vegan, breakfast, gluten-free, easy, oil-free, sweet · May 17, 2018

Chia Overnight Oats 2 Ways

Name: Chia Overnight Oats 2 Ways!
Prep time: 5 min
Total time: 5 min
Ingredients: 1/2 cup (60g) rolled oats; 1 cup (240g) non-dairy milk; 2 tbsp (16g) chia seeds; 1 tbsp maple syrup (to taste); 1 tbsp cashew butter*; 1 tsp cinnamon (optional); Optional: pinch of salt; Optinal: 1 scoop vegan collagen; For the creamy version: 1/2 cup frozen fruit of choice**; Toppings: fruit, nuts, seeds, toasted coconut, cereal, yogurt, etc.

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Perfect Chia Overnight Oats made with the yummiest ingredients and served chunky or creamy. An easy, healthy breakfast with only 5 minutes of prep!

Do you know what’s even better than discovering a new favorite recipe? Rediscovering an old favorite recipe. Remembering all the yummy reasons you used to love it, and wondering why you ever grew apart. Feeling compelled to shout and share with the entire world. Experiencing that glorious honeymoon phase all over again where you crave it daily and it hits the spot every time. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack – there are no rules when you find a new old fave.

That’s been me and overnight oats these past few weeks.

And because I can’t just make food without it unintentionally morphing into recipe development, I’ve found a damn near perfect method after this many batches. I know, I know, overnight oats have been done and over done at this point. But with a few little tweaks from the usual ratio/ingredients floating around the internet, your next batch could be NEXT LEVEL.

My Requirements For Perfect Overnight Oats

I consider this the BEST jar of while-you-were-sleeping oatmeal for a few reasons:

thick and creamy, not soupy (see: chia pudding for my opinions on that)
truly breakfast appropriate – not overly sweet, not overly rich, not like I just ate dessert at 9am (who am I even?)
as easy as possible, five minutes tops!
nutritiously balanced – carbs, fat, protein, BAM
versatile, so I can mix up the toppings and never get bored

This recipe checks all the bullet points. And comes with two options: 1) chunky like oats or 2) creamy like pudding. So extra killing it on the versatility part.

What You Will Need

Here’s what’s happening…

rolled oats, obviously
chia seeds (but a little more than most recipes!)
maple syrup
cashew butter (or any nut/seed butter, if you must)
non-dairy milk
cinnamon (optional)
salt!

The reason I am semi-adamant about the whole PLEASE USE CASHEW BUTTER thing is because it makes the oats hella creamy but also keeps the flavor really neutral. And if you use raw cashew butter it’s naturally sweeter. But of course peanut butter would be amazeballs too. Or almond butter is always yummy. Or sunflower seed butter for my nut-free friends.

For the normal chunky version you just stir/shake > refrigerate overnight > EAT. For the smooth version you are going to blend that chunky oat mixture with frozen fruit until it’s creeeeeeeeeamy. And colorful depending on what frozen fruit you pick (berries are my favorite!) Think: pudding-smoothie hybrid with extra oomph from those oats.

Wanna Make Oat Perfection Even Better?

There’s one last little ingredient that I personally always add for an extra bump of nutrition and creaminess: Vegan Collagen! I am certain you have heard of collagen by now for hair/nails/skin/joint health, but probably not in vegan recipes because traditional collagen isn’t vegan. Until an ingenious company called Copina Co. came along and created a blend of plant-based vitamins, minerals, and amino acids that support the body’s natural collagen production so you can still get the same collagen boost without the animal source.

Flavorless just like collagen, dissolves easily hot or cold just like collagen, adds a subtle extra oomph to the creamy texture just like collagen…this vegan collagen is truly amazing. You can dive deeper into all of their ingredients here. The original flavor is my favorite for recipes – I love adding it to oatmeal, no-bake balls, smoothies, and frozen treats. The chocolate flavor with cacao, cinnamon, and ashwagandha is delish as an iced latte for an afternoon collagen boost. Try a couple scoops in your next batch of overnight oats, I promise you won’t ever wanna skip it after that.

Oats have found their effortless summer look, and I am all about it.

Easiest. Breakfast. EVER.