Goat Milk Kefir Overnight Oats

Three words: Goat's milk & honey. Holler.

These are two things you will often find in my diet, whether is creamy goat cheese with honey and figs on crackers, goat yogurt drizzled with honey and cinnamon, or most recently goat kefir. If you haven't tried goat milk products aside from cheese, you've got some seriously delicious branching out to do!

Last year when I was working in Fuerteventura, one of the Canary Islands, known for it's goat cheese, my friend Manuel found a woman up the road in our village who runs a goat farm where she makes and sells goat's milk and cheese. We were making fresh yogurt at the retreat for brunch, and he wanted to look into making goat yogurt instead. It would be locally sourced from humanely raised goats, the health benefits would be greater than those of cow's milk yogurt. It seemed like a really great idea. So we got some milk, and a jar of goat yogurt to use as a bacteria start, and we gave it a try.

The next day, there we were, sitting in our kitchen with two small dishes of goat yogurt to taste, both of us staring at our bowls waiting for the other person to try it first. I smelled it, which I wouldn't recommend doing. It had a strong scent, definitely not to be confused with cow's milk yogurt. With a count of three, we both raised our spoons to try it at the same time.

Mmm.. not bad, not bad at all.

Actually, it was pretty great, even better when topped with honey! Here's my disclaimer, this is not cow's milk, so don't expect it to taste like cow's milk. Goat products certainly have their own unique taste that is to be enjoyed. You'll never know until you try!

I was so excited when I returned from the Canaries to find a company called Redwood Hill Farm offering goat milk products, from cheeses, to yogurt, to kefir. Their products don't contain any added preservatives, gelatin, refined sugars. The goat's milk products in the U.S. aren't nearly as strong as those that we tasted and made in Spain, which is totally fine. This is more accessible to our market, and it gets people on board with the benefits of alternate dairy. To name a few, read more on this post for my Raspberry Goat Whey Protein Shake.

The recipe below is one for overnight oats, made with goat kefir, chia seeds, and rolled oats. You mix it all together, and let it sit in the fridge overnight, and in the morning you have a chilled pudding-like consistency or healthy proteins, fats, and complex carbohydrates. Overnight oats are a great breakfast staple, they can be made with almond or rice milk too, just reduce the amount of liquid to 1/2 cup.

What's even better is that it's whipped together the night before in 5 minutes, and it's ready to go in the morning. No excuses for not having time for breakfast!

Goat Kefir Overnight Oats serves 1

goat kefir, honey, cinnamon, blackberries

• 3/4 cup goat kefir
• 1 tsp honey
•  1/2 cup rolled oats
• 1 Tbsp chia seeds
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
•  1/2 cup blackberries
• 1 Tbsp slivered almonds, optional
• Additional honey and cinnamon

Method

Stir kefir and honey together in a medium bowl. Add rolled oats, chia seeds and cinnamon, stir until everything is well-incorporated. Cover and place in the fridge overnight.

In the morning, remove from the fridge and top with blackberries, slivered almonds, and additional cinnamon and honey.

Enjoy!