Baked maple apple oatmeal & HIIT

With family staying with us for the holidays, my usual morning routine has changed. I’m spending more time chatting and catching up in the morning  and we are also eating more food than usual. Since I’m not cooking just for myself anymore, one way that I’ve streamlined breakfast is to prep the ingredients the night before.

I can get my workout in the morning, pop the dishes in the oven while I take a shower and have a hot breakfast waiting when I’m done.

Baked Maple Apple oatmeal

Ingredients:

2 2/3 cups old-fashioned oats

1/2 cup raisins

1/4 cup real maple syrup (not pancake syrup)

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 1/2 cups vanilla soymilk

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

2 medium unpeeled apples (chopped)

Chopped toasted walnuts

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat oven to 350˚F. Grease casserole with coconut oil or cooking spray. In a bowl, stir together oats, raisins, syrup, cinnamon, salt, vanilla extract, soymilk, applesauce and apples. Then pour into the casserole.

2.    Bake uncovered 45 to 50 minutes or until most of liquid is absorbed. Sprinkle with walnuts. You can also pour more soymilk if you like your baked oatmeal to be a little wet.

We usually have leftovers whenever I make this dish, so the next day I just add more soymilk and heat it up in the microwave.

The most used appliance in the kitchen these days in the oven. I wish I had a double oven so I can crank up the holiday cookie baking while I make other dishes in the 2nd oven. But for now, each dish will have to take turns.

I’m still learning how to streamline breakfast preparation and have been searching for recipes that I can prep the night before.

Workout

I’ve also streamlined my workout on days where I’m short for time. This is when HIIT workouts come in handy. I spend 30 minutes on the treadmill and get a heart pumping workout without wasting time.

I still prefer to run outside and do my leisurely jog around the neighborhood, but doing HIITs have been my second option. Trust me, it works. I have the sweat stains on the treadmill to prove it.

For those of you who don’t know what HIIT is, HIIT is a training idea in which low to moderate intensity intervals are alternated with high intensity intervals

I’ve been doing the following treadmill workout, which I found here.

My current workout schedule is about 4-5 days a week, I alternate strength training days (i.e. Body Pump classes) and cardio days.

My rest days are spent walking around Disneyland or shopping or running errands.

What is your workout schedule during the holidays? Do you workout more, workout less or stop completely until the after New Years?

I try to fit in a workout but I’m not that strict about it during holidays. I’m busy spending time with family and friends. I would rather get more sleep than workout when I’m tired.