I can’t really function without breakfast.
Some people can’t function without coffee, I need my breakfast and hate coffee.
Although I do occasionaly make fancy breakfasts I do enjoy not worrying about breakfast everyday. That’s why I opt for simple breakfast, sometimes it’s bread with tea, other times these delicious overnight oat with yogurt.
Overnight oats with yogurt – meal prepping
I believe that you can meal prep even when you’re too busy, you just need to lower your expectations on what you consider meal prepping.
For example, preparing these overnight oats with yogurt is really quick and that way you can have several breakfasts done at once.
I enjoy making several at once and can easily bring them with me when I go to the gym in the morning. I do eat something before going otherwise I’d pass out but I crave a more nourishing meal after my workout. That’s where these oats come in.
Since I usually do my homemade yogurt, adding a couple of other ingredients and having my breakfasts ready for the week doesn’t take me much time.
I’m sure that once you try it once you’ll quickly convert and what’s so great about this is that you can personalize it according to your tastes.
Make this directly in the final container
I don’t like washing dishes and don’t own a dishwashing machine.
Since I want to meal prep these and spend the least amount of time doing it, I make this directly in the final container: if I’m going to be eating this out of a mason jar I mix everything together in the mason jar, not in a separate bowl.
By doing that, I’m being more eco-friendly as well so checks all the boxes.
Overnight Oats with only Yogurt
I’m going to be 100% honest with you: although I’m a big fan of yogurt, I don’t like milk.
I don’t enjoy drinking milk and it was one of the things that my parents made me drink every morning for breakfast. As soon as I left for college, I stopped drinking it entirely.
That’s why I’m purposing overnight oats with only yogurt, many of the recipes that I encountered had milk on it and that’s just simply not for me. That’s why I opted to show you these overnight oats with yogurt, no milk added!
Greek Yogurt vs Regular Yogurt
You can make greek yogurt at home but you don’t need to use your homemade greek yogurt for this recipe.
Since greek yogurt is thicker than regular yogurt and you won’t be adding any milk in these overnight oats, regular yogurt will be more than enough. The whey that exists within the regular yogurt and has been mostly strained on a greek yogurt, will be more than enough to provide the liquid for the oats to soak on.
And it’ll make these overnight oats with yogurt cheaper as greek yogurt is more expensive than regular yogurt.
Haing said that, you can still use greek yogurt for this recipe. Just expect a thicker consistency and perhaps the need to add some milk.
Plant-based or lactose-free yogurts
If you want to change this recipe to use plant-based or lactose-free yogurts go ahead, no need to change anything on this recipe. Adjust consistency by adding more or less oats depending on what you have but it’ll most probably be okay without any change.
How long do these overnight oats keep?
These overnight oats with yogurt keep in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Remember that yogurt likes to be kept in the top shelf of your fridge where it’s colder.
Cold vs warm overnight oats
Personally, I don’t enjoy eating warm yogurt so I never heat up these oats. You can microwave these if you really want to and enjoy having a warm breakfast just be sure to not let it get too hot otherwise you’ll kill the good bacteria that make the yogurt full of good probiotics.
If you’d like to have a warm breakfast, I’d personally recommend to go with a overnight oat with milk or plant-based milk as I believe they’d be more suited for this instead of reheating the overnight oats with yogurt.
Changing up the flavors
You can also easily change the base flavor of these overnight oats just by changing the yogurt that you use. For example, you can use vanilla yogurt instead of unflavored natural yogurt. It’s a way to change up your breakfasts without much effort on your part.
Easy Overnight Oats with Yogurt recipe
Since I’m advising you to make it directly on the container instead of a separate bowl, I’m providing you a small portion sized recipe. Feel free to adapt if you’re making it in a larger container.
Ingredients
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons of regular yogurt
1/2 cup of old-fashioned or rolled oats
1/2 tablespoon of honey (substitute for agave syrup or maple syrup)
(optional) 2 frozen strawberries (skip the 2 extra tablespoons of yogurt if adding any frozen fruit)
Instructions
- Add all ingredients to a glass jar
- Shake the jar until everything is mixed in.
Adapting this recipe
I have given you the basic recipe but the world is your oyster. Feel free to add other types of frozen fruit, seeds and anything else that you like to eat in your yogurt. I personally prefer to add any nuts or seeds when I’m going to eat my yogurt to avoid that they get soggy.
For example, for these overnight oats above, I added some poppy seeds and pumpkin seeds on top of my overnight oats, it was yummy.
Don’t be afraid to experiment and if you don’t want to add any sweetener, just use plain yogurt with any honey or agave mixed in.
Ideas for add-ins for your yogurt overnight oats
Let me share with you some ideas how you can take your overnight oats to the next level.
- Nut butters (peanut butter, almond butter)
- Seeds (chia seeds, poppy seeds)
- Nuts (almonds, cashews, walnuts)
- Dried fruit (dried cranberries, apricots)
- Granola
- Fresh fruit
- Jam
- Shredded coconut
- Cacao bites
- Chocolate chips