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Last updated on August 12th, 2020 at 06:35 pm
Alright, this is my favorite healthy meal right now! This healthy overnight oats recipe with yogurt, peanut butter and cherries is healthy, creamy, delicious and a super quick and easy breakfast idea that almost makes itself.
Healthy Overnight Oats Recipe
The idea of eating overnight oatmeal never occurred to me. Are you kidding me? Oats soaked in fluid overnight? Gross.
But since oats are one of the best foods for your digestion, heart and skin health when summer came I thought I would give those famous overnight oats a try. Even if I had to throw up in my mouth.
“What’s the harm? It can’t be worse than the warm yogurt with sugar my mom used to make for me and my sister when we were kids!”
See, now that I’m an adult, I have higher standards. And surprisingly these overnight oats meet all of them. In fact, they surpass them. I thought they’d be like rice pudding, which I always from the bottom of my heart hated. But they’re not.
You know what they are? They’re the creamiest and most refreshing breakfast ever. And when I say creamy, I mean really creamy. You would not expect that from oats because unsoaked they seem dry and lifeless like my hair. But once you soak them, oh my.
Overnight Oats: Warm Or Cold?
COLD. You eat overnight oats cold. You can probably warm them in a microwave, but you really don’t have to. And that makes them a perfect summer breakfast.
My Favorite Thing About This Breakfast?
The best part is making overnight oats takes about, hmm, like 2 min of my precious time. Then in the morning – BAM! breakfast is served. I don’t need to warm it, don’t need to mix, I don’t need to do anything. I can just eat. There are about a million things I like about this.
How To Make Healthy Overnight Oats
Here’s a very general, quick method to make a great base for overnight oats:
- Mix oats, liquid of choice and yogurt (can also be vegan yogurt). I use oats and yogurt in proportion 1:1 and then add a little bit less water or milk to losen it up. Keep in mind that the oats soak up a lot of the moisture. As you’ll see in the recipe below, I used 1/2 cup oats, 1/2 cup yogurt and 1/3 cup of water. You might even need to add a little bit more liquid if using milk or dairy-free milk. You can use a jar or any type of airtight container to make overnight oats. You don’t need to buy a fancy jar if you don’t have one to make overnight oats.
- Put the mixture overnight or for 3-4 hours in the fridge.
- In the morning, top with your favorite toppings and enjoy. Speaking of, let’s talk about toppings.
Overnight Oats Toppings
Here are some things you can add to your overnight oats:
- Fruit: berries, apples, pears, pineapple, peaches, banana, mango. You can add pretty much any fruit to overnight oatmeal and it will taste great.
- Chia seeds: in case you want to make your overnight oats thicker or to leave out the yogurt altogether you can add chia seeds (important addition to vegan overnight oats). This also has some additional health benefits, because chia seeds are rich in fiber, protein and omega-3’s.
- Sweeteners: if you need some additional sweetness, add maple syrup or honey to the base recipe.
- Nuts: Chopped almonds, walnuts, peanuts or cashews all add a nice crunch to this breakfast.
- Nut Butter: to make your overnight oats even creamier and more satisfying add a tsp or a tbsp of your favorite nut butter.
- Cinnamon or vanilla to give your overnight oats a little bit of flavor!
Health Benefits Of Overnight Oats
I get chills when I think of all the good things overnight oats do to the human body. They’re good for your skin, heart, digestion and your brain!
Why? Well here’s just the very short version of it:
- Nuts and oats are known to assist weight loss and can lower cholesterol and blood pressure. They have anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory properties.
- Oats are also known to be prebiotic, so they help the good bacteria in your gut grow and thus prevent bad bacteria from overloading the body with toxins.
- Oats also contain a great amount of vitamin E, protein and healthy fatty acids
- Although honey is very sweet and I wouldn’t recommend eating too much of it, 1 spoon is enough to boost your immune system and prevent infections, while not overloading you with sugar.
- Berries are among the antioxidant-richest foods in the world. They contain more vitamin C than oranges and thus keep your skin healthy.