STASH POCKET OATS — Salad Grinds and Bean Plants #33
STASH POCKET OATS
(Overnight Oats with Hemp Protein Powder, Almond Butter and Maple Syrup)
WORDS: Johnny Lozano
While skateboarding is embracing physical and mental health more and more every day, it’s no secret that there has always been a link between skateboarding and drug culture. To be fair, skateboarding is not the only subversive sport that invites the comparison, but even the most recent Lakai video had the obligatory puff-puff-pass every ten minutes.
That’s also not to suggest that the two cultures overlap entirely; plenty of notable pros and ams have openly eschewed drugs and alcohol and touted the obvious benefits of sobriety. And to put an even finer point on it, some companies are now embracing the curative powers of CBD or finding ways to make THC more conducive to impressively wholesome skate trips (just ask Braydon).
The annoying reality of mixing skateboarding with mainstream marketing is that mall brands try to capitalize on druglore, while still staying clean enough to deny allegations of promoting more unsavory habits. I laughed at Trevor Wallace’s impression of Every Zumiez Employee Ever, but it’s painfully true: at least by the time I got into it, skateboarding catalogs 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 a little more tastefully coy. One item was even surreptitious enough to hold a very special place in my heart: the stash pocket, particularly the pocket in Chad Muska’s C1RCA CM901 shoe. To fully expose my adolescent 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 though my skateboarding abilities were too limited to form any kind of credible opinion, I thought it skated exceptionally well.
While the CM901 was almost certainly designed to transport more controversial derivatives of Cannabis Sativa, my favorite derivative is found in the kitchen. Hemp, as a textile and a nutritional supplement 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, and isn’t chockful 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. Both immediately before and immediately after skating, I’ve noticed that I don’t feel like cooking right away; instead, I tend to grab whatever is close and relatively healthy: 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. 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
- 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
- Bananas, shredded coconut and walnuts for topping (optional)
DIRECTIONS:
- 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.
- Once it’s mixed and the almond butter is loose/relaxed and evenly dispersed, close the container lid and stash it in the fridge for a few hours or overnight.
- Take it out, stir it up and add any toppings you want. Chow down and go skate.
Happy shredding,
Johnny
For more recipes, check out_ www.saladgrindsandbeanplants.com _or find us on Instagram at @salad_grinds_and_bean_plants.
