Eleni's Overnight Oats (aka the World's Best Overnight Oats)

Okay, I've never been a fan of overnight oats, BUT THESE ARE SO GOOD. They taste so creamy (no cream actually involved), I feel like I'm eating dessert. It's really like eating a treat. Only healthy ingredients here, and such a good way to fuel up in the morning before training!

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Have you guys ever taken an Inside Tracker test? I won't go through the whole shpeel of what it is, but essentially it's a blood work test that tells you what nutrients are lacking. The platform gives you lifestyle suggestions and things you can incorporate in to your diet that will help with any biomarkers that are out of whack, and oats are always on my list! I like oatmeal in the porridge style, but the problem is, I like eggs and toast better! I like my oatmeal cooked the way my grandma made it for me - cooked slowly in milk, with lots of cinnamon and berries and a sprinkle of brown sugar on top. If I'm going to take time to make something (the microwave with oats for me is just not an option), I always end up just cooking myself an egg for breakfast with toast, nut butter, and berries. That's breakfast pretty much every day for me! Then, these overnight oats came in to my life...

Our friend Pat came on a training camp weekend with us and some other friends. His wife, Eleni, I greatly admire. They have a farm, three kids, she has a job, and still finds time to cook up a storm (life goals). Pat showed up with giant metal lasagna tins full of meals that Eleni had pre-made for our whole crew, about 30 farm fresh eggs, and vats of these overnight oats. Gotta say, it was nice not to have to think about or find energy to feed a hungry crew of six after massive training days! Anyways, I'd heard legend of the oats, but had never tried them yet.

We were up and out the door pretty quickly to make the most of every day, so having these oats ready to fuel us for a big day of training was a win. It's times like this that I'll actually make and eat overnight oats! I never really look forward to it though, until I tried these. Then every morning, I'd roll out of bed and be like, "where's the oats." They're so creamy (without actually containing any cream), packed with healthy ingredients, but it's like you're eating dessert. She gave me the recipe, and now Ryan and I always have a big tub of these in our fridge! Inside Tracker will be happy, I eat oatmeal 50% of weekdays now!

I take issue with overnight oats recipes, because they're all titled things like "tiramisu oats," or "cookie batter oats." I've tried "carrot cake oats," "blueberry muffin oats," etc. but they all just taste like oats! The "French Toast oats" I tried literally just contained cinnamon and some maple syrup (which this recipe does too), but really don't taste like french toast at all. It's lipstick on a pig. I always expect them to taste so good because of these fancy names, and they always let me down. I suppose I like these ones because I expected them to taste like oats, which they do (obviously), but are just so much creamier and more delicious than any other recipe I've tried.

Here's how to make it

Mix all the ingredients together in a big tupperware. That's it, you're done! Let them sit to "overnight" for at least eight hours, to absorb all the milk and flavour, before you eat them.

Notes

You can eat them hot or cold. Normally, I'm a hot person, but I actually like these cold!

These have a high liquid, and high chia seed content. It's almost like a chia seed pudding. I added a few more oats than Eleni's original recipe called for (original is 1/2 cup, I did 2/3). I do like my oats to be on the runny side, not a fan of a super gloopy clump. If you prefer yours less liquidy, just add in a few tablespoons more oats until you find the consistency you like. Oats absorb a surprising amount of liquid!

I used to use pure vanilla extract in this recipe, but ran out and when I shopped for it, the store was sold out of everything except for artificial french vanilla extract. I'll never go back to pure for this recipe! It's so good! I started keeping artificial french vanilla extract in the house just to make this recipe with!

Variations

There are so many variations of this and ingredients you could add! I really like them the way they are, and I'm not tired of them yet, but here are some variations I'd like to try:

I always add 2tbsp of flaked unsweetened coconut flakes. You can buy that in the bakery section of your grocery store.
Coffee. You could substitute 1/4 cup of the milk called for in the recipe with coffee or a double shot of espresso, yum!
Peanut butter banana. Mashing or slicing a banana in there would be so good!
Adding pecans and other nuts
Pecan, apples and cinnamon
Cocoa powder. Cocoa is bitter, so just add some extra maple syrup! I would try 2tbsp cocoa and an extra 1tbsp maple
Cocoa powder and peanut butter
Protein powder. Lots of people add protein in their overnight oats! There is actually lots of protein in here already, just from the yogurt, milk, and chia seeds, but Ryan and I use this really delicious vanilla protein that would be so good in here.
Different flavours of yogurt. We always use plain, but vanilla, strawberry, cherry or lemon greek yogurt (Yep, lemon yogurt is a thing. Trust me, it's delicious), would be really good!