(Overnight Oats with Hemp Protein Powder and Almond Butter)

When I first started skating back in 2000, my parents warned me that skateboarders were notorious advocates of recreational drug use and suggested that I should be wary of idolizing them as role models.  Being the young, straight-and-narrow pup that I was, I didn’t believe that skateboarders used drugs…at all.  Truthfully, I have no clue how I was that willfully blind, but somehow I was convinced that every skateboarder was just like me: completely fulfilled by being on the board and entirely oblivious to nefarious substances.

The annoying reality of mixing skateboarding with mainstream marketing is that mall brands try to capitalize on druglore, while still staying clean enough to fool apparently only me and a handful of parents.  I laughed at Trevor Wallace’s impression of Every Zumiez Employee Ever (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIG0HJX-lc0), but it’s painfully true: at least by the time I got into it, skateboarding catalogues had artfully mastered the balance of profiting off drug culture while still allegedly rebuking it.

Of course it wasn’t all as obvious back then as HUF socks are today; some of it was tastefully coy enough to earn my allowance money, particularly the stash pocket.  Any skate shoe aficionado is well-versed in Muska’s old shoe models, particularly the C1RCA CM901, which made the stash pocket a highly coveted amenity (again, emphasizing my own past innocence, I loved the stash pocket and was entirely convinced that it was harmlessly engineered as a secret vessel meant to carry a couple of bucks and a house key).

 

I don’t mean to highlight only the clandestine transportation abilities of the CM901; all-in-all it was a beautiful shoe (for its time), and was a pioneer among shoes that embraced over-the-top impact protection and an unabashed overload of technical innovations.

 

The Muska has created some pretty wild shoes (some undoubtedly more functional than others), but he wasn’t the only one to let his designs be influenced by the sweet leaf.  Back in April of this year, Ripped Laces put together a list of “Skateboarding’s Most 420 Skate Shoes.”  As an initial note, if you’re not following Ripped Laces, you should be.  Their site is a great mix of informative articles, reviews, interviews and good ole’ fashioned skate shoe porn.  Unsurprisingly, the CM901 is first on their list of shoes, but they also pay homage to some lesser-known collabs and, of course, the Ipath Cats.  Check their blog out here:

http://www.rippedlaces.com

What doesn’t make their list are the few models that actually used hemp as a material in the shoe.  Hemp, as a textile and a nutritional supplement (rather than as a drug) has a multitude of uses and also boasts some legitimate health benefits.  I don’t often use protein powders in my recipes, but when I do, I prefer hemp protein.  While it comes in flavored varieties, I have grown very fond of the earthy tones of natural, unflavored hemp powder.  It’s ridiculously high in protein (90 calories of hemp powder offers 15 grams of protein), is cheap (as far as protein powders go), and isn’t chock-full of artificial sweeteners.  Additionally, while perhaps not quite up to the beneficial ratio that whole hemp hearts offer, hemp protein powder is still high in omega-3 fatty acids and both soluble and insoluble fiber.

While I’ve started adding it to a few different items, one of my favorites has been in overnight oats. If you’re like me, either right before or right after skating you’re not in the mood to start cooking: enter overnight oats.  If you haven’t made overnight oats, welcome to the hands-down easiest way to have delicious, chilled oatmeal on hand.  By mixing all the ingredients and letting them sit overnight (or at least a few hours prior to eating), you have a delectable, creamy treat that’s ready to eat either as pre-skating fuel or as a post-skating recovery.

This recipe below aims to achieve an optimal pre- or post-skating balance of quick carbs, healthy fats, and natural protein.  Note that if you’re looking for a saccharine dessert, there are plenty of overnight oats recipes for that; this is not one of them.  You can certainly sweeten it up by using a flavored hemp protein powder, but the unflavored is going to give it a very earthy flavor (even when mixed with cocoa) that may catch you off guard at first (I love it more than the sweetened stuff now).  That said, I’m by no means against some sweeter overnight oats, so feel free to give it a try with different flavors!

Here’s how it’s done.

INGREDIENTS:

• ½ cup old-fashioned oats
• ½ cup almond or cashew milk
• 2 tbsp almond butter
• 1 tbsp pure maple syrup (agave will work, too)
• ¼ cup of unflavored hemp protein powder (flavored will work, too)
• 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• Bananas for topping (optional)
• Shredded coconut for topping (optional)
• Walnuts for topping (optional)

DIRECTIONS:

1. This one is not rocket science. There’s no specific order to this; just mix all of the ingredients in a container, except the optional toppings.  It helps if you close the container lid first and shake it up before mixing with a spoon – this will help mix the protein powder a little more evenly.
2. Once it’s mixed and the almond butter is a loose/relaxed and evenly dispersed, close the container lid and stash it in the fridge for a few hours or overnight.
3. Take it out, stir it up and add any toppings you want. Chow down and go skate.
4. If you’re lucky enough to still have a pair of any of Muska’s stash pocket C1RCAs, please tag me and/or Ripped Laces in a photo on Instagram!

Yield: 1 serving.  Per serving: 560 calories, 25g fat, 55g carbs, 32g protein.

Happy shredding,

Johnny