Pancake Overnight Oats

Do you want oatmeal or pancakes for breakfast but don’t have time for either? No problem, pancake overnight oats give you a healthy quick meal that satisfies both cravings at once.  

Can’t decide if you want oatmeal or pancakes for breakfast? Or more likely, do you want oatmeal or pancakes for breakfast but don’t have time for either?

No problem, pancake overnight oats give you a healthy quick meal that satisfies both cravings at once. This recipe is an HH classic from 2014, the recipe and the photos badly needed updating!

Besides the old photos looking terrible, the recipe was kind of outdated as far as my nutrition philosophy.  I used to use a ton of artificial sweeteners in my cooking, mostly splenda. This recipe originally used a sugar-free calorie-free pancake syrup.  I don’t use that kind of stuff anymore for a ton of reasons.

Artificial sweeteners:

1. Disrupt the gut microbiome
2. Are so sweet that they throw off your perception of sweetness
3. May lead to more sugar cravings (see above) and because the body expects calories but doesn’t receive them.

At first, I transitioned to stevia or Truvia only.

Stevia/Truvia is a natural zero calorie sweetener extracted from the stevia leaf.  I always tell my clients “Do I know it won’t have the same negative effects artificial sweeteners do? No, but if I’m going to place my bets on something it’s something found in nature.

I used stevia/Truvia for a long time until one day I realized I was using it all day in A LOT of things.  Anywhere I could find to add it, I was adding it and my sugar cravings were out of control.

So slowly, I started to pull back on how much I used until I was hardly using any extra.  I prefer moderate amounts of real sugar now, in place of those substitutes.  That’s not to say that I don’t think stevia/Truvia are great products, I just don’t think you HAVE to use them.

The other day my SIL text me and asked me if Chobani Vanilla Greek Yogurt (sweetened with sugar) or Dannon Light & Fit Greek Yogurt (sweetened with stevia) would be better for my two-year-old Nephew.  Being this was the first time she has ever asked me a question about what to feed her kid, I wanted to tread lightly.

I didn’t want to turn her off from asking me other questions in the future.  She wasn’t sure if she should be concerned about the high amounts of real sugar int he yogurt, or if stevia was a good choice for a kid? I had to stop and think about it for a second.  What would I want my future kids to eat, would I be comfortable with them consuming stevia?

Here is what I said:

1.  Stevia is zero calories zero sugar, and I think it’s safe overall, however it is so sweet it can affect your taste buds by throwing off how sweet you perceive other foods, that’s why I’ve personally pulled back on it.
2. If worried about excess sugar in his diet, you can keep with the real sugar in the chobani and look for other areas of snacks to cut down on sugar.  Like kid snacks, dried fruit, juice, etc which he doesn’t do much of anyway.
3. You can get plain Greek yogurt and sweetened it with honey or maple syrup yourself, so you can control the sweetness of it.  (This is what I think I would do.)

I’m not 100% sure what she ended up doing but I think either the real sugar Chobani or the plain/sweeten yourself.

When redesigning this recipe without zero-calorie sweeteners, I wanted to keep it balanced and calorie friendly, even with the addition of maple syrup (instead of calorie-free syrup).   I used fewer oats, but more fruit and add the maple syrup.

The protein and healthy fat help balance out the sugar as well as keep you full!  I also added cinnamon because that just tastes good and helps your body process sugar a little better.  I loved this so much (because it tastes like pancakes in oat form) that I made two more jar fulls to have every day this week!

Chia Seeds – I would suggest not omitting these or swapping them with anything else, you don’t absolutely need them but they help thicken the oats overnight.

Almond Butter – I chose almond butter because it had the most neutral taste for the “pancake” flavor, but feel free to swap it out.

Protein Powder – My favorite protein powder is Formulx, it has been for YEARS.  I’ve tried several other brands and always go back to them.  If you need a vegan-friendly protein powder Mr. Hungry likes Orgain Plant Based Protein Powder.  Protein powder adds sweetness and staying power to the recipe!

Old Fashion Oats –  Use gluten-free as needed, you can’t sub any other grain here and you can’t use steel cut oats.  Rolled oats have the unique ability to absorb liquid without cooking (it just takes longer than cooking it, about an hour.)

Maple Syrup –  this is what makes it taste like yummy pancakes, but feel free to swap your favorite liquid sweetener here.

Almond Milk –  feel free to swap with any type of milk, the recipe will work regardless of what type of milk you use!

Cinnamon – you can omit this if you want, but I wouldn’t!  It tastes delicious and as mentioned earlier helps your body process sugar and carbohydrates better.

Fruit – feel free to swap out fruit for whatever kind of fruit you would typically put on your pancakes!

Pancake Overnight Oats

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4 from 3 votes

Pancake Overnight Oats

Do you want oatmeal or pancakes for breakfast but don't have time for either? No problem, pancake overnight oats give you a healthy quick meal that satisfies both cravings at once.

Course: Breakfast

Servings: 1 bowl

Calories: 307kcal

Author: Kelli Shallal MPH RD

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup rolled oats
• ½ scoop vanilla protein powder
• 1 tsp chia seeds do not omit
• 1/3 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• 1 T almond butter
• 2 teaspoon maple syrup
• ¼ cup strawberries
• ¼ sliced banana

Instructions

• Combine all ingredients (except fruit) in a medium size bowl and refrigerate overnight.
• In the morning microwave for 1-2 minutes until hot.
• Top with pancake toppings like strawberries, bananas, nuts, nut butter and whip cream!

Notes

The ratio of milk to chia will help determine how creamy or soupy your oatmeal will be. I like a one to one ratio of liquid to oatmeal, plus 1 teaspoon of chia (acts as a binder.) If you like yours a little more "soupy" add more milk and half the chia seeds (but don't omit). I ended up microwaving mine with the fruit on it and everything for one and a half minutes and it was amazing! The only thing I would recommend is using a somewhat oversized bowl so oatmeal can bowl a bit while heating up in the microwave.

Nutrition

Serving: 1bowl of oats | Calories: 307kcal | Carbohydrates: 36g | Protein: 26g | Fat: 11g

Tried this recipe?I'd love to see what you made! Tag me @hungryhobbyRD or tag #hungryhobby if you try this recipe!

Overnight Oats Four Ways (the recipes for protein packed overniht oats)

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