5 Spice Overnight Oats

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27. Favorite Herb or Spice? 

I did consider picking a herb to feature in a fabulous recipe that would leave everybody stunned in my amazing recipe creation. However - I would think that the fact that I would use dried herbs instead of fresh may negate how brilliant you think my hypothetical amazing recipe. 

So...... scrap that. 

I did think about using cinnamon.... but..... that felt like a bit of a cheat. I mean.... I use cinnamon all the time. And we're coming up to fall.... and then winter. So there will probably be a lot of cinnamon going around the place. 

So instead I thought that I would do something with Chinese 5 Spice. It's something that I really really love. I love how I can add it equally well to sweet and savoury dishes. I like the savoury sweetness. Like that's any sort of description. I like the warmth it provides.

Basically I like it. It's one of my favorites..... it seems to have an edge that... other spice blends don't. I know that some people aren't as fond of that edge as I am... but I really like it. 

I did make some orange-five spice bran muffins.... but I had put a lot of candid peel in them... and I wasn't to fond of it. I don't mind a bit... but the amount that I had put in was just too much. 

Before it's sat overnight

I thought about making five spice biscuits.... five spice noodles (although I already have a recipe for five spice noodle recipe)... five spice pancakes. I got as far as making a five spice omelet.... but I didn't think that I could give you that many unphotogenic recipes in one month. 

So in the end... I decided that I would feature the most often use that I have for five spice powder. I use it in oatmeal. But it was hot... and it was sunny.... so I did my five spice overnight oats. Because oats + summer = overnight oats. Although it is rather unphotogenic.... it's still looks a lot nicer than the omelet. 

5 Spice Overnight Oats

Serves 1

• 1/3 cup of oats
• 1 Tablespoon chia seeds
• 1/2 Tablespoon of sesame seeds
• 1/2 Tablespoon almond butter
• 1 carrot
• 2 plums
• 2 dried peach half's (you could sub a spoonful of peach jam or a canned peach half if you can't find the dried peaches.... but they really are amazing in this.... so if you can find them... use them) 
• 1 teaspoon goji berries
• 1/4 teaspoon of 5 spice powder
• 1/4 teaspoon of almond extract
• about 1 cup of milk
• OPTIONAL: Liquid sweetener

• In a jar- or other container (preferably with a lid) mix the oats and chia seeds. It's better to mix them well now - because otherwise the chia seeds have a habit of clumping together and then it doesn't work so great
• Then mix in the sesame seeds. This doesn't need to be quite so great. 
• Grate the carrot (you can peel it as well if you want) and chop the plums and dried peaches into small pieces. Add these, the goji berries and 5 spice powder into the oats mixture. 
• Add the rest of the ingredient - the almond butter, milk and almond extract - and then stir well. Stir very well. You want to fully incorporate the almond butter into the milk - instead of it being a clump 
• Cover - and leave in the fridge. I don't know the minimum time for the chia seeds to work their magic because I've only done this and left it overnight - but leave for at least 3-4 hours. If it's still too liquid - either put it back in the fridge for a while longer - or add more chia seeds, stir and leave for the extra chia to work for about 10-20 minutes. 
• I don't normally add anything to sweeten my oatmeal - except I guess fruit - but here I do like to add a bit of a syrupy sweeter (normally I use Sweet Freedom)