Overnight Oats (Recipe & Tips)

Name: Overnight Oats
Prep time: 5 min
Total time: 5 min
Cuisine: Gluten free
Ingredients: 1/3 cup homemade muesli, or 1/3 cup old-fashioned oats plus 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon; 1 tablespoon chia seeds; 1 tablespoon almond butter or peanut butter; 1/2 cup milk of choice for a very thick consistency, or up to 2/3 cup milk for a lighter consistency; 1/2 cup fruit (I like fresh or frozen blueberries or raspberries, or sliced fresh strawberries); Drizzle of maple syrup or honey, if desired

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I’ve been making batch after batch of overnight oats, and taking notes. Overnight oats are a healthy, make-ahead breakfast option, but they’re not always enticing enough to get me out of bed.

I’m sharing my best tips and my favorite overnight oats recipe today. Ready? These overnight oats are legitimately delicious, and so easy to make!

Overnight oats are typically served chilled, straight from the refrigerator. That makes them perfect for warmer months, but you can certainly enjoy overnight oats year-round.

Overnight oats keep well in the refrigerator for up to five days. So, prepare your oats on Sunday night, and you’ll have breakfast covered for the workweek. If you really want to get ahead, you can freeze jars of overnight oats and defrost individual jars overnight in the refrigerator.

How to Make the Best Overnight Oats

I make my overnight oats with old-fashioned rolled oats, toasted or regular. Then I add chia seeds for a more pudding-like texture and more fiber, and a spoonful of nut butter to make them extra creamy. (Would you believe that one serving of these overnight oats contains nearly half of your daily fiber requirements?)

Here’s what you’ll need to make overnight oats:

Oats: You can’t make overnight oats without oats! Overnight oats are typically made with plain old-fashioned oats. I actually prefer to make overnight oats with homemade muesli instead, which is made with toasted old-fashioned oats, nuts and dried fruit. The muesli offers more texture and flavor.

If you want to go the easier, more traditional route, simply use old-fashioned oats and add a dash of cinnamon. Don’t use instant or quick-cooking oats, because those will turn to complete mush.

Chia Seeds: Technically, these are optional, but I love how chia seeds absorb moisture and make the final product more creamy and luscious. Chia seeds contain healthy omega-3’s and, like oats, lots of fiber.

Nut butter: Almond butter or peanut butter makes these oats even more creamy, while adding delicious savory, nutty flavor.

Milk of choice: You can use your favorite milk here (almond milk, coconut milk from a carton, homemade cashew milk, homemade pecan milk, oat milk or cow’s milk). I suppose you could use water instead of milk, but the final result won’t be quite as creamy or flavorful.

The amount of liquid is key to the final consistency—I like my overnight oats really thick and creamy, with concentrated flavor. If you prefer a looser consistency, add a little more milk.

Fruit: Now that we’ve formed the base of the oats, I like to add fruit. If you’re following my formula with just 1/2 cup milk and using a fruit that stores well for a few days (as in, sliced strawberries, not sliced bananas or apple), you can go ahead and toss the fruit on top of the oat-and-milk mixture.

In fact, you can top the oat mixture with frozen raspberries or blueberries and they’ll defrost overnight. (Don’t try this with frozen strawberries or other large chunks of frozen fruit; they release too much water). Or, you can wait to top your oats with fruit before serving.

Optional sweetener: Overnight oats are generally sweet enough for me as-is. However, add a drizzle of sweetener if that makes your oats more enticing!

Watch How to Make Overnight Oats

That’s it! Go forth and make overnight oats to last you through the week. Please let me know how your overnight oats turn out in the comments below!

More Healthy Make-Ahead Breakfasts

Try these recipes on Cookie and Kate:

In my cookbook, don’t miss the toasted coconut muesli (page 2), apple crisp breakfast parfaits (page 7) and carrot cake breakfast cookies (page 26). With so many options, you won’t want to skip breakfast.

Overnight Oats

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Author: Cookie and Kate
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 0 minutes
Total Time: 5 minutes
Yield: 1 serving 1x
Category: Breakfast
Method: Overnight
Cuisine: Gluten free

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4.9 from 108 reviews

Here’s my favorite recipe for overnight oats! Feel free to make it your own. Overnight oats are a simple, healthy breakfast that you can make ahead for busy mornings. The recipe below yields 1 serving, so make as many servings (each in a separate jar) as you’d like. Overnight oats will keep for up to 5 days in the refrigerator.

Scale

Ingredients

⅓ cup homemade muesli, or ⅓ cup old-fashioned oats plus ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon chia seeds
1 tablespoon almond butter or peanut butter
½ cup milk of choice for a very thick consistency, or up to ⅔ cup milk for a lighter consistency
½ cup fruit (I like fresh or frozen blueberries or raspberries, or sliced fresh strawberries)
Drizzle of maple syrup or honey, if desired

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Instructions

In a jar or bowl (a working jar or 1-pint mason jar is perfect), combine the muesli (or old-fashioned oats and cinnamon), chia seeds and nut butter. Add a splash of the milk and mix the nut butter into the oats. Then add the rest of the milk and stir to combine.
Top with your fruit of choice. (If you used more milk than ½ cup and you want your fruit to stay on top, wait to top the oats until you’re ready to serve. If you’re using fruit that doesn’t store well, like sliced apple or banana, wait to top the oats until you’re ready to serve.)
Place the lid on the jar and refrigerate overnight, or up to 5 days. When you’re ready to serve, add a drizzle of maple syrup or honey if you’d like, and enjoy chilled.

Notes

Make it gluten free: Use certified gluten-free oats.

Make it vegan: Choose one of the dairy-free milk options listed above. If adding additional sweetener, use maple syrup instead of honey.

Make it nut free: Omit the nut butter or replace it with sunbutter. If you’re using muesli, follow my instructions for making nut-free muesli in the recipe notes for that recipe.

Warm it up: Overnight oats are typically served chilled. However, if you prefer warm oats, you can heat them in the microwave. Just use a microwave-safe jar and stir frequently while you’re warming them up. Since the oats are so thick, I’m not sure this would work well on the stovetop, but you could give it a try.

▸ Nutrition Information

The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.

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