Name: Easy Overnight Oats
Prep time: 10 min
Total time: 120 min
Ingredients: 2 C Rolled Oats; 4 tsp Chia Seeds; 3 C Water or Plant-Based Milk (Soy or Almond Milk works great, too); 1 tsp Vanilla Extract; 1/2 tsp Cinnamon; 1/2 tsp Nutmeg; 1/2 C Raisins; 1/2 Banana (Per Serving); 1/4 C Fresh or Frozen Blueberries (Per Serving); 1/2 oz Walnuts (Per Serving); 1 Tbsp Ground Flaxseeds (Per Serving)

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Easy Overnight Oats

Hey guys, what’s up? It’s Tavo here at dadgoesgreen.com. I just wanted to review one of my favorite breakfast choices- Overnight Oats. This was inspired by Rip Esselstyn from the Engine 2 diet and, but this is my own variation on that, but I did want to give them credit. And so we’re going to go through some of the things I use. So, basically, I like to use rolled oats for starters. Eventually, we’ll also use some ground flax seed, some chia seeds, and some raisins.

You’ll want to have a container handy, preferably a BPA free one. We’ll also use a ‘one teaspoon’ measuring spoon. We also have some ground nutmeg, some ground cinnamon, some vanilla extract, and some fresh, clean, cold water. You’ll also want to have a ‘one cup’ measuring cup. I’ll put the flaxseeds aside for now, cause those will be used after this is all done.

So, we’re gonna start off here with the container. I usually prepare this for like a day or two. I make this much, this amount, for my wife and I to share most days. So, what I do is I start off with about two cups of the rolled oats. I just put them in the container here, like, so.

Easy Peasy

Yeah, this is a super easy recipe. And really, I’ve just grown to love these overnight oats so much. I like them just because you could do a lot with them. They’re so healthy, so good for you. So much fiber. Then I take the chia seeds and I add about four teaspoons of chia seeds.

I normally use whole chia seeds in these overnight oats. You can grind them up in a little coffee grinder if you’d like. That would add some additional benefits, like absorbability. Those are actually better for you. But, for convenience, I leave them whole. So there’s your four teaspoons of chia seeds. These are just whole, and they do a great job. They also taste great, and add some protein.

Then we’re going to add some water to the oats and chia seed mixture. We’re going to end up with three cups of water added right here. What I like to do is right off the bat, I like to mix this up nice and smoothly. Don’t let that sit for too long without kind of dispersing the chia seeds. If you do you can get a little bit of clumping in the chia seeds. That’s not “Good Eats”, as Alton Brown would say. And, it kind of lessens the experience a little bit. I’m kind of a food perfectionist when it comes to some of this stuff, so I like to just make sure that they’re distributed nicely. So I’ll spend a few seconds just kind of stirring this in.

Spice It Up

We’re going to hit the vanilla extract with one teaspoon of vanilla extract right there. It’s just satisfying the way overnight oats kind of produce their own creamy milk-like consistency when you stir it up. I kind of enjoy putting this thing together. So, just one teaspoon of the vanilla extract. I, then, take the cinnamon and I give it three nice generous shakes. Yessir. Three.

We’ll finish it up with three shakes of the nutmeg. Feel free to play around with these spices. Add more if you’d like or, or less if it’s too much. I like a lot of flavor and I think this is a good middle of the road. I’m not too overdone on the spices or add ons. I do think that’s been my preferred amount of seasonings, so to speak. So that takes a couple seconds to mix in. I like to make sure I stir that in nicely. Scraping in any cinnamon or nutmeg. The vanilla extract kind of blends in really nicely. So it’s not so much of that. But I blend this in really nicely. I love putting this together pretty much every night or every other night cause I think this will last me two servings for me and two servings for my wife typically. Probably because I’m adding so many add ons as well. And we’ll get into that later on.

You’re So Sweet

Next, we are going to put the raisins in. I switch off when I make this recipe, between raisins and chopped dates, or medjool dates, if you want to be specific. Today, I’m using raisins. I typically try to grab a nice generous handful. Originally, I wasn’t going to measure any of this stuff. But, I thought it might be helpful for some of you that prefer actual measurements. So, I’m going to put it in this measuring cup and I bet it’ll come out to about a half a cup of raisins. Some might think that’s a lot of carbs. That’s a lot of raisins or a lot of sweetness.

You know what I love about eating plant based? It’s okay to eat a lot of carbs as long as they’re a whole food plant based like eating the entire raisin. This comes out to about a half a cup today. And remember this is a half a cup for basically four servings. When you break it down per serving, it’s not as much as you think. So I’m making a pretty big portion here because I do split up these overnight oats between myself and my wife.I’m going to stir that in because when you want to do is, one of the things I love about this recipe is that you get to rehydrate either the raisins or you rehydrate the dates if you chop them up.

When I prepare the dates, I’m cutting them long ways. I’m pulling out the seeds, then cutting them again in quarters. I’m not going to show that on this video here. I’ll chop up those four quarter pieces into about four more pieces, per quarter. Each date yields about 16 pieces total.I throw those in.

I love medjool dates, a big thumbs up right there. Again, I switch off between batches, raisins one time and dates the next, just so it doesn’t get monotonous. Stir that up a little bit just to make sure all the raisins get rehydrated properly.

You’re Nuts

I’ll grab some walnuts and show you which ones I use. I buy all this stuff in bulk for the most part. That is mainly because I literally eat this every single day. I love it. You can make some variations of this. I’ll add some notes to the post just to give you some other ideas. You can add shredded carrots for a ‘carrot cake’ inspired version. When I finally serve this, what I do is I cut a banana in half and I’ll dice that up. I’ll cut those long ways to make four quarters per half. I’ll then dice that further to make smaller bite sized pieces.

I chop that up to make little segments and put that in there. In addition to that, I’ll also grab a small handful of frozen blueberries and put that on top. So, you’ve got the sweetness of the raisins. Also, you have the sweetness of the dates, either one. You’ve got the banana, and then I even put in blueberry. You’ve knocked out three servings of fruit in one meal. That’s fantastic.

Nobody can complain that this isn’t sweet enough. It just ends up being really phenomenal. I’ll cover that up, stick that in the fridge and you’re done.

Conclusion

It doesn’t even take a whole night for this to be ready. Sometimes if I have forgotten to make this, I will literally put that together in the morning. I get back from the gym, about 6:00 AM. If I’m working from home that day that might be ready by eight or nine o’clock. It’s super quick.

So even in just a few short hours, you can have breakfast ready with this overnight oat method. Check it out, see what you like. What version of it do you like yourself? I encourage you to try this one great breakfast. It’s super healthy for you.

Again, when I serve it I will probably put the chopped walnuts in there. I’ll add a tablespoon of ground flax seed. On top of that I’ll add the diced bananas and then a handful of blueberries on top, frozen or fresh. I usually add some additional water because I do like mine a little bit more on the wet side. Check it out. I hope you guys liked them and I hope this was helpful for you. Feel free to bounce back in the comments section or on email or Facebook with any questions that you guys have. If you guys are interested in similar ideas let me know. I’m happy to provide that and we’ll be posting more of those here.

So stay safe out there you guys. Stay healthy and keep on washing those hands. I Love you all and will talk to you soon. Cheers!

Easy Overnight Oats

Here's the recipe to my go-to daily breakfast- Overnight Oats. It's quick, easy, and most importantly DELICIOUS. These oats offer you so much flexibility and variety to make them your own. Try them and get your oats ON.

Print Recipe

Prep Time 10 mins

Total Time 2 hrs

Cuisine American

Servings 4 servings