A Thursday morning experimenting in the kitchen.

I had a rare day with the house all to myself and so decided to potter through to the kitchen to experiment with a few different ideas. I had seen a Facebook posting the other day looking for ideas on filling healthy breakfasts and somebody shared some easy overnight oat recipes. Now one thing that I know is good for me is oats, but no matter how I have tried in the past I just cannot tolerate the texture of oats once they are cooked into porridge, and so I was quite excited by this link.

I had some coconut milk in the fridge so I decided to use it and give this a try. Some of these recipes recommend adding grated raw fruit but as I am intolerant to most fruit raw  I adapted them to suit my own needs.

So I took half a pint of coconut milk and half a pint of oats and added the two together. I then added a very large handful of raisins and popped it in the fridge for twenty four hours. It swelled beautifully, and I have to say it was very edible, not soggy or slimy. How much easier does a recipe get?

Think rice pudding texture. I served it topped with cooked fruit, a mixture of bananas, pears, blueberries and strawberries. The milk gives a delicious coconut flavour and I am sure you could add dessicated coconut along with the raisins.  

Now as I had the milk open I decided to come up with other ideas to use it up.  The other week I made some bulgar wheat soaked in fresh orange juice and so decided to soak some in coconut milk this time.

Bring half a pint of coconut milk to the boil, and pour over half a pint of bulgar wheat.

and it will swell to twice its size.

 Refrigerate until required. I have eaten this topped with yoghurt and cooked fruit. It could also be stirred through your cereal or added to home made pancake mix as I have done with the one soaked in fruit juice.

To use up the rest of the milk I made a banana and strawberry milkshake.

I also sliced various fruits and caramelised some pears, apples and strawberries and added them to the bottom of a baking tin and topped with sponge, the small ones were suitable for Bob, the big one just normal sponge was added.