Semi Crunchy, Always Extra

With my kids ages 3 years and 11 months, breakfast is a thing that barely happens in our house. I’m juggling the teething baby and trying to pour my coffee while hoping the wild toddler isn’t being too mischievous. In order to make sure our morning meal isn’t a Kolache (it’s a Houston thing) everyday, we prep overnight oats.

Overnight oats are as easy as can be. They’re quick to put together assembly line style, and extremely customizable – even for the fussiest palette! It does not get easier than a no-cook, grab and go breakfast. Are you a veteran overnight oat maker in need of inspiration? Hop on Pinterest and you will find thousands of recipes with a bajillion toppings and ingredients. Those exquisitely staged concoctions make for a beautiful Insta Snap, but are they really saving you any time?

Here are a few simple combos that we use in our house. We borrow delicious flavors from things that we  already love.

This video will show you the step-by-step prep for your overnight oats base, then you just use your imagination for the rest or top off your oats with some of the combos listed after the video.

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YouTube: Easy breezy Overnight Oats for the busy mom

How easy is this, really? I pulled out all the ingredients, setup everything to record the video, prepped & topped 6 overnight oat portions, waited for the hubby to remove the kiddos from the room and settle them in 20 minutes. #momlife Seriously easy! (Video edited down to 8 minutes or so!)

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup oats
• 1/3 cup milk

Truly no-fuss! Use any oats you want! Quick cook, steel cut, regular, gluten free, extra thick rolled oats? Whole milk? 2 percent? Coconut, almond, rice, soy, hemp, cashew or pea milk? Yeah, there’s pea milk. It doesn’t matter what type of milk or oats you use. Just keep your milk-to-oat ratio 1:1, adjust accordingly if you like your oats thicker or more damp. Simply increase or decrease your portion size while maintaining the equal parts of oats and milk. 

Steps:

1. Add oats to your container.
2. Add milk to the oats.
3. Add in any desired base toppings such as ~1/2 tsp brown sugar or a light drizzle of honey/syrup, ~1 Tbsp flax and/or chia seeds.
4. Mix all ingredients until well incorporated, ensure liquid and oats are mixed from top to bottom too.
5. (OPTIONAL) Top with any desired fruit, nuts, etc. See below for some ideas! *Note: Bananas will keep if refrigerated but don’t look pretty, so I cut them fresh in the morning.

TROPICAL – Mango & Banana chunks with Chia seeds

• Oat & Milk mixture
• 1/2 mango, cubed
• 1 tsp chia seeds
• 1/2 banana, sliced & topped when served

SWEET TOOTH – Peanut Butter, Golden Raisins, Honey and Banana

• Oat & Milk mixture
• 1 Tbsp Peanut butter  (mixed into oat mixture)
• Drizzle of honey
• 1 Tbsp Raisins
• 1/2 banana, sliced & topped when served

VANILLA COLD BREW – my variation of recipe from BeWholeBeYou.com

• Oat & Milk mixture
• Drizzle of honey
• Dash of sea salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp chia seeds
• 2 Tbsp coffee

You’re looking at a double sized cold-brew. Oh yeah!

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Keep a couple plain Oat & Milk mixtures to top with your favorite breakfast pancake toppings like blueberries, honey and ‘nanas!

As promised in the video – super cute silicone sleeves for your pint size mason jars! (wide mouth) on amazon.

Here’s a link to regular mouthed pint size mason jars too! xoxo

Share some of your favorite overnight oat recipes!