Easy Yogurt Overnight Oats
As an early (not by choice) riser, I’m a big believer in having a good breakfast to start my day. As much as I would love to have a proper sit down breakfast each morning, I’m usually strapped for time. Once I get up, shower, get dressed, pack my lunch and make sure I have everything ready for the day (such as my gym bag for days I hit the gym after work), I usually only have about 10 minutes to make/eat my breakfast and enjoy a cup of coffee before I catch my 7:03am bus (ugh) to the subway station.
Since my morning time is so limited, I’m also a big believer in getting as much ready as I can the night before. I usually get my lunch ready while I’m making supper and I try to pack my gym bag while I’m brushing my teeth. Now that the weather is starting to warm up, I’ve started to re-introduce yogurt overnight oats into my breakfast routine. This saves even more time because all the prep happens the night before and I get to wake up to ready-made, cold and creamy oats that I can decorate with different nuts, fruit and spices. The great thing is that overnight oats are super portable and on days where I’m really running late, they can be made in a mason jar or portable Tupperware container and thrown in my bag with a spoon. A nice, healthy, and cheaper alternative to waiting in line at Tim Horton’s every morning!
Right now, my favourite toppings for overnight oats are strawberries, chia seeds and a quick dash of cinnamon, but I’m sure this will change when more fruit is in season.
Easy Yogurt Overnight Oats
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup old-fashioned or rolled oats, uncooked
- 100 gram yogurt cup, any flavour
- 3 tbsp milk
Suggested Toppings
- fresh fruit
- chia seeds
- chopped nuts
- cinnamon
Directions:
- In a small bowl, Tupperware container or mason jar, stir together uncooked old-fashioned or rolled oats, yogurt, milk and optional chia seeds. Cover and place in your fridge for a minimum of 6 hours to let the oats soak up some of the liquid.
- Remove from fridge and add desired fruit, nuts and spices. If the oats are too thick for your liking, feel free to add an extra tablespoon of milk.
I read this post while I was eating peanut butter & banana VOO, lol. It’s that time of year! So Delicious coconut yoghurt is really good in overnight oats.
is it absolutely necessary to add the milk? i don’t tolerate milk, but i want to try this with lactose free yogurt! would it just be thicker consistency? thanks in advance!
The milk isn’t necessary, but the oats will be thicker if you just use yogurt. To thin it out, I would add a tablespoon of water.
You could always try using oat, almond, rice, soya, coconut, hemp, hazlenut or cashew milk? I don’t have dairy in my diet and I find any of these are suitable alternatives. Oat is my favourite ☺
I’m sure soy milk or lactose free milk will be fine.
Do you need to cook the oats? Or you just put them in uncooked?
The oats need to be uncooked and they will soften overnight. I fixed this in the recipe. 🙂
Traditional Swiss way (I’m told) soak the oats in a little water, you can mix in typical muesli ingredients too… Then layer with the youghurt and a big spoonful of toasted sunflower and pumpkin seeds- drizzle of honey and no hunger pangs for four hours or so……
Would greek yogurt be just as good? Have you tried this?
Hi Gin! I have tried greek yogurt with great success. The end result will be thicker than using regular yogurt, so I recommend stirring in extra milk before letting the oats sit overnight.
OMG! You have no idea how much I love this. Like you my mornings are very limited, but I also like to save money by no eating greasy unhleathy food in the street. Please share more things like this! ;D
Glad you like the recipe! 🙂
Hi,
Can we prepare few of these and keep in the fridge for more than one night? Thks.
Of course, what a great idea!
How do I find out the nutritional value.
Hi Dawn, thanks for stopping by! I don’t post the nutritional value of the recipes I post so I’m not sure where you can find this info. You may be able to find a nutritional data website on Google that allow you to input this.
The Kitchn answered a similar question that may be able to help you. The article is 5 years old, but it’s a good starting point: http://www.thekitchn.com/how-can-home-cooks-calculate-n-91782
If you make it from scratch, like it says on the recipe, you can count all the nutrition from your individual ingredients.
There’s another version of this floating around that you might equally love. It uses chia seeds, almond milk, greek yogurt, and oats. I can’t remember the proportions, but if you google refrigerator oatmeal or muesli, you’re sure to find it.
Anyways, that’s the base…then you can add fruits, or whatever else you’d like.
Would I be able to substitute quick oats for the rolled oats/old fashioned oats?
Quick oats are fine, but be sure to reduce the liquid as they are much finer than regular oats.
This might sound dumb, but is yogurt absolutely necessary? Like is it possible to make these with just milk?
Not a dumb question at all. You are welcome to use just milk if you don’t have any yogurt on hand. I like using yogurt as a thickener and a flavour base, but substituting more milk is fine.
Would this recipe work with steel cut oats?
Steel cut oats are fine, however be prepared for a good jaw workout as it will be very chewy compared to using regular oats. Be sure to add an extra tablespoon or two of milk, either before or after the overnight part, as the mixture will also be a little drier.
How much is a 100 gram of yogurt??
If you are unable to buy 100g individual sized cups, you can use about 1/4 cup of yogurt. Feel free to play around with the measurements.
Is this supposed to be warm? Do we warm it up in the microwave before we eat it??
Overnight oats are normally meant to be eaten cold. I’ve never tried heating it up.
Hi !! I was wondering what size this jar was ?
