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.
Could I make these in plastic cups with lids? i have a health food bar and think these would go well. Is it the glass thats the secret?
i was planning on doing the same, angie. hope it works ok. cassie, first, howdie from a fellow proud hoosier. second, what percent fat greek yogurt do you use? do you think nonfat would work, or does it have to have fat? if the latter, is 1% ok?
I prefer whole fat Greek yogurt for taste and nutrition, but you are welcome to use whatever fat you like. 🙂
thanks for responding re: the fat content, cassie! does the container material -- glass or plastic -- matter?
Nope, use whatever you have!
awesome, thanks so much! looking forward to making some this weekend, as soon as i get rolled oats and 1% fat greek yogurt 🙂 (only have quick-cook and non-fat at home...)
I just wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed your recipe. I made it last night for the first time and loved it. I'm not a great oatmeal lover, it's a texture thing but I really did enjoy this, I made the classic and just added fresh strawberries on top.
If substituting cherries for the strawberries, would you use approximately the same amount?
Yup!
Love the recipes we did one similar to this for those trying to lose weight specifically. After seeing you use Chia seeds in a few of your recipes, I am now inspired to get it incorporated into my next overnight oats
How long do these stay good for in the fridge?
I think leaving them for a minimum of 5 hours should be good, it needs time for the oats to soak. Also, to allow all the flavours to come through. Hope that helped.
from the article:
"CAN I MAKE THESE AHEAD OF TIME?
You certainly can! Overnight oats are PERFECT for weekend food prep. Back when I was working in an office, I’d make up 8-10 jars of overnight oats on the weekend to grab for quick breakfasts and snacks during the week. The recipes with fruit mix-ins, I’d eat within 3-5 days, the ones without, you could get by with letting them chill in the fridge for 7-10."
i've seen other recipes though that advise to leave "mix=ins" out until the day you want to eat them for the best texture though (unless you want them to blend into the oats, like with mashed banana). so you could make the base which would keep for a week or more and then stir in your fruits the morning of. 🙂
I made something like these last year when hubby and I were in school, he LOVED them. The ones we made were something like a cherry chia jam as the flavoring but they were still great. Am thinking of seeing if I cannot sub in cherries for the strawberry in that cheese cake one (not because I don't like strawberries, just as something different and I LOVE cherries) ...
I had the strawberry cheesecake for breakfast and omg! it was delicious. Definitely gonna try all the other ones.
have you tried "chunky monkey"? pb + banana + walnuts + dark chocolate chips on the base. One of my favs. overnight oats are the best
Oh my gosh, that sounds amazing! 🙂
Way too much cloves in the pumpkin one. It's inedible.
For your taste. I thought it was awesome. Negativity = lame.
I used a small dash of pumpkin spice in each one and it worked great! I think I might add even more next time. These are SO good!
Oh my gosh I made the chocolate peanut butter ones - its like eating dessert for breakfast! They were so good. And because they were a little more rich than I thought they would be I am going to be able to get at least 3 servings out of the recipe. Also added a banana when I ate them. I made overnight oats once before and they were not good, thanks for sharing these recipes! I can't wait to try the pumpkin!
Do you eat these cold or heat them? I feel like this is a stupid question, I'm just thrown off by cold oatmeal, but these sound delicious and perfect for quick, busy weekday breakfasts.
Question: Can you use sugar substitutes? Stevia, Pear or Apple juice? Brown sugar?
tried this last weekend, with kiwi and grapes. so yummyyyy.
Thanks for sharing
I've never had this kind of oatmeal. I grew up on hot cereal. Can I heat these oats in the morning?
The recipes look amazing! How long can you store this in the fridge -- as in can I make enough for the whole week on Sunday night?
This is such a great post! Thanks for sharing
The carrot cake recipe is amazing! Looking forward to testing out some of the others, I think the chocolate peanut Butter will be next, followed by one of the coconut ones 🙂
Love this! I'm in the USAF and weekdays are pretty busy so this quick and simple breakfast is going to be a lifesaver, thank you for your awesome recipes!
wonderful, going to try it!!
Definitely saving this to Pinterest. I've always wanted to make overnight oats - just never got around to it. This gives some great visuals, so I simply must try. Thank you!
One other question- what do you think this would be like with steel cut oats? I know they are totally different, but I was just wondering if you had ever tried it.
I usually cook steel cut oats at a ratio of 1 cup oats to 4 cups of water and store them in the fridge for a week's worth of breakfasts. So, I substituted one cup of cooked steel cut oats for the 1/2 heaping cup of rolled oats. It worked very well.
Thanks, for that info. I was wondering how I was going to make Steel Cut oats work. You solved that problem.
Also, I added about 1/4 cup crushed pineapple, 2 T pecan pieces, and 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg to the carrot cake recipe. Yum!!