Breakfast/Snack: Fruity and Nutty Yogurt Oatmeal

My reasons for preparing food for breakfast/lunch at work or on-the-go:
1. Many factors impact a day's happiness. Maximize control of what I can.
2. Maximize opportunity to develop creativity.
3. Save money for more dinners at great restaurants to enjoy the food and the design, and to draw inspirations for home cooking.

For breakfast at work or on-the-go, a fruity and nutty yogurt oatmeal cup is the most convenient. Takes only two minutes to prepare the night before.


Recipe:

Serving: 1

1 fruit bottom yogurt/vanilla yogurt, 8oz

1/2 cup oats

Additional fruits/dried fruits and nuts to your liking

(In the picture, I used strawberry fruit bottom yogurt, oats, blueberries and toasted sesame seeds.)

Mix all ingredients in an air-tight container, seal and store in the fridge. Enjoy it the next day :-) Overnight soaking in the yogurt gives the oats a soft and pleasant texture. For more crunchy nutty taste, you can put nuts in a ziplock bag and add right before you eat it next day.

For fruit bottom yogurt, we tried a few brands, so far our favorites are Stew Leonard's and Costco's Kirkland brand (it's actually Swiss style). Stew Leonard's is a fun and uniquely designed supermarket in upstate NY and CT with its own diary farm. Actually the farm came first and expanded into a supermarket. The store is like a farm house, a Disney world, a gourmet center, a garden, all combined. We always stop by when returning from hiking trips upstate NY or skiing trips in Vermont. Sometimes, we just drive to its Yonker's store as a destination from Manhattan.

We get Quaker oats from Costco, great price (before factoring in the garage fee, the bridge/tunnel toll and gas :-)! From personal perspective, it would be nice if Costco gets to open a location in Manhattan (this seems to be a controversial issue to many others though.)

Banana and walnut work well with this yogurt oatmeal too.