With our first recipe of 2025, I wanted to start off with a great meal that is a quick and delicious way to start off the day with. Normally, I don’t eat breakfast since I don’t usually have much time to make it, but with this recipe, all of the “cooking” is done for you overnight so you can eat it right away in the morning with zero time wasted. Also, these should last for about a week in the fridge. So, if you prepare a bunch of overnight oats once a week, you can have all of your breakfasts ready to go, with less than 10 minutes of effort per week! If you do plan on meal prepping, I recommend using old fashioned oats instead of quick oats since they won’t get as mushy after a few days in the fridge.

This particular recipe is a great way to start the day with, since it contains a ton of nutrients. Of course, the exact amount will vary based on the ingredients you use, but the oats and chia seeds provide a bunch of vitamins and minerals and are a great source of fiber, as well as long lasting carbs, keeping you full for longer. The chia seeds or gelatin also provide a thickening to the mixture, making the texture of the oatmeal very appetizing and easy to eat. These all also provide a little bit of protein, which is supplemented with the protein powder, yogurt, and milk, boosting this dish to be a great source of this important muscle-building macronutrient. Though, if you wish to adjust the amount of macronutrients, you can substitute the oats for ground flax seeds, for a lower carb option. And you can substitute the almond milk for whole milk, adding more nutritional calories for a great option when bulking.

In addition to these substitutions, you can add more nutrients, as well as flavor, with other ingredients such as peanut butter, fruits, and nuts. Speaking of which, since this dish is quite neutral in flavor, much like cucumber salad and rice porridge, there’s a whole lot of variations you can make on overnight oats to keep each day from getting boring. My favorite of the ones that I made for this video is the strawberry cheesecake, which tastes just like real thing, without all of the calories. Though, the other ones were also quite delicious with them being deliciously chocolatey and peanut butter and jelly-y.

But, if you’re not a fan of sweet oatmeal mixes, you could also easily make this into a savory dish, by combining the basic oatmeal with ingredients such as scrambled eggs and bacon. Though, since these ingredients require more cooking than just mixing the ingredients together, I decided to just show the more simple combinations that I like. Also, you may heat up your overnight oats as well in the microwave, though I would transfer it to a microwave safe container if your jars aren’t microwaveable.

But regardless of what type of ingredients you add to make this dish more flavorful, the basic overnight oat mixture will be a great way to start off the day with, providing a high-fiber, nutrient-dense option for breakfast, keeping you full for longer, making mid-day snacking less likely and helping you to build and maintain muscle, making this a great and healthy meal to add to your diet.