Mexican Chocolate Overnight Oats

Mornings are hard. Some mornings for instance you step on the cat on your way to the bathroom, have an unfortunate incident with a plunger, and skip breakfast and lunch because of this or that emergency at work. I don’t know about you, but my morning routine needs a little help. Because I work from home I do have the luxury of sleeping in later than your average Jo(e). But I should probably be using that extra time to mindfully begin my day, rather than watching Emily Blunt late-night interview montage videos on my phone – I’m sure you have your own version of this.

Then how do I make my mornings a bit more zen?

Well first thing is that I’ve got to stop reaching for my phone as soon as I open my eyes each morning. So beginning today I am going to charge my phone in a separate room at night, so the temptation is just not there (probably a good idea for a more peaceful bedtime too, now that I think of it). Next on the agenda is five minutes of quiet meditation to center myself and get ready for the day – hopefully this does not just turn into falling back asleep. And lastly (at least for now – we’ll see how things go before we get hog wild on the positive change here) we have breakfast.

Breakfast is sometimes difficult for me. I have a kitchen at my disposal, so I often use the time that I would otherwise waste on senseless internet memes and instead make pancakes. This is not entirely horrible, because pancakes are delicious. But you really can’t eat them consistently during the work week and expect to be firing on all cylinders, unless maybe you do something physically strenuous for a living, which I do not. Also pancakes create dishes – like more dishes than I want to do on a Tuesday morning when the phone just WON’T STOP RINGING.

Ok, so we need a healthy, easy, minimally messy breakfast, and duh it’s also gotta be delicious. There are plenty of options here of course. There is not just one, perfect, weekday breakfast for us all. But in this moment, as the temps begin to dip ever so slightly, I am feeling something a little cozier.

Enter these Mexican chocolate overnight oats (god it took me FOREVER to get to the god damn point, amirite?). These fit the bill all over the place like some kind of bill fitting machine! Easy to make, delicious to eat, and with just enough sweetness and chocolately flavor that you almost forget that they’re way good for you too. You’ve got your healthy fats, complete protein, fiber like whoa, and even some good, spicy juju from a sprinkle of cinnamon and cayenne pepper – crazy I know!

So with that I think I have the breakfast part of my new morning routine settled. And if I end up ditching everything else and just eating chocolate overnight oats while I watch internet videos mindlessly for half an hour each morning…well self-care comes in many forms, my friends.

Oh and if chocolate isn’t your thing, go check out this light and fresh lemon version!

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