Sweet and fruity overnight oats for one, which are an easy, make-ahead breakfast for hectic mornings.
Lately I’ve been eating overnight oats nearly every morning. While I’d like to say that was purely because of my love of creamy oats, truthfully it’s probably a 70-30 split between oats love and extreme laziness.
There’s no doubt that I love overnight oats, given they often taste like dessert and remind me of pudding. But laziness if a serious motivating factor too. Whenever I’m juggling essays, exams and life in general, laziness takes over. So the idea of cleaning a saucepan after making oatmeal, or – heaven forbid – cleaning the waffle iron, fills me with horror.
Luckily during the weekend I’m less petrified of using a sponge and some detergent.
This recent overnight oats obsession (and laziness streak) has resulted in my collection of overnight oats recipes to explode. At this point in time I have about a dozen recipes ready to share on this blog, and a dozen more on my ‘Must Makes These Oats’ list.
Don’t worry, I won’t completely bombard you with overnight oats recipes and ideas, but I’ll certainly be posting them relatively regularly. Monster cookie, peanut butter latte and chunky monkey overnight oats are all sitting on my ‘To Post’ list. (Yeah, I make a lot of lists).
But today I’m sticking with something simple and summery: Strawberry Banana Overnight Oats.
To make this breakfast more interesting than a bowl of plain overnight oats with strawberries and banana slices mixed in, I experimented with flavored yogurts. Ordinarily, I stick to plain and vanilla yogurts, but this time I tried banana, strawberry and strawberry-banana Greek yogurts.
Not surprisingly, strawberry-banana was my favorite in this recipe (although I enjoyed all three). I used Chobani’s Strawberry Banana flavor, and since that’s a fruit-on-the-bottom yogurt, it’s easiest if you give the yogurt a good stir before adding it to the oats.*
If you can’t find a thick and creamy strawberry-banana yogurt, then opt for strawberry, or banana flavored yogurt. And in the unlikely event that you can’t find strawberry or banana yogurt – or you (understandably) don’t feel like buying anymore yogurt – then plain is A-OK. Just add a little maple syrup if your plain yogurt is quite sour.
*Please note that I have received products from Chobani in the past, but, of course, all opinions are my own.
Let’s not forget about those mix-ins and toppings. Obviously, these oats need some strawberries and sliced banana. For a little crunchiness and general breakfast excitement, I also added some almonds, shredded coconut and dried cranberries.
I absolutely love shredded coconut in overnight oats, so I’m going to highly recommend you stick with that mix-in. But another nut can easily be substituted for the almonds (perhaps some walnuts or macadamias?) and almost any dried fruit can be stirred in instead of the cranberries. Or, even better, replace the dried cranberries with white chocolate chips.
Fun Fact: There are 200 seeds on a single strawberry, and apparently they’re not actually berries.
- Overnight oats
- ⅓ cup rolled oats
- 1 teaspoon chia seeds
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ cup milk
- ½ cup Greek-style strawberry-banana yogurt
Mix-ins and toppings- 2 tablespoons shredded coconut
- 2 tablespoons sliced almonds
- 1 tablespoon dried cranberries
- ½ - 1 banana, sliced
- 4 - 6 strawberries, sliced
- In a bowl or container, combine the rolled oats, chia seeds, vanilla extract and milk. Add the strawberry-banana yogurt, and mix until completely combined.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap (or put the lid on the container) and leave in the fridge overnight.
- In the morning, stir approximately half of the shredded coconut, sliced almonds, dried cranberries, banana and strawberries into the overnight oats. If the oats are too thick, also add a little more milk.
- Top with the remaining shredded coconut, sliced almonds, dried cranberries, banana and strawberries.
½ cup = 1 individual container (about 5.3 - 6 oz, or 120 - 170g) of Strawberry Banana Greek Yogurt.
If strawberry-banana yogurt is unavailable, use strawberry (or banana) Greek-style yogurt. The yogurt doesn't need to be authentic Greek yogurt, any thick and creamy yogurt is fine.
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