Overnight Oats

Overnight oats are just oats soaked overnight that absorb the liquid you put them in – any kind of liquid you like! The most common mixture is equal parts raw rolled oats, milk and yogurt (I like 1/3 or 1/2 cup of each). You can use any kind of yogurt or milk. Put in the fridge overnight (uncoverd or covered, your choice) and let ‘em soak up the liquids.

That’s the base, and toppings are endless. Add the toppings the night before or the next morning – either way works. Just don’t put anything in you don’t mind getting soggy (i.e. crunchy cereals)

There is NO COOKING involved at all!

(Although you could heat them just a tiny bit in the microwave to take the chill out)

Some variations…

Strawberry Banana

Mixture:

  • 1/2 cup rolled oats
  • 1/2 cup Brown Cow Low-Fat Yogurt
  • 1/4 cup hemp milk
  • 1/4 cup skim milk
  • Half a med. banana
  • A handful (about 1/2 a cup) sliced strawberries
  • 2/3 a serving of Trader Joe’s Antioxidant Trail Mix (or dried fruit and nuts of your choice)

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Strawberry Banana Almond

  • 1/3 cup dry rolled oats
  • 1/3 cup chocolate granola from OhNuts.com (It got lost and I couldn’t taste it :( )
  • 1/3 cup low-fat plain yogurt (plus a dollop more)
  • 1/3 cup vanilla hemp milk (plus a splash more)
  • Small handful sliced almonds
  • 1/2 tbsp-ish of ground flax
  • 2/3 cup-ish cup of strawberries
  • Half a small banana, sliced

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Pumpkin

Overnight Combo:

  • 1/3 cup oats
  • ~1/3 cup hemp milk
  • 1/2 cup plain low-fat yogurt
  • 1/4 cup pumpkin (all I had left)
  • 1/2 a banana
  • Sprinkle of pumpkin pie spice

Added In The Morning:

  • 1 Weetabix biscuit , crumbled
  • 1 tbsp ground flax
  • Drizzle more hemp
  • Drizzle maple syrup

FANtastic combo of flavors!

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Wheatberries Galore

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This combo included wheatberries = the most wonderful addition to yogurt I’ve ever had!!!! Chewy, chewy, chewy.

Mixture:

  • 1/2 cup rolled oats
  • 1/2 cup hemp milk
  • 1/2 cup greek yogurt
  • 1 tbsp flax
  • 1/2 a serving of Nuts over Raspberries trail mix
  • 1/2 a small banana
  • 1 tbsp sprouted wheatberries

Chocolate Peanut Butter

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I added about a tsp of Ghirardeli U nsweetened Cocoa powder to my muesli – along with a spoonful of PB stirred in. Decadence, health style.

Ingredients :

  • 1/4 cup rolled oats
  • 1/4 cup wheatberries (you could just do 1/2 cup oats instead)
  • 1/2 cup skim milk
  • 1/3 cup low-fat plain yogurt
  • 1/2 a small banana
  • 1 tbsp PB
  • 1 tbsp ground flax
  • 1 tsp cocoa powder
  • 1/2 tbsp chopped walnuts

It was quite good! I don’t think I’ll have this all the time, but certainly for a change every now and then. And next time I will NOT be stirring in the PB – it totally got lost in there. What a waste of good PB flavor! Go easy on the unsweet cocoa. I added a little too much to the husband’s and it got a little bitter. He had to add brown sugar to balance it out.

Banana Crunch

There was no need to soak the muesli overnight because I just used chilled prepared oatmeal in this variation.

  • 1/2 a serving of prepared steel cut oats (made with a bit of skim milk)
  • 1/2 a cup of prepared wheatberries
  • 3 strawberries
  • 1/2 a very small banana
  • 1/3 cup greek yogurt
  • Splash vanilla hemp milk
  • 1/2 a package of Funky Monkey Banana Chips ! (see below)

Lots of crunch and chew in this bowl!

Cereal + Berries

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The mix:IMG_5220 (800x600)

  • 1/3 cup oats
  • 1/3 cup Stonyfield low-fat plain yogurt
  • 1/3 cup vanilla soy milk
  • 1/3 cup strawberries
  • 2 tbsp wheatberries

And this morning I added:

  • 1/2 a cup Uncle Sam’s (loved it!!!)
  • The last of the Aztec Crunchy Corn
  • 1 tbsp blueberry preserves

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by Kath on May 9, 2008

in Other

{ 2 trackbacks }

Irish Potato Oats « Veggie Booty
September 17, 2009 at 12:04 pm
Overnight Oatmeal Raisin Oats « Veggie Booty
October 14, 2009 at 7:35 pm

{ 30 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Cate September 25, 2008 at 9:40 am

Hi Kath,

I have a silly question. I’ve never made or had muesli before. Am I supposed to cook the oats with the hemp and/or skim milk first and then add it to my bowl with the other ingredients?

This look yummy. I will make it for breakfast tomorrow. I made the banana oatmeal – so delicious! Texture was perfect. Too bad my 4 year old wouldn’t take a second bite = ( I look forward to trying all the other variations and making up other concoctions along the way.

Keep those post coming. I love your blog. Have a great day.

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2 Kath September 25, 2008 at 3:55 pm

Cate ,
Everything is raw!! Enjoy.

Kath

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3 Marlene February 10, 2009 at 4:39 pm

Hi Kath

I am sorry to tell you but this is not really “muesli”. I am French and have traveled and lived overseas my entire life, and muesli is actually just a breakfast cereal with oats, fruits, and nuts, kind of like what Americans call “granola”, but you can get it cooked or raw. It is not necessarily prepared overnight with yogurt, but can be eaten like cereal with milk, or with cream, cottage cheese, etc. Just thought I’d let ya know!

