This is a guest post from Kath Younger with Kath Eats Real Food.
Hi all, it’s Kath from Kath Eats Real Food! I’ve been writing about the real food I’ve been eating and my love for oatmeal breakfasts for over five years now. On my Tribute To Oatmeal page, I have hundreds of bowls of creamy oatmeal filled with toppings galore. One of my favorite oat-based breakfasts happens to be overnight oats. Overnight oats are rolled oats soaked in milk and yogurt for a substantial period of time so they become plump enough to eat. Although you can eat oats plain, they are a bit more appealing when “cooked” or soaked one way or another.
Overnight oats have quite a few perks:
- There’s no cooking at all, which means no pots to clean.
- The breakfast takes 5 minutes to assemble the night before so you can start eating within minutes of waking or on the go.
- You can prep them in any kind of to-go container from Tupperware to a mason jar, so they travel well.
- Packed with protein from Greek yogurt and milk, this breakfast will keep you full all morning.
- You can customize them any way you like with various fruits, nuts, and mix-ins.
There are many variations to overnight oats – vegan versions, no yogurt, plus chia seeds, and more.
This is my very favorite combination:
Overnight Oats From Kath Eats
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup oats (rolled)
- 1/3 cup milk (or more, depending on how thick you like it)
- 1/3 cup Greek yogurt (plain (or plain regular style if you like))
- 1/2 banana
- 1/2 tablespoon chia seeds
- pinch salt
- splash pure vanilla extract
- pinch cinnamon
Instructions
- Stir everything together in a bowl. Place in fridge overnight.
- In the morning top with something crunchy and something with healthy fats – like nut butter or nuts.
- It’s even more fun if you prepare the above in a near-empty jar of your favorite almond, peanut or sunflower butter. Scrape the sides as you enjoy! See more variations here.
- And for even more of a twist, prepare the oats in a blender and store in the fridge overnight. In the morning, blend everything together into a doughy, batter-like smoothie that I call a "Dough Boy." Add toppings to your heart's desire.
Notes
Nutrition Facts
Bon appétit! How do you eat your oatmeal?
Kath Younger, RD writes a healthy food and lifestyle blog called Kath Eats Real Food. The blog is a celebration of life through the lens of real food, documenting over five years of daily meals. She writes about everything from recipes to organization tips to encouraging readers to try new foods, including wheatberries, kale chips, chia seeds, and her famous whipped banana oatmeal. Kath recently launched a second blog, Baby KERF, to document her journey to motherhood.
Kath Younger, RD writes a healthy food and lifestyle blog called 
How many servings is the overnight recipe?
Hi. In our house, this is two servings. :)
Can I use quick oats?
Hi there. You can but you might find the texture a little more mushy. :)
A cup of oatmeal has as much protein as an egg. And a cup of oatmeal has almost as much protein as a cup of milk (and, incidentally, a LOT less sugar). So it’s not just the milk and yogurt that are providing the protein here!
I love warm oatmeal, but feel like I must be doing something wrong as I have tried a few variations of overnight oats and they have turned horrible!! They are a big, cold pile of mush flavored with whatever toppings I added. Am I missing something? :)
Hi Melissa. Maybe you just haven’t found the right combination of flavors for you.
I first ate cold oats in Switzerland and became addicted. The recipe they used was oats soaked in yogurt overnight then in the morning sweeten the oats with fresh squeezed orange juice. They then added diced apple and walnuts. I was told to add milk as needed if you thought the yogurt needed thinning. They also recommended using steel cut oats.
So you eat them cold?
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I’m not much of an oatmeal person, but this sounds good. If like to try it…but I guess I’m just a little confused. Do you eat it cold? I’ve definitely never tried cold oatmeal!
Sprinkle with pumpkin & sunflower seeds in the morning for some texture / crunch!
I don’t put milk in my oatmeal. Sometimes I’ll use oat milk in my granola. Otherwise I like to soak my oats in apple juice with currants and almonds and a sprinkle of cinnamon. :)
This is my favorite way to eat oatmeal. :)
Steel Cut oats with pumpkin
Yummy warm and spicy. My house smells like pumpkin pie :) This makes 4: 1 cup servings
Ingredients
1 cup canned Pumpkin
1 cup Steel Cut Oats with flax and bran (Rogers brand)
1 tsp vanilla
1 Tbs cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
dash of salt
3 cups water
Tips
For sweetness you can add what you like ie white sugar,brown sugar, honey, even Maple syrup would be yummy
Directions
Put everything into a small crockpot before you go to bed and cook on low until morning 6-8 hours. Stir well and serve.
I make this all the time for my husband and myself. I tend to skip the geek yogurt and just add unsweetened chocolate of vanilla almond milk instead. We both love it and it’s so easy, just grab and go if you’re in a hurry.