Sweet Cinnamon Overnight Oats Recipe + Planetary Imperatives from a 5 Year Old Worried For His Future Children

You can use any plant milk as a sub.

Don’t have dates on hand or want this to be even easier? Add whatever low-glycemic sweetener you prefer.

Don’t have nutritional yeast? It isn’t necessary (just adds a creamier, deeper flavor) and you could add more vanilla to punch up the flavor. Though, for your health, you should start buying nutritional yeast. :-)

You can also make this super cheap if you make your own easy oatmilk.

Q and I have been picking a lot of berries lately as a means to save money, get some sun, and get our bodies moving; and one of my favorite things about these jaunts is that I can mindlessly pick berries while absorbing all his fantastical tales or listen deeply to whatever’s on his mind.

Yesterday he gutted me when he said, “Sometimes I worry that my babies won’t have enough water to drink, and they’ll never see a real live octopus. It makes me really sad.”

There are many irrational fears a kid can come up with that I can easily unpack and dispel, but this one is a valid fear that set me back a breath to regroup and swallow down a broken heart that rose like a lump in my throat.

How do I comfort my son when I know and he knows that you’re eating his future?

In that moment, I said I understood why he’d worry, reminded him that I am doing all I can to shake people awake so that fear doesn’t become an eventuality, that there are other souls popping up all over the earth trying to do the same, and all we can do is keep illuminating and focusing on what’s right in front of us…like berries. Within a few minutes he was back to pretending that we were mining for spice on Arrakis.

But for you selfish, stubborn, standstill souls: the facts are clear. Animal Agriculture is the leading cause of environmental damage. The biggest thing you could do to help repair this environment BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE is to switch to a plant-based diet.

Our scientists are urging you to switch to a plant-based diet, our doctors are urging you to (<—AGAIN Plant-Based Whole-Foods are the healthiest diet, and animal products are filling you with disease while ruining this earth!!!), the United Nations is radiating the same message, my son (an old soul already worried about his children and the fate of his beloved cephalopods) is imploring you with a heart far too heavy for his age, and I’ll be over here illuminating and shaking-you-awake until the day I die. The stakes are too high, and humanity’s selfish complacency is a blight that makes me howl.

That my 5 YEAR OLD can understand what grown adults can easily ignore, is something that makes my blood boil. He sees humanity eating his future and he wonders why folks could be so careless. I wonder the same thing, because we know better and yet I see people marching on down the same path and ignoring the facts or repeatedly saying “Someday...”

We’re past the point of “Someday…”

We need to start taking steps forward now.

Continue for: our favorite PLANT-BASED WHOLE-FOOD way to start the day (<—remember, “Saving The Planet Begins At Breakfast”, this Sweet Cinnamon Oatmeal is a delicious way to move forward, and it's an Overnight recipe so you don't even need to cook it!), why I’ll be spending 4th of July at home and avoiding a family cookout of disease and environmental harm (additionally: why I will no longer meet with folks and the fresh souls they’ve brought into this world if those parents are still selfishly doubling down on a diet that is ruining that soul’s future. My heart can’t bear it and my brain can’t reconcile the negligence), plus 2 full days of a family living-by-example and showing y’all how you can eat joyfully, healthfully, kindly, cheaply on Plant-Based Whole-Foods.

Live Kindly, Feast Kindly, Grow Froward Please.

Ingredients for a batch of sweet cinnamon overnight oats: whole oats, oatmilk, cinnamon, dates, vanilla, and nutritional yeast. (salt per taste)

There are so many topping options! <3
Here’s a Q favorite: blackberries, golden flax, and peanuts.

My favorite: banana, berry sauce (<—add berries to a pan, simmer until they’ve reduced their liquid, puree, add seasonings-per-taste), flax meal, and cashew cream.

Similar to above, but if you add crushed up pecans it tastes like berry cobbler. :-)

Or skip the berries and just go with nuts and flax meal. (If you’re doing maple, that’d be delicious on this.)

And if you don’t have fresh berries on hand, frozen ones can be reheated. This is another Q favorite: strawberries and peaches.

