under control. Due to the whole 95 lb for 15 years thing, I never really learned how to eat healthy. I didn’t need to. So it’s quite the education now realizing that 1 cup of rice and a box of Kraft Dinner does not a healthy supper make.

Prior to the wedding I was trying to tone up so that I looked good in pictures, however, I can’t say that I did a very good job of it. If I got stressed, I ate, if I got upset, I ate, if I was happy, I ate… you get the picture. The main thing though was that I tried to make sure that what I ate was healthy, rather than chips or cheesies.

Now, after coming back from the honeymoon, I’m noticing all my clothes are tight, things don’t feel so good in my body, and when I was at the doctor’s yesterday for a check up, I had to step on the scale. This has never been a problem for me, but I knew I had put on weight and I was nervous as to how much it was.

I’m now at 159 lbs.

You might look at that and go *shrug* so what, that’s not bad, and you’re right, it’s not. But it’s the heaviest I’ve ever been. The top level of my healthy weight for my height is apparently 150 lbs, which means I’m slightly over weight. This isn’t too much of an issue for me, but my ideal would be between 145 and 150. I’ve already told Chris that I don’t want to drop lower than 135, because I never want to be that skinny again.

However I do need to drop a little right now. I’m not going on a diet, but I am making some diet changes. I’ve mentioned Sparkpeople and OhSheGlows before, and I’m still on those sites constantly. The recipes there make me drool but I have an issue.

My commute home from work is 2 hours on the bus, meaning I don’t get home until 7. It sucks, but at least I have a job. This means that I’m not the one cooking dinner every night and I don’t always have control over what we eat. I do have control over how much I eat and if I want to add anything on and I’m going to try and take advantage of this with more salads and grains added to my meals.

The big struggle for me is breakfast. I am HORRIBLE at eating breakfast. So I decided last night that I was going to try and make Vegan Overnight Oats, taken from miss Ange’s website at OSG.

Here’s where the subtitle comes in. Another reason why Chris cooks is because he actually follows recipes and makes things that taste right. When I was cooking dinners I drove him mad explaning all the substitutions I made because we didn’t have something. This usually didn’t turn out well, but what I whipped up last night was wonderful!

Saff’s Not Quite Vegan Overnight Oats

I will admit right now that I am not vegan, nor will I probably ever be. It’s not something I think I can do, I lasted 6 months as a vegetarian and then I needed steak. I have no problem with vegans and I wish I could become one, I just like meat and milk and cheese too much.

1/2 c Spelt Flakes
1.25 c 2% Milk
1/2 tsp Carob Powder
1/4 tsp vanilla
1.5 tsp Flax Seeds

I mixed all the dry stuff together, then put the wet stuff in and whisked it really good. I then shoved it in the fridge overnight.

This was pretty good. You’ll notice it’s not actually oatmeal though. That’s because when I decided to make this breakfast and went looking for oatmeal, I had none. So I grabbed my spelt flakes and decided to give it a go. First thing I noticed this morning was that Spelt Flakes don’t absorb liquid like Oatmeal does.

The level of Milk hadn’t dropped at all and it looked like soup. So I poured off a bunch of the milk and dished out the VOO. I layered it with some “Mixed Berry Sherbet” I made last night by taking a bunch of frozen berries I had left over and putting them in my chopper with a bit of milk. It’s SOOOO good. Then I topped it with a few strawberries.

This was DELICIOUS!! I was nervous eating it because there was a bunch of stuff I hadn’t tried (Like Spelt Flakes and Carob Powder) but it was good enough that I want to make it again! I decided to pick up spelt flakes recently because I’ve noticed that oatmeal gives me major heartburn and I thought that maybe it was due to the gluten. So far I haven’t had any discomfort so I may have found a new breakfast friend!

Last Night I took another recipe from Ange (and substituted stuff). We had steak and salad (and I made some Quinoa with green onions and tomato sauce… HELLO where have you been all my life??? It’s SO good). I decided that I wasn’t going to use our bottled salad dressing and I ran up stairs and quickly read the recipe for “Better than Bottled Balsamic” and decided to whip some up.

Saff’s Better than Bottled Balsamic

My version is a bit different because I didn’t have some stuff.

2 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
1 3/4 Tbsp Rice Vinegar
1 3/4 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2(ish) Tbsp 100% pure Maple Syrup
Sea salt and Pepper to taste
bit of Garlic Powder

I mixed this in a bowl and it’s wonderful! I don’t have a picture of it, but I brought some for lunch so when I pull it out I’ll take pictures of my lunch to show you. I’ve still got a bunch of dressing left over for future salads and since this was so easy to make I’m sure I’ll be whipping up some more.

So luckily, this time when I substituted it all turned out. Hopefully by making more of my own food and adding more grains/lentils/beans to my meals I won’t feel so hungry and want to eat so much. Then with that and exercize I can get myself down the where I want to be weight wise and also get my body happier by not filling it with so much junk.

I’ll probably be putting more recipes up here as time goes on, so look forward to it!