I’m just going to start off by saying that I am not a morning person. I am that girl that chooses to sleep until the last second instead of waking up and doing my hair and/or makeup. That also means I choose not to wake up early enough to prepare breakfast every morning. So, instead, I found a savior breakfast. Overnight oats. You might think eating oatmeal every morning would get old, but you can create so many different variations that it truly doesn’t. I’ve literally been eating overnight oatmeal for breakfast 5 days a week for a good three months. Still love it. Still tastes bomb every time. Well, most times. There’s been a few mixes I’ve made that haven’t been my favorite, but usually, they’re bomb.
It’s so easy to make overnight oats, which is another reason I love doing it. Personally, I don’t prep 5 days worth of oatmeal. I have a weird feeling that the milk will start tasting funny or the fruit I put in will go bad if I let it sit for that long. I don’t know, I know and have read of plenty people doing a weeks worth at a time, but for some reason, I just refuse. I only make 2 jars at a time, one for myself and one for my boyfriend. I just prep these every night for the following morning (since it takes less than 5 minutes to make, doing it at night it perfectly fine with me). I always use Mason jars for my oatmeal. I’m sure you could use any container you like, but c’mon, Mason jars are just cuter.
Like I said, you can add anything you like inside of your oatmeal. I usually just throw different kinds of fresh fruit inside, but I’ve gone ‘outside the box’ a few times. My favorite is simply bananas, brown sugar, and strawberries. My choices depend on what the cheapest fruit is that week (if you haven’t gotten the hint by now, frugality is my specialty). I always keep my measurements the same for the oats and milk because I only prepare a servings worth. For my toppings, I just use however much I feel like cutting up that night.
I always put my dry ingredients in the jar first, so the oats, toppings, and sweetener (if I choose to use one). I like doing dry ingredients first so I can eyeball if I need to add any extra milk. I will always use 1/2 cup oats (I just use Quick Oats, but you can use Rolled or even Steel Cut–those just take extra time and I’m not about that life) and ~3/4 cup milk. I only use almond milk, coconut milk, cashew milk, or any variation of those. You can of course use regular milk, I just like using this type because it has way less calories and you can’t even really tell it’s not regular milk. I’m not even a fan of almond/coconut/etc milk by itself, but I love it in my oats. My absolute favorite type to use is the almond/coconut blend by Almond Breeze (shown above^^). I am a die hard coconut fan and I love that I can always taste a hint of it in the oatmeal.
Once you add in your milk, shake everything up so you can make sure you have enough for your oats to soak in.
A few of my favorite combinations for toppings:
- Bananas, strawberries, brown sugar
- Bananas, honey, powdered peanut butter
- Bananas, mangoes, brown sugar
- Bananas, cinnamon
- Granny smith apples, brown sugar, cinnamon
- Raspberries, blackberries, mangoes
- Shredded coconut, bananas, vanilla
There’s truly endless possibilities of combinations you could create. I will tell you this, though. I tried pineapple once, (I LOVE pineapple) and it was NOT good. I don’t know if it just didn’t mix well with the almond milk I used or the oats or what it was, but it was just not a good taste. Personal opinion, of course, I just wanted to share my thoughts because I was so disappointed that I can’t use of of my favorite fruits.
Besides the overnight oats, I always like keeping us stocked with fresh fruit to eat or snack on whenever. Watermelon was FINALLY on sale this week so you better believe I snatched some up for a huge fruit salad I made to last us all week (I’m lying, it did not last all week). I used blackberries, watermelon, bananas, and mangoes for this salad, then just squirt some lime juice on top. I didn’t pick the best watermelon this time around, but it wasn’t too bad, and it still looked pretty. By the way, if anyone knows how to pick the best watermelons, PLEASE LET ME KNOW!! I feel like I always have terrible luck.
Also, feel free to share your favorite overnight oats combinations, I’d love to try some new ones!
Recipe:
- 1/2 c. Oats (Rolled, Quick, or Steel Cut)
- 3/4 c. Milk (Any milk will do, I use Coconut/Almond Blend)
- Toppings of choice
-Mix everything together, refrigerate overnight for at least 8 hours
*Prep Your Meals* 