It's officially winter here in Wellington and the cold weather has me thinking about American comfort food. I really want fried chicken and waffles, but my pumpkin pie overnight oats are much easier on the waistline.

The humble pumpkin doesn’t get enough love in the Antipodes. Down here people tend to think pumpkin belongs beside roast chicken, smothered in gravy.

The thing is that roasted pumpkin is rich with a caramel flavour that pairs well with the likes of nutmeg and cinnamon.

Do me a favour. Take a pumpkin half, chop it into wedges and scrape out the seeds. Sprinkle it with brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Pop it in the oven and roast at 180°C until tender (approx 25-30mins). Scrape the flesh from the skin and purée it. Now use that purée to make something sweet.

I love making pumpkin bread. Leftover pumpkin bread is made into French toast.

Leftover purée is used to make overnight oats.

Adapted from this wonderful recipe by Creme de la Crumb

1/2 cup rolled oats
1 teaspoon Chia seeds
1/2 - 3/4 cup milk of your choice (cows milk, almond milk, soy milk...)
1/2 cup Greek yogurt (#puhoi erry'day)
2 teaspoons brown rice syrup
3 tablespoons pumpkin purée
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon mixed spice
Couple drops vanilla extract

Mix everything in a jar or container before you go to bed and let it sit in the fridge overnight. Add more or less milk depending on how wet you want it. 

I heated mine up for about two minutes in the microwave and crumbled some walnuts on top before I dug in.