Right up there! When someone asks for a fast and wholesome meal, I often recommend overnight oats. They are a blessing for hectic mornings since you can make them in different jars and carry them around.

Along with being packed with wholesome components like oats, chia seeds, and yogurt (optional), they also keep you full until lunch. Still, the nicest thing? They provide a ton of customizable choices!

Think oatmeal’s boring? Not at all very probable. Once you understand the basic overnight oats recipe, you may play around with a lot of different ingredients, including cocoa powder or vanilla essence.

Never forget the toppings; there are essentially countless possibilities—fresh fruit, nuts, seeds. To inspire you, here are four delicious variants and my favorite foundation recipe. For your own perfect overnight oats, try them all and then mix!

All-Time Favorite Overnight Oat Base

I started out experimenting with overnight oats using just oats, maple syrup, and milk (almond or coconut). That’s when I discovered chia seeds, however. They provide a great deal of protein, fiber, and healthy fats and also provide an amazing texture—thick and creamy, almost like chia pudding. To make my basic foundation recipe, you’ll need:

Whole rolled oats, often known as old-fashioned oats, are what you want. Quick oats will go mushy and steel-cut oats will be too chewy.
The secret of the perfect texture and a nutritional boost are little gentlemen known as chia seeds.
All milk will work! It works pretty well to utilize dairy milk, oat milk, or coconut milk. Richer in flavor and more creamy is provided by coconut milk.
I like honey or maple syrup as sweeteners.
The flavors may be enhanced by a little dusting of salt.
Greek yogurt is an optional ingredient that adds richness and more protein; you may leave it out if you’re not allowed dairy.

Organizing Your Life: Easy as 1-2-3

Here’s how to make overnight oats very quickly:

Gather up a jar or other container with a lid. Toss in the chia seeds, honey or maple syrup, oats, and yogurt (if using).
Pour in your favorite milk and well combine. Make sure no chia seeds are buried at the bottom or dangling to the sides!
Put on the cover and refrigerate over night or for up to five days.

Cooking Like a Pro

Doing a lot of overnight oats at once? Here is a hint: Get a Mason jar ready for each serving. Add all of the dry ingredients—oats, chia seeds, etc.—to each jar. Then, rather of putting milk into every jar at once, add it to one at a time, stirring well before moving on to the next. That prevents the chia seeds from sticking together. Shake the jars together and refrigerate until breakfast!

Finishing Strong!

I think that adding anything should wait until the morning you want to consume your oats. Fruit remains wonderful and fresh, while granola, nuts, and seeds keep lovely and crunchy.

To the Fun Part: Flavor Variations!

Set to unleash your inner oatmeal artist? I love these four overnight oat recipes the best:

Apple Pie Overnight Oats: Toasty spices are infused into the base of this delicious topping of diced apples and toasted almonds over applesauce. More points if you have any extra cinnamon apples on hand—they function as a “apple pie filling”!
Peach Crisp Overnight Oats: This recipe honors the classic peach crisp wonderfully with nutty granola and rich, juicy peaches on top.
A grown-up version of a childhood favorite is PB&J Overnight Oats. This one has plenty of creamy peanut butter and a strawberry chia jam taste explosion. Fresh berries and roasted peanuts provide texture; for an interesting twist, try almond butter and toasted almonds.
Craving chocolate? Try this Overnight Oats Chocolate Banana Bread. You’ve had your fill! This version’s tastes originate from nutmeg, cinnamon, and mashed bananas. Top with sliced bananas, walnuts and a few chocolate chips for the ultimate in luxury.

A few ideas to get you started! Feel free to experiment with other spices, the protein powder in the oat base, or toppings like dried fruit, seasonal fruit, coconut flakes, nuts, seeds, or even nut butters. Sort your top pairs and share them in the section for comments below; I’m looking forward to seeing what you create!