Better Than Overnight Oats

I want to love overnight oats. I just can’t. Every single time I’ve tried them, I’ve been disappointed. There’s just something off about them. If you’re like me and you just can’t get excited about overnight oats, do what I do instead. It’s easier and tastier. And toddler approved. 

When you get up in the morning, make coffee. While the coffee is brewing, put a single serving Greek yogurt of your favorite flavor (the 5.3 oz kind) in a bowl with 1/2 to 2/3 cup quick oats, depending on how hungry you are. Add an equal amount of milk as oats and stir it all up. Let it sit in the fridge while you get ready for your day: walk the dogs, take a shower (ha!), brush your hair (ha!), wash the dishes from dinner. Whatever you do in the morning that takes 20-30 minutes, do it. When you’re done, pull the easier than overnight oats out of the fridge and enjoy. 

My favorite flavors of yogurt for this are mixed berry and coffee. Which flavor of yogurt will you be adding to your next oatmeal?

Simply Delicious Ice Cream

I notice a lot of bloggers complaining about ice cream makers as being inconvenient because you have to plan ahead and put the bowl in the freezer the day before you want to make ice cream. But they’re wrong. The secret is keeping the bowl in the freezer. Take it out when you want to make ice cream, use it, wash it, put it back in the freezer. Freezers work better when they’re more full, anyway. It’s really the only logical place to keep the bowl of an ice cream maker. Besides, then you can make this whenever you want.



My basic ice cream recipe is 4:1 milk to sugar. So I usually do 2 cups of milk and 1/2 cup sugar.  Add in whatever flavoring you’re in the mood for. Once your ingredients are mixed, pour into ice cream maker (it’s important to turn on the ice cream maker before you pour in your mix) and wait 10-15 minutes. That’s it!

For my first ice cream of the season, I thought an orange creamsicle sounded good. I squeezed two blood oranges into my measuring cup (I should have added a third for more orange flavor, but I only had two) and added milk until I had two cups of liquid. Then I stirred in half a cup of sugar and poured it all in the ice cream maker.



After watching  half an episode of Sesame Street with my toddler, I checked on my ice cream.



Pretty and delicious!

No-bake Cheesecakes

I go through phases when it comes to food. In the spring, I went through a phase where I made muffins for breakfast pretty much every day. Then I was making edible cookie dough almost every night after dinner. 

For about the last month, all I want is a good cheesecake. I had a slice of mediocre (store bought) cheesecake at a friend’s birthday party, but it was hardly satisfying.

I tried Martha Stuart’s no-bake cheesecake, but it didn’t come together at all. It was just gloopy. Don’t get me wrong, we still ate the whole damn thing. But it didn’t satisfy my craving either. 

Here is my list of the 7 most drool-worthy no-bake cheesecakes that I’ve found on the internet. To be updated as I try them all. 

No-bake cannoli cheesecake. Very good, especially if you have leftover ricotta you don’t want to waste. Doubled the powdered sugar and halved the cinnamon and nutmeg. Will make again to take a picture (which I forgot to do because I was to busy stuffing my face with cheesecake). 

No-bake (classic) cheesecake. 

No-bake chocolate peanut butter cheesecake. 

No-bake cookie dough cheesecake.


No-bake Oreo cheesecake. 

No-bake Snickers cheesecake. Damn tasty. Still needed more sugar than the recipe called for. Did not need caramel drizzled over the top.

No-bake strawberry cheesecake. Good flavor, but too runny to be considered a cheesecake. If I had called it an icebox cake, Hubby probably would have liked it better.

Which one should I make next?