So, you could start your morning with chicken menstruation which is ruining your endothelial system and flooding your body with TMAO which leads to cardiovascular disease; you could start your morning with some carcinogenic bacon and sausage that is filling you with cardiovascular disease and cancer (<—processed meats and red meat have been directly-linked-to-cancer since 2015); you could gobble down some processed and/or fermented breastmilk from a species who suffers to give it to you & consumption of this heartbreak is giving you cancer and even more diseases; and all of the above are ruining the environment for every species and soul on this earth.

If there's anything you care about beyond yourself, you could start pivot beyond those choices.

Start your day with something that will fuel you with health/vitality/power, is full of essential fiber, is absolutely delicious, can be adapted to your taste-preference in a myriad of vectors, and is kind to the earth.

From Undo It by Dr Dean Ornish.

From We Are The Weather

Q’s Morning Chalkboard

We ditched the dishwasher (<—never worked right, and we like saving resources by handwashing/air-drying) and put in a little fridge to catch the overflow from our CSA, and to give Q a space where he has easy access to the foods he prepares for himself. (That container between his head and arm is a double batch of sweet cinnamon oatmeal in a container he can easily open.)

Plant-Based Whole-Food Kiddo Breakfast Q made himself: cinnamon sweet oats, apple, golden flax, a little peanut butter, and 2 pecans. :-)

He has energy for days! (That’s two of him because he moved fast while I was taking the shot.)

Worried your kid won’t get the nutrients they need on a plant-based whole-food diet? I’ve covered that in spades, and here’s a direct link extolling the health BENEFITS from the Physicians For Responsible Medicine.

Berry picking in pandemic times.

“What I like most about picking raspberries is that I don’t have to hunch over like I do with strawberries. Raspberries are a nicer fruit.”

Our ash was killed by emerald ash bore and felled by Apple Valley Tree Service. Huzzah for firewood.

Plant-Based Whole-Food Lunch Prep

Romaine, green onions, snap peas, pepitas, black rice, sunflower curry sauce, and quick-pickled medley.

Plant-Based Dessert: Chocolate Mint Nice Cream

Homeschooling a Sci-Fi enthusiast continued. :-)

What’s a shai-hulud? It’s a sandworm from Dune (<—part of our nightly reading.)

Plant-Based Taco Tuesday: black beans, steam-seared mushrooms with peppers, green onions, fresh lettuce, “Holy Moly!” sauce, and quick-pickled medley.

Nightly Reading (with some interesting discussions about how disgusting and harmful “green eggs and ham” would be and how we need to keep illuminating people about the benefits and deliciousness of plant-based whole-foods.)

An on-the-go breakfast for Q.

What fills my kiddo up so he doesn’t even mention food until I holler “Lunch time!”? Complex carbs like this apple (which is full of fiber) and protein dense walnuts.

Another morning of berry picking with my favorite old-soul.

We picked 8lbs of raspberries, and then I went home and mowed the lawn before lunch.

Plant-Based Whole-Food Lunch: Romaine, green onions, snap peas, red peppers, Ruby Kraut (<—red cabbage), leftover seared mushrooms and peppers from those tacos, sunflower curry sauce, quick-pickled medley, and a purple sweet potato for me and roasted golden ones for him.

Plant-Based Whole-Food Dessert: cashew cream cake.

Continued sci-fi enthusiast homeschooling: Shai-huluds are on the mind! :-)

Zero-Waste Low-Budget Meal-Prepping.

We kept all the reusable bags from frozen fruit that carried us through Spring’s quarantine, and have been filling them with freshly picked fruit and throwing them back in the freezer to get us through the winter.

Navarino Orchard is not organic, and if you want to make sure you get all the pesticides off of your fruit, make sure you soak them in a solution of 1 tsp baking soda per 2 cups water. It removes all of the pesticides that may be on there.

I never knew about this pesticide hack until I heard it on this brilliant interview with Nutritionist James Marin titled “Bettering Your Health With Environmental Nutrition”.

Not only will you get an illuminating overview of the toxins that are commonly found in our foods, you’ll get one of the best explanations of how your microbiome and digestive system work together, how the Standard American Diet causes diabetes, how keto is ruining your health, and much more.

