No time in the morning? Make these easy overnight oats loaded with extra protein! Just 5 basic ingredients, give them a stir, and refrigerate overnight. In the morning, or in just a few hours, they are ready to eat with your favorite toppings.
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Easy, trending, overnight oats are really not new. The history of overnight oats as a recipe goes back more than a century. The idea of taking oats and soaking them overnight in yogurt and fruit juice or milk called “muesli” was, and still is, a typical Swiss and German breakfast.
While the Kellogg brothers in America were making crunchy, tasty, cornflakes to serve as a healthy breakfast, a Swiss physician named Maximilian Bircher-Brenner was perfecting his version of breakfast cereal, Bircher Muesli, with the same goal in mind; make a healthy, tasty, breakfast.
What I like about overnight oats is that they are cool. No, not cool like boss, far-out, dope, or sic. I mean they are cold. Just like a cooked breakfast warms you up on a cold day, nothing beats a cool breakfast in hot weather.
Overnight oats can be measured and mixed in less than 5 minutes. Then store them in any container with a lid overnight in the refrigerator. But if you want to be trendy, go ahead and make them in a jar with a screw top lid and you have breakfast on the go!
So, let's make some oats!
Ingredients
For my overnight oats I like to use high protein milk, high protein oatmeal, and Greek yogurt.
These ingredients will give you a boost of extra protein and a creamy texture to your overnight oats. The chia seeds will set the oatmeal and give it a creamy, pudding-like texture, and the honey adds just a touch of sweetness.
Instructions
Put all of the basic ingredients into a glass bowl or jar and give it a good stir to combine everything.
The oat mixture will be thin. Cover the bowl or jar with a lid or cling wrap and put it in the refrigerator. After two hours the mixture with be thickened, but the oats will not yet be softened. After about four hours the mixture will be thick and the oats will be soft. So, "overnight oats" don't have to sit overnight. You can make them early in the morning for lunch.
Time to grab a spoon and enjoy! You can simply top your overnight oats with whatever you like, and you are good to go. Personally, I like to layer my oatmeal with fruit and/or nuts.
For example, here is how I layer the overnight oats with strawberries: I first spoon a layer of the overnight oats into the bottom of a glass and then add cut strawberries on top of the layer of oats.
Slicing strawberries very thin will let the berries curve against the glass and make everything look so pretty!
I then chop a few strawberries and fill the center of the glass with more fruit!
Lastly, I cover the layer of strawberries with more overnight oats and top off with more strawberries.
My Top Tips
Overnight oats will keep in the refrigerator up to 3 days. So, you can double or triple the recipe and then portion it out to eat over subsequent days with your favorite toppings. Do not add fruit at the time you mix overnight oats. The fruit and toppings are best when added fresh each day to a portion of the soaked oats.
For even more ideas of how you can top and change up the flavor of your overnight oats, be sure to check out the recipes on both the Quaker Oats and the Kodiak Cakes sites.
Substitutions & Variations
❤️ SUBSTITUTE ROLLED OATS or OLD FASHIONED OATS - for the high protein oats.
❤️ SUBSTITUTE PLAIN YOGURT or SOUR CREAM - for the greek yogurt.
❤️ SUBSTITUTE AGAVE or MAPLE SYRUP - for the honey.
❤️ MAKE IT SIMPLE and ECONOMIC - The only ingredients you must have are oats and a soaking liquid. Use equal parts of oats and your liquid. A single portion would be ½ Cup of oats to ½ cup of liquid.
❤️ MAKE IT VEGAN - Omit the greek yogurt and use your favorite soy milk, nut milk, or oat milk instead of the high protein milk.
Toppings
❤️ Fresh or Dried Fruit - Berries, apples, bananas, pineapple, and kiwi.
❤️ Nuts - Almonds, walnuts, pecans
❤️ Nut Butters - Peanut butter, almond butter, hazelnut-chocolate spread, and cashew butter.
❤️ Trail Mix & Coconut
❤️ Jams and Jellies - Just pick your favorite!
❤️ Syrups - Maple, butterscotch, and fruit flavored.
❤️ Spices - Cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, cardamon, and coriander.
If you’ve only had your oatmeal cooked and hot, you are missing out on the easiest way to enjoy oats!
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Related Recipes
📖 Recipe
High Protein Overnight Oats
Ingredients
- 1 Cup Steel Cut Oats, Kodiak Cakes Protein Oats
- 1 Cup High Protein Whole Milk, Fairlife
- ½ Cup Greek Yogurt, Fage, Unflavored
- 2 Tablespoons Chia Seed
- 2 Tablespoons Honey
Instructions
- To a four cup bowl, jar, or container, add the steel cut protein oats, high protein milk, greek yogurt, chia seed, and honey. Stir well.
- Cover the container and refrigerate overnight, or at least four hours.
- Divide the overnight oats into two portions and serve them in a bowl or glass with your favorite fruit, nuts, and toppings. A jar with a lid is a convenient way to transport the overnight oats.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition Per Serving
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