Strawberry Shortcake Overnight Oats

Why You'll Love This Recipe:

You will love this recipe for strawberry overnight oats because:

• It's a cheap, healthy, and easy breakfast that takes less than five minutes to make.
• These have a lovely summer flavor that you can enjoy all year round using in-season strawberries or frozen. 
• You can eat these cold and straight from the fridge in the summertime or warm the oats up in the microwave oven for winter.
• This recipe makes one serving, but you can increase the quantities to make more.
• You can meal prep and make a big batch of these oats over the weekend to enjoy quick and easy breakfasts during the week.
• You can make it dairy-free by using plant-based milk and yogurt.
• It is also naturally gluten-free.

Ingredients In This Recipe

The printable recipe further down the page has the complete list of ingredients, including quantities and step-by-step instructions.

Oats – You can use old-fashioned rolled or quick oats to make this recipe but avoid using steel-cut oats.

• Overnight oats made with rolled oats are thick and almost smooth, and creamy in texture. 
• Overnight oats made with quick oats, when soaked overnight, are creamier and smoother than rolled oats.
• Overnight oats made with steal cut oats remain grainy and soften to a chewy and gummy texture. Also, steel-cut oats don't soak up as much liquid as rolled and quick-cooking oats. 

Milk – You can use dairy milk, almond milk, soya milk, oat milk, or other types of milk.

Yogurt - use plain dairy or dairy-free yogurt. We used our homemade yogurt in this recipe.  

Strawberries - use fresh if you can for this recipe, but if they are out of season, replace them with frozen strawberries. If using frozen strawberries thaw them a little before cutting them into slices.

Strawberry jam - to sweeten and add an extra strawberry flavor boost to the oats because you don't always get sweet-tasting strawberries. 

If you don't want to use strawberry jam, replace it with maple syrup or your favorite sweetener.

Vanilla extract - helps to enhance the other flavors and makes it taste even better.

Optional 

Seeds – Chia or basil seeds can be used. These thicken the oats by soaking up moisture and are high in fiber. 

We used basil seeds in this recipe because it is budget-friendly.

Both chia and basil seeds are good sources of minerals and are rich in plant-based omega-3 fatty acids.

Equipment

You don't need any special equipment to make these oats, but if you are planning to make these for a grab-and-go breakfast, store the oats in mason jars or old jam jars with lids for easy transportation.

Step By Step Instructions

Step 1 - Place the milk, yogurt, maple syrup, vanilla, and strawberry jam into a mixing bowl. Stir until well combined. 

Step 2 - Add the oats, seeds, and sliced strawberries and mix well. Taste for flavor and adjust if necessary by adding more vanilla and maple syrup. Cover and store in the fridge overnight.

In the morning, serve the oats with a topping of yogurt and diced strawberries, and enjoy.

Serving Size

This recipe makes a single serving of about 1 ⅓ cups (360 grams, 12.75 ounces) of strawberry overnight oats.

Calories Per Serve

There are about calories in a serving.

Serving Suggestions

Serve these strawberry overnight oats with or without a topping.

If you would like to add a topping or two, here are some ideas for you to try:

• Fresh fruit is always a nice topping. You could top these strawberry vanilla overnight oats with slices of banana, diced apple, strawberry pieces, blueberries, grapes, peaches, or whatever fresh fruit you have on hand.
• Dried fruit adds texture to the oats. You could use dried apricots, apples, pears, cranberries, blueberries, or sultanas. Use the smaller dried fruits as they are, but cut larger pieces like dried apricots into smaller pieces.
• Nuts -  like toasted almonds, peanuts, or cashews add crunch and extra flavor.
• Coconut - shredded toasted coconut is a lovely topping and goes so well with chopped toasted nuts and pineapple pieces.
• Nut butter - for extra protein, top the oats with a spoonful of peanut butter, almond butter, or cashew butter.

Serve cold or hot

Traditionally overnight oats are usually served cold as a summer breakfast idea.

Depending on what you put into the overnight oats, you may be able to make overnight oats to eat warm or hot oats for a quick and easy winter breakfast.

If you have mixed fruit into the overnight oats mixture like berries, it might be best to eat the oats cold or at least warm rather than piping hot.

The reason for this is if heated for too long soft fruits like berries go watery and break down to a mush, adding extra liquid into the oats, which may not be what you want.

However, things like nuts or dried fruit that are not high in moisture can be warmed or made hot without becoming watery.
If you are planning on eating your overnight oats hot, it would be best to keep fruits out of the mixture and add them as a topping after heating.

Heating overnight oats

Transfer the overnight oats to a small saucepan and heat over medium heat until warm or hot. They can also be made warm or hot by heating them in the microwave oven.

Variations

Milk – use milk suitable for your diet, such as unsweetened milk for a sugar-free diet or plant milk for a vegan or dairy-free diet, and if you don't like milk, use water instead.

Sweeteners – like honey, sugar, or artificial sweeteners can be used instead of maple syrup.

Yogurt – can use vanilla-flavored yogurt instead of plain yogurt. 

Use flavored milk - like vanilla almond milk instead of plain milk.

Make it sugar-free - by using sugar-free sweeteners instead of sugar, and use sugar-free milk.

Storage

Refrigeration – Keep stored in the fridge until needed.

Frequently Asked Questions

More Easy Recipes

You might also like to read our Easy Overnight Oats recipe page for helpful tips and ideas or see all our overnight oats with yogurt recipes or try these healthy banana breakfast recipes or these easy recipes:

• Banana bread with self rising flour
• Ricotta pancakes
• Zucchini carrot slice