Healthy Overnight Oats Recipe (+18 Flavors)
This is the only healthy overnight oats recipe you'll ever need! The THOUSANDS of 5-star ratings can't be wrong. Packed with 20g+ protein and 10g+ fiber, these oats are as nourishing as they are tasty. And with 18 flavor options, you're sure to find your perfect meal prep breakfast.
🔍 Recipe At-A-Glance: Healthy Overnight Oats Recipe
- ⏰ Prep Time: 5 minutes
- 🕰️ Chill Time: 4+ hours
- 🥣 Flavor Profile: The base recipe below is a amazing vanilla overnight oats flavor, but I also have nearly 20 other flavors to try like my strawberry cheesecake overnight oats, carrot cake overnight oats, or my super popular chocolate peanut butter overnight oats
- 💪 What Makes It Healthy: 20g+ protein and 10g+ of fiber per full-size serving, tons of gut-nourishing probiotics
- 🥄 Good For: Meal prep breakfasts, busy weekday mornings, kid breakfasts
- ↪️ Make Ahead: Designed for meal prep! Whip this up on the weekend to eat on all week.
- 🧡 Difficulty: If you can stir, you can make these overnight oats!
"I've been making overnight oats for a while now, using different recipes I've found online, and I gotta say, this is THE BEST recipe by far!
- FRAN -
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🧡 Why You'll Love This Recipe
"Hey! Aren't you the overnight oats lady?!" I've been stopped on the street more times that I can count to talk about my overnight oats (my job is so weird sometimes 😂). These oats are THAT good. I promise you'll love them, too!
Here's why you'll love this recipe:
- Make Ahead: Prep a batch of these overnight oats in literally 5 minutes
- So. Many. Flavors: I currently have 18 flavors (and counting) ranging from lemon poppyseed overnight oats to chai latte overnight oats to pina colada overnight oats-if you can dream it, I've probably already made it.
- Packed Full of Protein & Fiber: A full batch has 20g+ of protein and 10g+ of fiber without any added protein powder or fiber.
- So Easy To Make: If you can stir, you can make these.
- A recipe you can trust: The overnight oats recipes have been viral on the internet for well over a decade! With thousands of 5 star reviews, you can trust my oats recipes.
"LOVE, LOVE, LOVE! By far the best overnight oats I've made and tried"
- LYNN -
🥛 The Ingredients You Need
- Oats: I recommend rolled oats here. Quick cooking or steel cut oats won't have the same texture (but they are great in my slow cooker steel cut oats recipe).
- Greek Yogurt: any plain Greek yogurt will do, or you can use homemade yogurt, just make sure to strain it first (here's the yogurt strainer I use every week)
- Chia seeds: help them thicken up the oats as well as add protein and fiber, you can also swap in equal amounts of flax meal
- Honey or maple syrup: I prefer the flavor of maple syrup in these oats, but either option works-or leave out the sweetener all together if you want to cut back on sugar.
- Flavoring: the recipe listed here is for the base vanilla overnight oats recipe, but depending on what flavor you are making, you'll add all kinds of yummy goodies!
Make sure to check the recipe card below for the full ingredients list, along with quantities and my expert tips and tricks.
"I usually don't like oats, but this recipe...SOOO YUMMY, I want to eat it everyday, that's how good it is."
- IVANA -
🔁 Variations & Substitutions
- Make it vegan: Use maple syrup, plant-based milk (almond milk or oatmilk work great) and vegan Greek yogurt
- Make it gluten-free: These oats are naturally gluten-free as long as you choose certified gluten-free oats.
- No chia seeds? Swap in equal amounts of ground flax.
- Up the protein: Add a scoop of vanilla or unflavored protein powder!
- Make it sugar-free: Drop the sweetener and add a ½ mashed ripe banana. Or use stevia or monk fruit sweetener in place of the maple syrup or honey if you prefer.
🥣 How to Make Healthy Overnight Oats
Step 1: Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl.
Step 2: Mix well to combine.
Step 3: Spoon into a jar or other food storage container. I like either Weck 742 Half Liter jars or Ball Wide Mouth Pint jars for the full batch. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
Step 4: Serve cold topped with whatever toppings bring you joy: nut butter, nuts, chocolate chips, fruit, etc.
"I've almost tried all of the flavours now, and they're all amazing!! It's like having dessert for breakfast 🙂"
- TASH -
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🙋🏻♀️ Healthy Overnight Oats FAQs
Yes! Overnight oats are packed with protein, fiber, and a good mix of macronutrients to make for a balanced breakfast.
