Give me my daily dose of oats and I’m convinced I can conquer anything. Before obligations and to-do lists start rattling at the door of my mind, I like to prepare a bowl of oats for my thoughts.

I’ve lost count of how many bowls I’ve curated and tasted, but somehow the ideas never stop.
They were made across different cities, kitchens, and seasons, often with whatever ingredients I had at the time. Feel free to substitute, skip, or adapt—each bowl is meant to be created, not replicated.

Enjoy the selection. Top freely. Have fun.

Personal note: Best to be eaten in the slow morning, beside a window, right under the sun or in the embrace of your neighborhood garden.

Raw almonds, fresh raspberries and protein cream oat bowl

Soak the oats in cool high-protein milk. Chop a handful of raw almonds, mix them in, and let it sit for ten minutes—or however you like your oats. I’m not a fan of sticky oats myself.

Top with freshly rinsed raspberries—cold water if you like, and handle them gently if you want to preserve their plumpness and shape. Personally, I cherish form and texture just as much as taste. Half of eating, really, is about the way it feels to the palate.

Lime and mascarpone yogurt oat bowl

This might sound fancier than it is—it isn’t. 🙂 It only asks for a bit of morning effort.
I made this on a day when all my favorite ingredients happened to be in the fridge, but I didn’t feel like eating a large meal. So I experimented.

Sometimes, when I have a bag of fine oats, I like to eat them almost raw, soaked only in yogurt. That morning it was lime-flavored mascarpone yogurt (from Lidl), but Greek yogurt works just as well—add a little lime juice and a touch of vanilla. A spoon of mascarpone is optional, mostly if you like things creamier. The real taste changer is the lime juice. 🍋‍🟩

Chop in some strawberries and raspberries, and add a handful of walnuts (oh, what I’d give for this combination with unripe walnuts—it brings me straight back to childhood).

Pomegranate oat bowl

Soak the oats in warm oat milk with a spoon of cocoa powder and some raw cashews. Let it sit until everything softens. Top generously with fresh pomegranate seeds. I added a piece of dried apricot for a bit of extra fiber and sweetness.

I haven’t made this one in a while, but I love it for the instant energy it gives me and the way it keeps me satisfied for a few hours afterward.

Lindt oat bowl

Sue me, I like to add chocolate here and there in my diet.
I used to go through phases where I wouldn’t touch sugar unless it came from fruit—and then I moved to Switzerland. The rest is history. 😆

From pastries to chocolate to cakes, I opened myself to the Swiss world of sweet artistry. This bowl is one of my favorite memories from my previous home in Geneva. I shared an apartment with a wonderful girl who ended up becoming a dear friend. She’s clearly one of God’s favorites—able to eat half a store-bought cake in a single day and still look effortlessly fantastic.

My genes aren’t quite that calorie-friendly, despite all the sport I do, so I had to improvise. She’s eating cake in her room, and I’m enjoying the view from afar while preparing my Lindt oat bowl—*cries in Swiss chocolate tears*.

Oats, a scoop of high-chocolate protein, high-protein milk, and two mini Lindt squares (one dark, one milk). Yes, it’s chocolate on chocolate on chocolate. Raspberries, of course, for contrast—and balance, at least in spirit.

Tahini, fruit and coconut oat bowl

This oat bowl is a little higher in fats than the others. I made it during Orthodox fasting week, when I wanted something more sustaining. So I added a teaspoon of tahini and a generous amount of toasted coconut.

The flavors balance themselves nicely—the sourness of raspberries and red currants against the sweetness of bananas, with the coconut bringing everything together in a soft, creamy way. The base is fine oats soaked in coconut milk with a teaspoon of unsweetened cocoa.

This bowl came with a lot of gratefulness. The red currants took me back to the simplicity of my childhood and to the economic times my family—and many others—lived through in the Balkans in the early 2000s.

We would often visit my parents’ wedding godparents. They had a red currant bush in their garden, usually left unattended. I would shyly take a few berries and enjoy their sharp taste. Unless someone gave them to us for free, or we found them growing wild, we rarely had red currants. Paying three or five euros for a box of fresh berries felt like a luxury back then.

So yes, apologies if you expected a simple recipe and found a reminder of gratitude instead. For me, this bowl held both the sweet and the sour of life—and no, it wasn’t just the ingredients.

What grows wild for some is nourishment for others.

A bit of everything oat bowl

This was one of my “why not” breakfasts—when I don’t have time to think through flavors but need quick energy before a long day or a heavy workout. It’s warm oats soaked in milk, sweetened with honey and topped with almonds, raisins, cranberries, pitted defrosted cherries, and blueberries.

Many flavors. None wasted. 😆