Overnight oatmeal jars are an easy, healthy make-ahead breakfast. Check out how to make them with this easy base recipe and get some ideas for delicious flavor combinations!

Overnight oatmeal jars are a weekly staple in our house!

My kiddos adore them and I love having an easy, make-ahead breakfast that's just ready and waiting in the morning. (I'm already up and working when the kids get up during the week, so we have no time for fancy breakfasts.)

Today I'm sharing with you my base recipe for oatmeal in a jar and 3 of our go-to flavor combinations.

You can also check out my strawberry overnight oats (2 flavors of those) as well as my chocolate overnight oats, cause you can't go wrong with a little chocolate at breakfast time! And in the summer, we love peach overnight oats and cherry chocolate chip oatmeal jars.

I put a batch of at least 6 oatmeal jars together on Sunday and each of my kids have a jar for three breakfasts all set to go for the week.

And every few weeks, I treat my husband and I to a couple of jars as well.

(It's nice that they're so portable - he can take it in to work or just grab a spoon and eat it in the car. I've also been known to pack these for the kids when we go on trips.)

Now, I’ve got some notes and substitutions coming up on how to make overnight oats. Just tryin’ to be helpful.

(You can also see my Google web story for this overnight oats recipe.)

If you want to jump on down to the recipe, simply scroll right on through the rest of the text. The recipe card is near the bottom of the page, above the comments section.

Recipe Notes:

• Oats: Yes, the oats do go in raw for refrigerator oatmeal. It seems strange, but all the milk and yogurt helps to soften the oats as they sit in the fridge overnight, so that by morning, they are no longer raw and are ready to eat.
• Cold: Also, yes, we do eat these cold straight from the fridge, not warmed up. It’s not at all like eating cold oatmeal (which would not be very tasty). It’s more like a yogurt-oat-fruit parfait of sorts – creamy and wholesome and scrape-the-jar good!
• Milk: You can use skim milk, 2% or an alternative milk like soy milk or almond milk. We prefer soy milk; it adds some extra sweetness, but whatever you have on hand is fine.
• Greek yogurt: The Greek yogurt helps thicken up the oats so it's more scoop-able. However, if you don't have any, you could try substituting that with some extra milk instead.
• Size: My 8 oz. jars for this recipe are a fairly small serving size. It’s plenty for my kids, but I often pair it with some other fresh fruit or small morning snack for me. You could also double the recipe and use a larger mason jar to make a bigger serving if you’d like.

Speaking of, I use 8 oz. (half-pint) canning jars that I got as a set from Amazon. They are great for these oatmeal jars and I also use them all the time for homemade dressings.

I also like these plastic lids because they're easier to clean than those metal ones that come with the jars. (Especially cause I just throw them in the top rack of the dishwasher.)

Now let's get to the fun part - the flavor mix-ins!

The sky is the limit in terms of what fruits and other ingredients you want to add to these jars.

Here's a few ideas.

Fun flavor combinations:

• Cinnamon and applesauce
• Peanut butter and pumpkin
• Mango and blueberry
• Peanut butter and banana
• Strawberry and banana
• Blueberry and pineapple
• Shredded carrots and raisins (use maple syrup instead of honey - it's like carrot cake!)
• Peanut butter and chocolate (with a teaspoon or so of cocoa powder)

I also like adding some toppings at the top of the jar after I've stirred everything together.

My kids especially love an extra dollop of peanut butter in the PB-pumpkin jars. I just have to be careful that they look exactly the same so we don't have a fight in the morning over who has a bigger peanut butter dollop.

You could also add some chopped fresh apple or other fresh fruit, a sprinkle of coconut or a few mini chocolate chips in as a topping for your oatmeal jar.

Oh but word to the wise when using banana -- add your banana slices to the mason jar oatmeal in the morning so they don't get brown and yucky.

It's the same basic process for all of these jars and it's as easy as just layering them up and then mixing everything together. That's why I tend to make a big batch all at once. 

Also, these are naturally gluten-free, so long as you use certified gluten-free oats.

Want to make dairy-free or vegan overnight oats? Totally do-able!

Let's tackle that and some other questions.

Recipe FAQs

I hope you'll try out a few different flavors and find your favorites. You can also recruit your family to come up with topping ideas so everyone gets what they want.

Enjoy!

XO,

Kathryn