Yes, you can use steel cut oats to make overnight oats but the final texture will be more chewy than creamy. Because steel cut oats are inherently less processed, you should increase the amount of liquid by ¼ cup, and prepare for a chewier oatmeal in the morning.
The recipes with fruit mix-ins, eat within three days. The ones without fresh fruit, you could get by with letting them chill in the fridge for up to a week.
👩🏻🍳 My Expert Tips & Tricks
- Make lots: doubling or tripling this recipe takes no extra time but gives you lots of extra breakfasts-perfect for big families!
- Boost the nutrition: add in protein powder, collagen powder, fiber supplements, oh my!
- Wait at least 4 hours: yes these are called "overnight" oats, but you can get away with eating them after at least 4 hours in the fridge
- Sweeten to taste: some people like breakfast foods sweeter than others, so start with a small amount of maple syrup or honey, taste your oats, then add more if you like.
🥣 All of My Healthy Overnight Oats Flavors
- Lemon Poppyseed Overnight Oats
- Chocolate Chip Banana Overnight Oats
- Chai Latte Overnight Oats
- Blueberry Overnight Oats
- Strawberry Cheesecake Overnight Oats
- Key Lime Pie Overnight Oats
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Overnight Oats
- Carrot Cake Overnight Oats
- Peanut Butter Banana Overnight Oats
- Chocolate Coffee Overnight Oats
- Cherry and Toasted Almond Overnight Oats
- Apple Cinnamon Overnight Oats
- Chocolate Peppermint Overnight Oats
- Piña Colada Overnight Oats
- Coconut Chocolate Overnight Oats
- Eggnog Overnight Oats Recipe
- Pumpkin Overnight Oats
If you tried these Healthy Overnight Oats or any other recipe on my blog, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the comments!
📖 Recipe
Healthy Overnight Oats Recipe (+18 Flavors)
Ingredients
- ⅓ cup plain Greek yogurt
- ½ cup heaping rolled oats
- ⅔ cup milk of any kind
- 1 tablespoon chia seeds or ground flaxmeal
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- Pinch of salt
- 0-2 tablespoons honey or maple syrup
Instructions
- Whisk together all ingredients in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Spoon into a jar with a tight-fitting lid.
- Close and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, but preferably overnight before eating.
Notes
- This recipe is delicious on it's own, but it really shines topped with fresh fruit, nuts, or peanut butter!
- Doubling or tripling this recipe takes no extra time but gives you lots of extra breakfasts-perfect for big families!
- Feel free to add in protein powder, collagen powder, fiber supplements, or other nutrition boosters.
- This recipe is the base for all my other 18 overnight oats flavors! Find links to all of those in the post above.
Nutrition
This blog post is sponsored by Almond Breeze. The content and opinions expressed here are mine.
I'd heard about overnight oats for quite a few months and been meaning to try them, but all the recipes I saw online were made with non-dairy milk, which I'm not a fan of. (I don't know why it didn't occur to me that it would be OK to use regular milk) So, I came across your blog and immediately made the chocolate peanut butter ones and the chocolate coconut the day after. Amazing!! Even using non-fat milk and non-fat yogurt the texture the next morning was sooooo creamy and divine. I used maple syrup in mine, both tablespoons. I'm like you, a little sweetener isn't going to kill me! Thanks for the delicious recipes; going to try out some of my own ideas soon!
On the tropical fruit recipe is it supposed to be unsweetened milk like the rest of the recipes or is it really supposed to be full fat coconut milk? The photo says unsweetened so I'm just curious if that was typo or if it really is a change in the base recipe. Thanks! 🙂
Full fat coconut milk, in the can, which is unsweetened. 🙂
Got it! I still went ahead and used regular unsweetened coconut milk and it turned out great! 🙂
Never heard of overnight oats until today. Been out to supermarket and bought all ingredients and made strawberry and coconut for breakfast tomorrow morning , can't wait!
Holy cow your food photography is gorgeous! I'm trying the recipes for my boys to eat in the morning because let's face it, the less effort the better when it comes to feeding kids in the AM. But seriously I am gaping (gawking?) at your gorgeous photos!
Where did you get these awesome jars??
Hi! Can I use fruity yogurt such as these ones?
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2MI9slCCriQ/T_06fsMOUqI/AAAAAAAACu0/zZ8rgIz1GVA/s1600/DSCN8941.JPG)
Will try to make one tonight and will tell you the result!
