A love affair...

It's confession time here at Throw Out The Map. Well, technically that was yesterday but I missed that boat by a solid 24 hours. So, here I am with a confession for you, on a Thursday non the less. Get ready it's a biggy.

I am in love.

I am in love and he doesn't love me back.

In fact I'm in love and he barely even stays for breakfast.

I'm in love and I don't care who knows it.

I am in love with Mr. Overnight-Oats.

Seriously, I don't know how I lived without him. I'm aware that this may be yet another party I'm late to join, but now that I'm here there's no way I'm leaving. I mean, come on, it makes breakfasts almost as easy as not bothering at all.. but ya' know.. you're still bothering. In fact I'm so in love I'm going to make you a pros and cons list. Just in case you're doubting their awesomeness.

Pros

A super healthy breakfast waiting for you every morning.

All the different flavours you can get your hands on - I'm talking, oreo, strawberry, chocolate, banana, even spinach if that's your thing.

Extra time in bed. That's always a good thing right?

In a jar - eat on the go. Not in a jar - eat at home - unless you made it on the floor then maybe don't eat that.

You feel super organised when your breakfast is just waiting for you. Or like your suddenly living in a hotel.

Cons

There are no cons - are you crazy?!

Okay well maybe there are a couple, like, it's not actually made my the oat elves. Even though it's just waiting for you every morning you still need to put a little effort in the night before. But, lets be real, 10 minutes before you go to bed is more than worth the extra 15 in bed the next morning!


So how do you make your very own sneaky oat-so lovely overnight oats? It literally couldn't be easier.

Chocolate, Strawberry and Almond Overnight Oats.

You'll need:

Half a jar of rolled oats.
Half a jar of milk/soya milk/almond milk whichever you prefer.
Spoonful of cocoa powder.
Pinch of sugar.
Half a banana.
Hand full of strawberries.
Hand full of almonds.

As you've probably gathered from previous posts I'm not a massive fan of measurements and tend to cook by proportion so obviously you can change the amounts around as much as you want.

First things first you want to fill your jar around half full with rolled oats, and add the sliced half banana.

Next, pour around half a jar of milk over your oats and banana so they are just about covered. Then sprinkle in the pinch of sugar and spoon of cocoa powder before closing the lid and giving it a good shake.

That's all the preparation done. Pop that jar in the fridge and head off to bed.

When you're up and about and ready for breakfast it's even easier.

Grab your jar out of the fridge and top with sliced strawberries and some almonds.

Now go enjoy. If you're feeling creative mix it up and add cookies, different nuts, fruit, seeds anything. The world of oats really is your oyster. But if you find some showstopping combinations please pop back and let me know. I'm always looking for new ways to spice up my morning oats.

warm corn and quorn salad

A weekend of eating cold sandwiches, raw carrots, and oat breakfast biscuits will leave you feeling distinctly hungry for good food. In my case that was anything warm, anything fresh and definitely something that involved a little bit of time in the kitchen.

I settled on a grilled corn and quorn salad with honey and mustard dressing, as that filled the fresh category. The corn and quorn “chicken” pieces keep it warm. I spent an hour dancing around the kitchen with the sister whipping this one up, a great chance to have a catch up while getting some delicious food.

You won’t need an hour to make this though – we were just being slow and enjoy the kitchen time.

First things first go grab your ingredients.

For the salad:

Baby leaves – spinach, lambs’ lettuce, red lettuce, red chard, and rocket

Small sweet peppers

Baby corn

Sugar snap peas

Quorn chicken pieces (obviously you can use regular chicken)

Chilli kidney beans

For the dressing:

Wholegrain mustard

Honey

Olive oil

Cider vinegar

Salt

Pepper

Sugar

First, start by making the dressing. Fill a small jar about a quarter full with the olive oil and vinegar. Add a spoonful of wholegrain mustard and the same of honey. Season with salt, pepper and add a pinch of sugar to help everything combine. Stick the lid on the jar and give it a good shake to mix.

For the salad, begin with the quorn. Heat some oil in a frying pan and add the quorn chicken pieces fry them lightly for around ten minutes. Next add half the jar of chilli kidney beans to the frying pan and leave to warm through.

Place the baby quorn and sugar snap peas under the grill on a low heat so as to just warm them through.

Next, chop the peppers into small pieces and we are ready to plate up.

Into a bowl add the baby leaves, followed by the quorn pieces with chilli beans. Next top with the peppers, grilled corn and sugar snap peas. Drizzle your dressing over the top and you are ready to go.

It’s simple and easy, but filling and just warming enough for a light lunch or summer meal. We couldn’t stop exclaiming about how healthy we were feeling the whole time we were eating – although that could be down to our normal diet of pizza and fajitas. I can see this easily becoming a go to meal when I’m in a rush for something nice and quick to eat this summer.

Have you got a go to summer meal? 

Humpday Confessions

Its been a crazy past few weeks with trips away, more birthdays than a maternity ward and two of our biggest events at work last week. Spending the weekend working a fantastic festival was both a blessing and a curse. Who doesn't love good company, good music and good fun.. but then again after three weeks of hectic I was pleased to be crawling into bed Monday night knowing I had the best part of a week off. 

And like all sensible people, because clearly I am one of those? I am using this week to get back into my blogging groove and today I’m jumping on the hump day confessions band wagon and linking up with Kat over at Vodka and Soda. I’ve loved reading everyone’s confessions each week and, well; it felt like the right time for me to get my confess-on!

This is what my worlds been filled with lately - tubes, plans, screw drivers
and endless cups of tea

I confess… I’ve been struggling to stay on top of blogging the past few weeks; work is just too darn good at getting in the way of fun stuff.

I may have also accidentally blogged twice today… but only because I forgot to post until stupid o’clock last night. #bloggerfail.

I confess… That I’ve spent all day staring at a pile of very muddy washing and eating cake. I’m considering keeping it as a piece of modern art.

Camping - clearly not my strong suit.

I confess… That I spent an hour trying to put up that bright pink, flowery, 2 man tent this weekend. I failed.

A 12 year old girl put it up in 5 minutes. #suchshame.

I confess… there was a fair amount of mold in one corner. Apparently washing/drying tents is a thing people do. Oops!

I am gonna miss this puppy face oh so much!

I confess... I leave for America in 22 days and I’ve not even thought about packing. Or insurance. Or money. Or really any of those grown up stuff.

Oh and I am stumped on the swimwear for camp situation. I mean I understand what modest means, but WHERE ON MOTHER EARTH does one find modest swimwear, shorts, t-shirts that don’t make me look like I’m 900 years olds.

I confess… that this was totally short and sweet, but this girls got to get back to the cake.. and prodding my new artwork to check for spiders.