meal prep overnight oats
hot weather season
Prep 5 days worth of creamy coconut oats with this recipe for meal prep overnight oats. I am a strictly oatmeal for breakfast person and as the temperatures get hotter in the summer months, my breakfast cools down in the form of overnight oats. Like oatmeal, overnight oats is an easy and healthy breakfast with endless flavor combinations.
To make overnight oats, or bircher muesli, you simply soak oats in a liquid (like milk, water, yogurt) overnight and are ready to eat by morning. In addition to aiding their digestion, soaking oats also makes them more nutritious. All grains contain phytic acid, an anti-nutrient that inhibits our body’s ability to absorb important nutrients like iron, calcium, magnesium, and zinc. Enzymes break down phytic acid as the grains soak, allowing our bodies to be able to absorb the nutrients. However, for overnight oats there’s one more step to eliminating phytic acid- add acid. Adding a splash of lemon juice or apple cider vinegar eliminates the phytic acid that is in the soaking liquid.
There are of course endless variations of overnight oats. I’m sharing my favorite here, but it’s easy to easy to make it your own with your favorite nuts, dried fruit, seeds, and spices.
in 5 minutes prep 5 days worth of breakfast
Meal prep overnight oats is a busy person’s dream breakfast. Sunday evening I’ll mix up a container of my dry ingredients and a jar with the liquid ingredients for the next five days. Then each evening I add 1/2 c of each to my breakfast container and put it in the fridge overnight. Then in the morning, I can hit snooze on the alarm knowing that my breakfast is already made.
meal prep overnight oats
Ingredients
dry ingredients
- 1 ½ c rolled oats
- ½ c raisins or other dried fruit
- ½ c pecans or other nuts
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground ginger
- pinch ground cardamom
wet ingredients
- ½ can coconut milk
- 1 c milk or milk alternative of choice
- ½ c water
- 1 tbsp maple syrup
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
toppings
- fruit of choice
Instructions
prep work
- In 1-quart container or jar combine dry ingredients and mix.
- In a separate 1-quart jar combine wet ingredients. Cover and shake well to mix.
each evening
- Combine ½ c dry ingredients and ½ c wet ingredients in breakfast container. Stir to combine. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
each morning
- Remove oats from fridge. Serve cold or microwave for 2 min to warm. Serve with seasonal fruit.
That is pretty neat about the phytic acid.
I’ve made overnight oats before, but just with oats and milk. Won’t the acid in the apple cider vinegar make the milk go bad overnight?
Hi Emily- in general no, adding acid to milk will not make it spoil…if enough acid is added the milk will coagulate and thicken and it actually increases milk’s shelf life (think buttermilk). I add a little bit of apple cider vinegar to my overnight oats because it can make the oats more easily digestible and its such a small amount that you won’t notice a difference in flavor or texture of the wet ingredients in the recipe. Though if you aren’t comfortable adding it, feel free to leave it out. Its such a small amount of vinegar, that it won’t make any difference in flavor to not use it.