I listened to that podcast 6 times over the last few months and I’d happily listen to it again. Set yourself aside the mental space for a listen and you’ll have you whole mind and world opened up.

Plant-Based Dinner

Salads are not my favorite meal, but we’ve hit summer, and as seen in Sunday’s-post I have a lot of greens I need to eat through, so we are making the most of what we’ve got.

Here seen: kale, lettuce, pea tendrils, green onions bell peppers, quick-pickled medley, and steam-seared mushrooms & lentil loaf. Topped it all with a toasted sesame dressing and it was so good Q asked for seconds.

Plant-Based Whole-Food Dessert: sweet cinnamon oats with raw raspberry sauce (simply pureed berries we picked in the morning and added a little lemon juice and cinnamon), flax meal, and “breakfast cereal” cashew cream.

Even Rad got a raspberry. :-) (This was completely gone by this morning.)

Nightly Reading

What’s the most impactful thing you can do as an individual to help your kin, community, millions of species, and planet? Transition as plant-based as possible.🌎♥️

Why? Plant-Based foods are environmentally imperative 🌎. They also promote ideal health💪 (which takes stress off our overburdened health care system), are inexpensive🙌, delicious🤤, & compassionate. 💕  

Why imperative, though? 🤔We’re approaching (& have crossed) climate tipping points that will doom our kin & millions of other species. 😱📣Reducing/eliminating animal products is the *most impactful thing an individual can do* to prevent worse. 🌎🔥

Why? Animal Agriculture creates more emissions than the entire transportation sector combined, it’s tied to water waste/loss/pollution (<-- freshwater is our most precious resource💧), land loss/deforestation (<-- exacerbates climate change by reducing our ability to sequester carbon🔥🌎), ocean acidification (<-- FYI 50-85% of earth’s oxygen originates from oceanic plankton🌊) & vast species loss/extinction/suffering💔📣🌎

Plus, consuming animal products is tied to increased risk of cardiovascular disease❤️‍🩹, diabetes👎, cancer👎, and chronic disease👎; whereas Plant-Based feasting is linked to preventing/reversing some of our most common diseases (<— like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer); plus it promotes ideal health & robust strength (ie Olympians, Weightlifters, Endurance Athletes are thriving via PBWFs too). 🎉🙌♥️

What organizations are promoting plant-based diets for best health and environmental stability? National Institutes of Health,  Mayo Clinic, Yale, the United Nations, Harvard School of Health,  American Heart Association, American College of Cardiology, American Cancer Society, American Diabetes Association, The American Academy of Pediatrics, National Kidney Foundation, even the Parkinson’s Foundation.

We’re all overwhelmed in one way or another, but for the sake of our kin (and the millions of species we share this planet with) we need to start pivoting forward. As someone who once rarely ate green things & used to eat animal products at every meal, I can assure you that is possible, affordable, enjoyable, & purposeful to pivot Plant-Based. In fact, our whole family is now healthier/stronger than ever. 🙌♥️

Anecdotally, our son had failure-to-thrive, was also plagued with perpetual ear-infections/sinus-infections, and had an omnipresent runny nose. What was he eating? Grass-fed milk, organic/antibiotic-free/grass-fed/local meats, eggs from organic-fed/well-loved chickens from a neighbor, every meal came with vegetables, and we limited junkfood. He was healed via a plant-based diet: he’s launched out of that diagnosis and the last time he had a sinus-infection (or was sick at all) was in 2019 when he had some cheese at a school Christmas party. Before shifting to PBWF’s he was sick every month, and how he’s a robust, vital, thriving kiddo. 🙌🎉♥️

If you think any of the above sounds over-reached/absurd/impossible, please go read the links above. I understand the inclination to hackle-raise (<—because I was once totally there) but the science is clear: any step we make forward is imperative (<—and again “STEPS” is the focus. Don’t leap, just start making steps!). It’s as simple as starting with one meal a week and growing from there.💕

We have the ability (deliciously, healthfully, kindly, inexpensively) to *preserve/protect* the planet we share with millions of species & our kin. How are we going to use that power today?✌️🤟🖖