Sometimes, I just can’t resist, even when my brain tells me it is just too soon. The other day as I walked into the doors at Whole Foods a wave of that sweet strawberry smell hit me from the shiny and all so red display, and I just couldn’t help myself from picking up a pint. The thing is it’s still a bit early in the strawberry season so they weren’t quite that cusp of summer sweetness that I was really craving. So what to do? Well, roast them of course!! And I’m sharing with you my genius use of them 😛

Also, for full disclosure the ones pictured were actually super delicious and sweet, the other time I did this recipe not so much…so maybe we just aren’t getting the good strawberries all the time 🙂 Either way, roasting turns them extra delicious.

Roasted Strawberry Goodness

• 16oz/1lb strawberries
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 tablespoon (heaping) brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (I used my home-made bourbon version for this one)

Pre-heat oven to 350°F. Prepare baking sheet with parchment paper. Remove tops and slice strawberries in half (maybe quarters if you have jumbo sized ones). Toss strawberries with olive oil, brown sugar, and vanilla extract. I just pile the strawberries on the baking sheet and then pour the ingredients on, but you can be fancy and do it in a separate bowl too 🙂 Hey, one less dish! Either way spread the coated strawberries into a loose mound in the middle of the baking sheet. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes (I went more like 23 but I know our oven is slow), you want the juices to be runny and strawberries soft. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

For ONE Individual Jar

• 1/4 cup strawberry goodness
• 1/2 teaspoon to 2 tablespoons raw sugar (this depends on your taste, how sweet your strawberries are & how sweet the yogurt is)
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup old fashioned oats
• 1/4 cup vanilla yogurt
• 1/4 cup cup plain almond milk

Once the strawberries have cooled. Put 1/4 heaping cup in bottom of quart sized mason jar, make sure to add some of the juice too…I just scooped that up with a spoon and added it in.  Add in the sugar, you can taste the raw mixture to get an idea so maybe start with the minimum or what your gut says 🙂 Really even two tablespoons shouldn’t make it uneatable super sweet. Pinch of salt (optional). Make sure the strawberries are cooled before adding in the oats, yogurt or almond milk…no steam should be coming from them. Add in the oats, vanilla yogurt, and almond milk. Put lid on the mason jar and shake, shake, shake…you want it to be all mixed. You can now taste the mixture, try to get just the milky part and check sweetness.  Re-close and stick in the fridge overnight (duh) and tomorrow you will have a great breakfast to wake-up to. I’ve made this and kept it up to 3 days, I’m sure it would be fine for the week.

NOTES
For 1lb strawberries I got 3 jars of strawberry overnight oats. So the ingredients above needs to be times 3 to use up all your strawberries. If you get a bad batch of berries (ie you are discarding a lot) you may only get two jars, this happened on one of my trials.

Regular milk works fine too. I used unsweetened plain almond milk, if you use vanilla you may want to use the lower sugar amount.

You can use plain yogurt as well, but then you might want to increase the sugar used. I used a grass-fed yogurt once and the another time a greek yogurt. I think the greek yogurt makes it a bit more creamy and of course you get the extra protein boost too.

What do you do with fruit you need to use up?