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.
Thank you so much for posting these! I started making overnight oats a few months ago and they have been filling but kind of boring. I tried the chocolate peanut butter one you listed and it was delicious. I just put a batch of strawberry cheesecake ones in the fridge. I can't wait to try them. Eventually I will make all of these, they look delicious.
So glad you're enjoying them!
Are these meant to be eaten cold or could they be warmed up?
Yup, they are meant to be eaten cold— like a pudding!
I love these!! Just made them this morning and came out really delicious, but they weren't as creamy as I thought they'd be. They seemed a little liquidy. I did all the measurements correctly, and even added a tiny extra chia. Should I maybe cut back on the milk by a little? Thank you <3 🙂
That'd work, or you could just add a bit more yogurt, and that should help! 🙂
These look absolutely gorgeous! Does it have to be unsweetened milk or will regular milk work too?
Any milk is fine!
This may sound stupid, but are they suppose to be eaten cold? Or can they be heated up? Thanks.
Yup, they are meant to be eaten cold—think of it like a pudding!
This may sound stupid, but are these suppose to be eaten cold? Or can they be heated up?
When you say unsweetened milk...what kind of milk would you recommend ?
I like unsweetened almond milk. It's a staple in our house!
I added 2 tablespoons Nutella. YUM!
What exactly is unsweetened milk? I assume it's not the normal gallon of milk I get from the store but what do I know (I'm just a dumb man!).
AMAZING!!!!
I LOVE it!
My favourite is berries dried banana... I mix any plant milk, oats and chia and cover it with frozen berries (raspberries, blueberries, strawberries whatever) and in the morning I add dried banana to make it crunchy and honey... I love them
Thank you for getting me started! The classic recipe is my base to all of my overnight oats now and I've been having a lot of fun experimenting with different fruits and flavors.
Instead of the honey you could use Sweet Leaf Stevia. Thank you for all of these amazing recipes!!
I don't see why you couldn't sub your own sweetener. I plan to sub the plain yogurt for the Oikos Triple Zero that is stevia sweetened and skip the sweetener. I think the sweetener in the yogurt will be enough.
I worked out the calories for some of these, and while I do enjoy them I probably won't be making any of them again except as a mega treat! Calculations come from myfitnesspal.com
Carrot cake recipe - 431 calories (with 1 tbsp honey)
Chocolate peanut butter - 548 calories (with 2 tbsp maple syrup)
Chocolate coconut - 610 calories (with 1 tbsp maple syrup)
With the protein and fiber, these aren't that bad for a meal, they're definitely not a snack. They certainly are a healthier option than something else with the same calorie count, and should keep you full until lunch. They can also be made with less calories, depending on what kind of ingredients you're using. Not sure which items you're using, since you didn't mention your specific ingredients.
Hi Cassie! I love the overnight outs idea! I didn't Know about them until I was looking on Pinterest for oatmeal recipes for my daughter that just turned one year old. She loves oatmeal but I can tell she was getting tired of the same baby otmeal I was feeding her. My question is can I give it to her warm like heating it up on the microwave? Or would that ruin the over night oats? I'm definitely going to try and give it to her cold but if she doesn't like it because it's cold and she is not use to it can I warm it up? I was reading through the comments of you had answered the cold or want question but I didn't see any responds..
If you want warm oatmeal, I recommend trying these instead: https://wholefully.com/8-healthy-instant-oatmeal-cups/
Dear Cassie,
Can i make a lot of batch and put it into the fridge for let say 3 days? I know this is overnight oat and it is better to consume within a day.
Thanks
Sure can. I make them over the weekend to eat on all week long.
It would be really nice if these recipes had Nutrition info such as calories .......
Cassie, these recipes all sound so delicious! What is your preference..maple syrup or honey? You suggest either option but I would like to know your 'go to' sweetener. Thank you!
I'm a maple syrup girl because we do our own sugaring from our own maple trees. 🙂
So jealous! We have lots of trees but none give us yummy syrup!
The chocolate peanut butter overnight oats are to DIE for!!! Making banana chocolate chip tonight!
I have a stupid question (I think). What is "heaping" rolled oats? Ive always seen that, but I never really knew what it meant. Can you enlighten me? 🙂 And also, can I use almond milk as a substitute?
It just means that you don't want to level-off the measuring cup. So basically, fill that measuring cup as high as you can!
Ohhh! That cleared it right up. 🙂
Anyway, Im using Almond milk, but its sweetened. Should I leave the sweetener out? Or I should still add a bit (to reach that right amount of sweetness)?
And also, can I use brown sugar? How can I substitute it? Maple or honey is really expensive from where I come from.