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'm a grandmother myself now and I recall my grandmother putting oats , milk & her special secret ingredients ? Into a pot the last thing before she went to bed each night. She would sit it on the side of her slow combustion stove and when she came out in the morning & my grandfather had lit the stove and the gentle warmth that radiated to the side plus overnight absorption meant the oats/porridge would be ready. Now that was in the 50's.
That's the original overnight oats ?
Do you heat the overnight oats when you go to eat them or eat them cold
i tweaked up your classic overnight oats recipe and made it a thai overnight oats recipe!
switched the greek yogurt for sweetened condensed milk, the unsweetened milk for coconut milk.
my add ins are diced ataulfo mango w/ sliced strawberries (the morning i eat them) and a sprinkle of shredded coconut!
delicious and not as sweet as you might think it is!
forgot to mention that I do omit the vanilla extract and sweetnener!
I will definitely try these recipes! Have you tried adding protein powder?
I haven't, but there is no reason you couldn't. 🙂
Do you cook the oats first? or put everything in raw?
Everything goes in raw, and the oats get softened overnight by the liquids.
-Thanks for these recipes! I've made overnight oats before, but you have a lot more information than I've seen with other recipes, which is really helpful.
-I tried the chocolate coconut oats! Very yummy! The ratio of cocoa powder was too high for me, though, so the next time I cut that almost in half and then it was perfect.
-An FYI for other folks: quick oats are not substitutable (is that a word?) for the regular oats. I tried that once in the past and it was way too mushy, not a good texture at all.
-I'm looking forward to trying your other recipes. Thanks again!
Good to know on the quick oats. Glad you enjoyed the chocolate coconut!
I'm very excited to try these recipes! I've started with the banana chocolate chip. I had everything on hand except the chia/flax so I'm leaving it out and hoping for the best
Ok, so I'm a high school student tryna make more of my meals so I can control what is in what I eat. However breakfast and lunch are major softspots for me but also, as a student, very important. This recipe has done lots to solve my problem because I just whip some up at night and in the morning I just grab and go! Especially because my mornings are often frantic due to me sleeping in, this can give me a great lunch or a breakfast if I'm up early. Or even an after-school snack! Plus it's so easily customizable. As of right now I recently put a batch with protein powder in the fridge. So really, thanks! This simple concept is incredibly valuable to anyone trying to eat less processed.
They make the best grab-and-go breakfasts, don't they? So glad they are helpful for you!
Can you tell me the nutritional value for the basic overnight oats? I'm counting calories, sodium, and fat.
I forgot carbs! I'm counting those too!
Oh, never mind! I see that you posted it in the beginning of this list! Sorry to bother.
I am enjoying the recipes but my last two batches had problems. Using the basic recipe with unsweetened almond milk, plain yogurt and maple syrup, by morning I had several pieces of oats that had a bluish-green color on them (mold?). Any suggestions are appreciated.
I'm currently sitting here eating the chocolate and peanut butter overnight oats, my first ever attempt at them, and they are so good! It's quite rich so I can get 2-3 days out of the one serving. I think I'll have to cut back on the cocoa powder next time though, I slightly overestimated how much a tablespoon was when using a dessert spoon haha. Can't wait to try the other recipes!
Whoops! We've all been there!
Cassie,
I have three in my family of six that are not oatmeal lovers, so would this method be better to try with them? Also I do not have any chia or flax seeds, so could I just leave them out. Thanks!
Just prepped these about 15 minutes ago, and I had one of those moments. You know the ones, in those informercials, where someone is trying to do a simple task but failing miserably at it because they don't have the gadget that's up for sale. Or, if you'll allow me to be more crass, what the Internet refers to as an unclear encounter with a ceiling fan.
There were two instructions. Mix it all together, and put it in the jars to soak overnight. Simple, right? WRONG! All my chia seeds wanted to float on top, and all my oats sunk to the bottom (I made the plain recipe as a trial one, and good thing, too). When I attempted to spoon my stuff out, which was quite spillerific, I couldn't help but get too much fluid in the first jar, about 3/4 liquid, nearly all the chia seeds, and 1/4 oats, and the inverse for the second. Ahhh, what has happened, there's milk everywhere!
A word of advice to those who are challenged in their manual dexterity. Measure your dry and/or solid stuff (oats, chia, spices, fruit, nuts, etc) into the jars directly as they're empty. Then mix all your liquids (milk, yogurt, syrup/honey, etc) separately. This is also a great excuse to just mix stuff in your measuring cup, now that you won't be filling it up as much, and allows for pouring instead of spooning when you go to cover your dry ingredients with the mixture. The yogurt and sticky stuff will come out easily once blended with the milk and you won't have to scrape it out of your measuring device when you're ready to move it; just use yogurt > milk > everything else as your order for adding stuff in; you can shake your table spoon around in the milk to make sure you get every last bit of honey or maple syrup out.
Or you could not be a massive klutz and get your life together enough that you can follow to simple instructions. Whatever.
Whoops! This is totally something I could see myself doing. But I love your writing style and sense of humor!
Ha! Same here, I am in the same boat as you 🙂
Can these be made ahead and FROZEN, then thawed out? I find my mornings to be so irregular that I find shakes work best for me for grab-and-go. .. but I have A LOT of oats that need to get used up. IF ANYONE HAS TRIED FREEZING THEM: what was the texture like, in comparison to one kept in the fridge? Thank you!
I made the chocolate peanut butter oats last night and they were delicious. I couldn't eat the whole serving so I now have a delicious dessert waiting for me tonight when my sweet tooth hits. I didn't add the vanilla or salt and I only added one tablespoon of maple syrup as I'm trying to cut down my sugar intake. So quick and easy to make. I can't wait to try a different recipe tonight.
So glad you enjoyed it!
In your description for peanut butter overnight outs, you stated that for gluten free dietary substitute you. Should use gf oats however peanut are legumes containing gluten and I suppose should be mentioned too
Peanuts actually don't contain gluten! Gluten is a protein that is found in wheat, barley, rye, and their derivatives, so peanuts are safe for those eating gluten-free!
Wow, you sure are perky! Good information... thumbs up, I rarely approve commentators 😉
Ok, so I made the chocolate-coconut but added a twist: I crushed up some sliced almonds which gave it a wonderful crunchier texture and now it tastes like almond joy!!
I also made up a jar of blackberry-vanilla: use french vanilla yogurt, add 1/8 tsp cinnamon, about 1/2-2/3 cup blackberries (fresh crushed with a fork or frozen and thawed with some juice). So creamy yet lightly fruity and yummy!
Ooh, those both sound amazing!
Cassie,
My adult vegetarian son has been pushing me to try overnight oats. I was't really motivated until I took a look at your recipes! They look amazing! As we're going through a kitchen remodel, this is the perfect time to jump in. Thanks!
I also wanted to mention that regarding sweeteners, natural maple syrup has additional nutrional benefits. Check out http://www.purecanadamaple.com/benefits-of-maple-syrup/maple-syrup-nutrition/ for more info!
I first heard of overnight oats last year and completely forgot about them. Now it's the HOT weather at home and I was looking for a non-tea alternative for breakfast. Thank you for all the recipes! I just bought myself some oats, I can't wait to start this adventure. 🙂
Enjoy!!
I don't think salt is needed in any of these recipes. I make overnight oats all the time and never use salt. Salt...no no no
The salt helps bring out the other flavors, but if you want to leave it out, you certainly can!