Done. Love it. Must try for those who didn't like plain yogurt. I use full cream milk, strawberry yogurt and bits of cherries on top. Yumm...meee!
I didn't see this question answered but can you use steel cut oats? I bought a HUGE container of them a while back and haven't had a use... Thank you love this post!!
You can, but they'll have more of a chewy/porridge texture instead of the pudding texture of just regular rolled oats. 🙂
I always use steel cut oats! It's less mushy and hearty. Yum yum yum
Made a few of these for my hubby last week and he LOVED them. Will be trying some more this week. Thanks so much for the great recipes!! <3
What kind of milk do you use?
I usually use unsweetened almond milk, but whatever you like will work!
I'm not sure almond milk agrees with me, but I can do regular dairy. Do you suppose skim or 1% milk would work? Just curious! Love these recipes!
Yup! Use whatever milk makes your tummy happy. 🙂
Have you ever tried sour cream instead of yogurt?? I would LOVE to try one of these right away, but don't have the yogurt and have PLENTY of sour cream. Also, if I'm making these for say 11 people can I lessen the "goodies" that go in if I keep the oats/chia/liquids ratio the same?? Thank you from a bored oatmeal-everyday-mom of nine!!
I wouldn't recommend subbing in all sour cream—it's going to be very tangy. If you're going to use sour cream, I would maybe split it half yogurt, half sour cream. And, yes, the oats/chia/liquid/yogurt ratio is what's most important for the texture. Play with the mix-ins all you want. 🙂
Tried the vanilla overnight oats. It was only my second attempt at overnight oats ever (first one from a different recipe was a disaster and too soupy). They were wonderful! I didn’t have any almond milk and wanted to avoid dairy milk (I have to be mindful of sugar), so I used water and Greek yogurt and they turned out great! I couldn’t decide on chia or flax so I added a bit of both. Thanks for the great tips! 🙂
Thanks for this amazing recipes for overnight oats, I just made the banana and chocolate chip one for me and my daughters for tomorrow morning, I used agave instead of honey since I'm not a big fan of honey. Any idea how many calories on this one?
oops... and i forgot to say how much i am diggin' your visual shares!!! love love love 🙂 cheers~
this is going to be a much cherished post in my "grab too much from the world of recipes" folder. adore the practicality. drooling over the recipes. beyond happy over the amount of information. thank you, thank you, thank you!
Would these be diabetic friendly l, if not do u know what I can do too make them diabetic friendly. Thank you
If you want to add fruit, make it blueberries. The health benefits out weigh the added sugar, other fruits not so much. Bananas and raisins are definate red flags. Use stevie as your sweetener, because it is an herb there are no chemicals. I also use Kiefer instead of yogurt.
Hi Cassie!
We're having a ladies craft morning at church on the 21st of May. We provide a simple morning snack.. The last one, Mary brought pull-aparts & fresh fruit. I've been trying to think of something different and fun, too. I think I just found it, Thank you very much!
Gotta put this ? to you. We had 20-30 women the first time around. Would the expense for this be pretty overwhelming, for the ingredients only? Even a ballpark estimate per serving would help in my decision. And, any suggestions to make this endeavor go smoother than I'm envisioning?
Appreciate your opinion, so thank you!
Do you eat them cold or warm them up?
Eat them cold, like pudding, almost! 🙂
Can you warm them up? I love the idea of warm oatmeal, but not sure if these would not heat well, due to the yogurt, etc.
The yogurt probably won't do so hot (ha, pun intended) if you heat them up. Try these instead: https://wholefully.com/8-healthy-instant-oatmeal-cups/
I also wondered if I would like them heated although I don't like to microwave anything. I wasn't worried about heating because of the yogurt, I put Greek yogurt in my egg frittatas and they are so thick, creamy and satisfying! I might make 2 jars, 1 to heat and a spare to eat if I don't like it that way!!
This post is amazing.
I'm trying to eat clean but couldn't think of any breakfast ideas! So this post literally has sorted out my breakfast plans for the next few months!
Love love love it! x x
Woohooo! So glad this helped you out. Make sure to come back and let me know which one is your fave!
Do you eat these cold, right out of the fridge or do you warm them up like traditional oatmeal. I assume they would probably all taste good hot or cold?? Thanks!
I eat some of them cold (peanut butter-banana & tropical fruit) and some I like hot (cinnamon apple)
Could I substitute protein powder for anything on your list or how would be best to incorporate it if I'm needing more protein in my diet??
My son-in law does PP in his and loves it
this is the best list ever! thanks for sharing, off to make oats for the rest of the week 🙂