Marlene

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4 Hannah March 11, 2009 at 10:25 pm

I really want to try Muesli, is it like cereal or oats? Is it better warm or cold? Can I buy muesli like Bob’s Red Mill brand?

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5 Elizabeth April 28, 2009 at 7:50 am

Thanks Kath! Had overnight oats this morning…. the perfect warm weather fuel!

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6 Eve May 9, 2009 at 1:39 pm

I have heard of letting oatmeal soak overnight but never tried it. Now I will. Thanks. I love oatmeal too. I like mine with raisins, honey and pecans. But adding banana is also good. Coconut is another good topping and if you have some dried pineapple along with that, hmmm. Of course, I have to be careful with my add ons, they go straight to my upper arms. lol

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7 Stacey May 9, 2009 at 10:22 pm

Silly question… do you let it soak in the fridge, to keep it cold, or do you leave it out?

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8 Kath May 10, 2009 at 7:39 am

Stacey,
In the fridge!! You won’t want milk to sit out all night for bacteria purposes.

K

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9 Lauren A. May 21, 2009 at 8:59 pm

have you ever tried this with steel cut oats? i wonder how it would turn out…

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10 elie January 8, 2010 at 11:02 am

Hi….I have tried it with steel cut oats and it is a bit too crunchy for my taste because these oats don’t absorb the milk as well.

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11 Lori May 23, 2009 at 7:00 am

Do you then heat it before you eat it? Or do you eat it cold?

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12 Kath May 23, 2009 at 8:14 am

Lori ,
Eat it cold. Or sometimes I might microwave for 30 seconds to take the chill out.

K

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13 Kate June 4, 2009 at 4:46 pm

@Marlene: I’m a Kiwi, and have travelled plenty too. Traditionally, “muesli” generally referred to Swiss style “bircher” muesli (see Wikipedia), and it’s only more recently (still well before my lifetime) that it’s become common to eat toasted muesli (granola to the Americans) and describe it as such..And I don’t think it’s common at all in the US to refer to granola as muesli, so Kath’s “right” anyway…

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14 Natalie June 5, 2009 at 10:02 pm

Mmmm convenience tastes delicious :) hahah

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15 Kristen June 26, 2009 at 3:17 pm

I just tried overnight oats & they are delicious! I love oatmeal but don’t always want something hot in the morning- thanks so much!

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16 Cindy October 5, 2009 at 11:41 pm

WOW, thanks AGAIN for these awesome recipes. You’re blog is really entertaining! Your oatmeal variations are just WOW! Oatmeal doesn’t seem boring at all.

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17 Jac October 15, 2009 at 4:32 am

hey kath. i never liked oats (no pun intended).. but overnight oats changed me! superb no cook recipe! thanks kath

http://peachesandcupcakes.wordpress.com/2009/10/15/overnight-oats/

here’s my post on it..
JAc

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18 Demetra Lambros December 7, 2009 at 5:20 am

Hello Kathy,
I just wanted to thank you! I am living in Athens, Greece, and my family lost whatever initial enthusiasm it had for oatmeal about the time we moved here… When I read this post this morning, I hadn’t had breakfast yet. Well, you know what I did. And i just had the BEST late-morning breakfast ever, thanks to your oatmeal-inspiration. Love your site. Thank you for doing it…and for the oatmeal tribute!!! Very good especially for Americans overseas…

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19 Kath December 7, 2009 at 8:49 am

Glad you liked it!

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20 jac December 7, 2009 at 5:25 am

hi. was just wondering if it could be made with oat bran?

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21 Kath December 7, 2009 at 8:50 am

Jac, I’ve never done it, but I’m sure it could be done!

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22 elie January 8, 2010 at 11:03 am

Oat bran gets too soggy so I add it in the morning

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23 crystal January 18, 2010 at 12:00 am

Cant wait for breakfast! This is such a wonderful way to make skim milk and nonfat yogurt so decadent. I added raisins, dried apricots, banana, Kashi 7 whole grain puff cereal, and cinnamon. In goes flax and wheatgerm in the morning! My babies thank you for sharing as well, overnight oats makes wonderful baby food.

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24 Lisa January 21, 2010 at 9:46 pm

can you do “overnight cereal”? like cheerios? how would that work?
i tried it with annies bunnie cereal tonight- 3/4 cup annies, 1/3 cup choc milk, 1/4 cup vanilla greek yogurt and a dash of cocoa powder.
we’ll see how it turns out tomorow!!

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25 Kath January 22, 2010 at 5:51 am

The whole idea is for the oats to absorb the water, so if you like soggy Cheerios, then you could do it, but I wouldn’t recommend them!

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26 Cobie January 24, 2010 at 4:51 pm

I like the whole idea of NOT cooking the oats. Raw whenever I can get it is appealing to me. Also, time-wise, it’s a little more efficient.

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27 chelsea January 28, 2010 at 9:40 am

Hi kath,
Would this work with quick oats, have you ever tried? thats all i have!

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28 Kath January 28, 2010 at 8:42 pm

Yep!

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29 Katie January 30, 2010 at 8:03 pm

I am so intrigued! planning to make some overnight oats tonight to eat in the am. Have you ever tried adding frozen fruit? I don’t have any dried fruit. Was thinking of adding frozen and maybe warming in the micro in the morning?
don’t want to ruin my first bowl, though;(

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30 Meredith February 3, 2010 at 8:32 pm

I’ve been eating this every morning for a week or so, and have used frozen fruit almost every time. It’s great! The fruit thaws overnight, and mixes in with the yogurt/milk, etc.

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