I love this idea as I’m always running late in the morning and I, too, have to catch a 7 AM bus (NOT okay). Just had one question – if you leave these in the fridge for more than 6 hours/one overnight, do the oats get mushy? Wondering how many weekday mornings’ worth I could prepare on a Sunday night, for example. Thanks!
Having JUST moved into my first apartment and living on a food budget – I’m so excited to try this! Honestly, I don’t have a pot to make hot instant oatmeal and came across this! Thank you very much! 🙂
-Kristen
IG @Kristenbasore215
im sorry I just have to mention how crazy some of these questions are. You did a great job simply stating how to make this and people are asking questions about such common sense things like nutrition values. – read your labels! Do I heat it? – only if you like warm yogurt! You are very sweet to not say something and just answer their questions. It must be very frustrating. People have minds, and imaginations. They should use them like you did by coming up w this. But… Do the oats get that soggy texture or the regular oatmeal texture? Hope that wasn’t dumb. Lol.
Who are u to decide what is a crazy question on a post that wasn’t yours, I have never made this but have heard a lot about it, thanks everyone for all the questions that to me are not common sense, and are not crazy questions, thanks for the post, made it for my grandchildren this weekend, they loved em with apples in this case, no more instant oatmeal in my house
If anyone was wondering about preparing in advance…. I make three days worth at a time. Although if I know I’m going to be strapped for time later I go ahead and mix the yogurt, milk, chia seeds and then add my topping and oats a night ahead. This keeps you prepared but no mushy oats! My fav toppings are blueberries with maple syrup! and I use Greek yogurt for the protein and almond milk!
Had these for breakfast this morning and they were yummy. So filling too. Thanks for sharing! x
Pears or apples give this recipe a great flavor! When I use these two fruits, I also add cinnamon and walnuts. Can’t get enough of it- Yummy!
Adding the oats overnight hadn’t occured to me, but one other money saving tip is that frozen berries are often cheaper than fresh, so I put some in plain yoghurt overnight to make breakfast. Keen to try mixing oats with the yoghurt now!
En cuanto a las semillas de Chía. Se puede agregar estos al principio de todo, es decir, la noche anterior? Ya que lo recomendable siempre es consumir las semillas de Chía cuando están ya remojadas en algún líquido y no así solos sin remojarse
I make this for my super picky seven year old and she loves it. It makes life so much easier when school is in session and there is not time to try to be making eggs to order and whatever other accompaniments when there are four of us trying to be out the door by seven-thirty. And school meals are just a joke. A mini bagel in the morning and then three dried out chicken nuggets and a quarter cup of fruit cocktail is supposed to power them through the day? Please. The many variations of this recipe will be a twice daily staple at my house. 🙂
How about Fromage blanc? Would that work, I am in France, but really want to try this now and it’s what I have in the fridge 😛
This is one of my breakfast faves! I too prepare a big batch at the start of the week and then transfer individual portions to a small tupperware to take with me to work. If the weather is cold, I liked to heat the portion in the microwave and then add in a spoon of crunchy peanut butter, chopped up apples and some chopped up nuts, maybe a dash of honey if I needed it to taste a bit sweeter. Another flavour is adding shredded coconut and chopped up dried prunes- good combo and healthy!!
Hi Jessica — I’ve prepared this numerous times for my husband’s breakfast which he eats when he gets to work, and he loves it. Everytime I get out the little container, he knows I’m preparing it for him the night before and gets excited already. I usually use bananas and strawberries for the fruits, and I sometimes vary the taste by getting flavoured yogurts like vanilla-flavoured or honey-flavoured, or putting in chocolate milk in lieu of fresh milk just to keep things interesting.
Hi Louise. Glad to hear your husband is enjoying it!
love it!!!! How many calories would you say this is??
How many servings are in this recepie
It is great! However, I never know whether I will have time to eat my breakfast, so I preapare it in the morning. Just pour hot water on very fine flakes when you get up. Before you are dressed, it will be soft and ready for yoghurt and fruits. 🙂
This looks so delicious! What a great idea, I’ve always enjoyed oats, yogurt, fruit, and honey for breakfast after it has sat for several minutes to soften up the oats some. Never tried letting it sit over night! The time savings and being able to take it on the go… that is a bonus!
Is it necessary to use chia seeds?
What would be a good oat-yogurt/milk proportion?
omg this oat yogourt is so amasing! what a great idea of breakfast
thank you jessica x
I absolutely LOVE this! My huni told me about it a while ago and I’ve had to play with the amount of milk to add. I usually add the yogurt and fruit (sometimes honey ) in the morn so I’ll be trying it this way tonight. It is def a morning savior! Why wait til tomorrow if I can get it done today? 🙂 (I too prep my gear bag while brushing my teeth)
Totally loving this. The Chia Seeds really make this recipe for me. More please!
Awesome! Can we make this with lactose free yogurt too?
What a beautiful picture! I had no idea you could do Overnight Oats until I got these free samples from Quaker. It tastes good (though they add a lot of sugar). I’ll definitely try overnight oats by itself without packaging soon.
What size containers is the best to use? I love overnight oats
I use steel cut oats and love the chewiness. I’ve tried soaking several days worth at once, even with just unsweetened soy, but it starts to ferment after 2 nights in the fridge. I’m thinking it’s because rolled and instant oats are steamed but steel cut aren’t. Just a heads up on that.
Fwiw I put (my homemade bulgarian goat) yogurt on in the morning with raw pepitas, chia seeds and fruit . Like to have the extra protein and phytonutrients from the soy.
great!
amazing content.