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:
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
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Stir everything together in a bowl. Place in fridge overnight.
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In the morning top with something crunchy and something with healthy fats – like nut butter or nuts.
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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.
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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.
Recipe Notes
We recommend organic ingredients when feasible.
Bon appétit! How do you eat your oatmeal?
Kath Younger, RD writes a healthy food and lifestyle blog called 
Food Babe Investigates: Frozen Yogurt Gone Bad
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.
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!
Can I use quick oats?
Hi there. You can but you might find the texture a little more mushy. :)
How many servings is the overnight recipe?
Hi. In our house, this is two servings. :)