Chocolate Overnight Oats

We have some serious chocolate lovers in this house. So naturally we had to add some cocoa to our oatmeal! I just love overnight oats, so much so that we hardly ever make cooked oatmeal anymore. Sure you have to think ahead, but no cooking means no waiting at breakfast time and no pan to clean! Plus overnight oats is just oh so simple, you don’t need to know how to cook to make yourself a nice hearty and healthy breakfast. 8 ingredients and only 4 super simple steps, you got this, let’s get mixing!

The Goods

One of the reasons why I like making overnight oats in a mason jar is the lid. Toss in all the dry ingredients, put on the lid, and shake it up. Next, add the wet ingredients, put on the lid, and give it another shake. No mixing bowl necessary. Plus, I use this as my serving dish and eat it straight out of the jar. How easy is that? I also eat kimchi straight out of the jar. Be wary of half-full jars in my refrigerator! When making overnight oats for multiple family members, we just each get our own jar. Plus, this setup works great for leftovers. Oftentimes, it takes me two mornings to finish off my whole jar of hearty overnight oats.

Is that a lot of cacao powder?

Probably, but as I said we are a house full of chocolate lovers. Plus cacao powder is loaded with antioxidants. I mean loaded. So don’t feel bad about that second scoop of dark deliciousness, we’ll go easy on the sugar. Curious about what exactly cacao powder can do for you check out Healthline.com and this article from Harvard discussing ways of processing cacao powder and Dr. Greger.

Cacao Vs. Cocoa

Time for food semantics! Cacao is the name of the plant, and unroasted (raw) beans are called cacao beans. Not to be confused with cacao nibs, these are the beans crushed up. Cacao powder are the raw beans finely ground into a powder. You can use cocoa powder in this recipe, but I highly recommend using cacao powder. To make cocoa powder the cacao beans are roasted and then ground into a powder. Dutch processed cocoa powder, is processed using baking soda and greatly decreases the nutritional value of the cacao. My favorite cacao powder is Navitas organic cacao powder, you can sometimes find it in a super size bag at Costco, but it’s readily available at Whole Foods and Amazon. Great, now that we’ve cleared that all up we can move on to the secret ingredient!

Sweeten it up

Usually I add maple syrup to my chocolate overnight oats. It’s quick and easy, but you can also use date paste. I love dates and kind of prefer the rich flavor they add, but often I don’t just have date paste lying around. If you do, it is a super great option in this recipe. I don’t like to use sugar, since we are not cooking the mixture it ends up being kind of grainy. Think like your sugar scrub body wash, it’s just not a great option. Opt for a liquid kind of sweetener in this recipe, or go hardcore and have straight cacao powder. I dare you!

Go crazy with your toppings

This is just a combo that my kids really seem to like, but do get a little crazy and add some of your favorites in there too. Great options are hazelnuts, dried fruit, seeds, peanut butter, you name it! Find your favorite combo, or better yet keep trying different variations to keep breakfast fresh and new. Yum!