High Protein Overnight Oats

Easy, creamy High Protein Overnight Oats are loaded with extra protein. Just mix 5 basic ingredients and refrigerate overnight. Then, serve with your favorite toppings for a delicious quick breakfast.

These overnight oats are simple to make and only take 5 minutes to measure, mix, and put in the refrigerator. They are a great way to get an extra boost of protein and can be mixed with all kinds of fruits and nut butters for an easy breakfast. Best of all they are great for meal prepping, so you don't have to think about what to make for breakfast in the morning.

Jump to:

• What Makes These Oats High Protein?
• The Story of Overnight Oats
• What's in High Protein Overnight Oats?
• How to Make High Protein Overnight Oats
• How to Make an Overnight Oats Strawberry Parfait
• My Top Tips
• Substitutions & Variations
• Toppings and Flavors for Overnight Oats
• More Delicious Recipes for Breakfast
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

What Makes These Oats High Protein?

This recipe contains nearly 4 times the protein of regular old-fashioned oatmeal without adding protein powder. Of the five ingredients in this recipe, three are high-protein versions of simple ingredients to give that extra boost of protein.

Just swap high-protein versions of oats, milk, and yogurt and you are all set to add an extra boost of protein to your overnight oats and to your other meal plans.

The Story of Overnight Oats

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. Interestingly, both the Kellogg brothers and Bircher-Brenner believed a cold breakfast was a healthy way to start the day.

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!

What's in High Protein Overnight Oats?

This simple recipe for overnight oats contains these five ingredients:

• Fairlife Whole Milk - This ultra-filtered milk contains double the protein of regular whole milk, contains less sugar than regular whole milk, and is lactose-free.
• Kodiak Cakes Protein Oats - Here's another ingredient that boosts the protein in this oatmeal. Regular old-fashioned oatmeal contains 6 grams of protein per serving. But if you use Kodiak Cakes Protein Oats the protein increases to 10 grams.
• Plain Greek Yogurt - Greek yogurt contains almost double the protein of regular yogurt and gives creaminess to these overnight oats.
• Chia Seeds - Chia seeds thicken overnight oats and also add a creamy texture. Plus they are another hidden source of protein.
• Honey - Optional. Honey is added to sweeten the oatmeal. But it is completely optional and not required to make the oats set up.

The high-protein milk, oats, and Greek yogurt give a boost of extra protein and a creamy texture to overnight oats. The chia seeds set the oatmeal and give it a creamy, pudding-like texture, and the honey adds just a touch of sweetness.

So, let's take a closer look at how to make healthy overnight oats that are packed with protein.

How to Make High Protein Overnight Oats

Put all the 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 eat them plain, or 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.

How to Make an Overnight Oats Strawberry Parfait

Here is how to layer the overnight oats with strawberries. 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!

Then chop a few strawberries and fill the center of the glass with more fruit!

Lastly, cover the layer of strawberries with more overnight oats and top off with a sliced strawberry. These overnight oat parfaits are so pretty for a special breakfast or brunch!

My Top Tips

Overnight oats will keep in the refrigerator for 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 on 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 them Budget Friendly. They won't be high-protein, but they will be very healthy and nutritious.

The only ingredients you must have are oats and a soaking liquid, which can be water. The ratio to make overnight oats is equal parts of oats and your liquid. A single portion is ½ cup of oats to ½ cup of liquid.

Make them Vegan. Omit the Greek yogurt and use your favorite soy milk, nut milk, or oat milk instead of the high-protein milk for another healthy version of overnight oats.

Toppings and Flavors for Overnight Oats

• 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, cardamom, and coriander.

If you’ve only had your oatmeal cooked and hot, you are missing out on the easiest way to enjoy oats!

More Delicious Recipes for Breakfast

• Easy Cooked Oatmeal with Cranberries
• Everything Chaffle
• Pizza Eggs
• Heart-Shaped Sweetheart Scones

📖 Recipe