- Zooey Deschanel uses oats, milk, yogurt, chia seeds and nut butter in her easy recipe.
- The mix is shaken in a jar, chilled overnight and topped with fruit or jam before eating.
- The recipe is highly flexible—use any milk, yogurt or toppings you have on hand.
Starting your day with oats is a great way to keep blood sugar levels in check and feel satisfied throughout the morning. A great way to get your oats in bright and early is to prep some overnight oats the night before so an easy breakfast is waiting in the fridge when you wake up. Turns out, actor Zooey Deschanel starts her morning with overnight oats, and the recipe is incredibly easy.
The New Girl star appeared on The Drew Barrymore Show a while back, and she taught Barrymore how to make her go-to overnight oats recipe. “Here are your oats,” Deschanel says as they set up the recipe. “This is so easy, we can’t call this cooking, OK?”
Deschanel makes her overnight oats in lidded Mason jars with ingredients you’ve probably already got sitting in your pantry and refrigerator. “I use almond milk, but you can use coconut milk, regular milk or whatever you want,” she says. “This is yogurt. You can do whatever kind of yogurt you want, too—vegan yogurt, regular yogurt, Greek yogurt … and then we have maple syrup to your taste and chia seeds.”
We love how versatile Deschanel’s overnight oats recipe is, especially since you can sub in any kind of milk or yogurt you have on hand. Just combine around 1 cup of oats with 1 cup of the milk of your choice, then add in around ¼ cup of yogurt and a drizzle of maple syrup, plus around 1 tablespoon of chia seeds and a big spoonful of nut butter. Also open to interpretation? The type of nut butter you toss into your glass jar. Deschanel goes for peanut butter but notes that almond and cashew are also tasty.
“Then, you’re going to basically put the top on and just shake it up like you’re going to make butter, because you really want the chia seeds especially not to get bunched up,” Deschanel explains. “You just put it in the fridge and leave it overnight. You don’t have to cook it or anything.”
After allowing the lidded jar to hang out in the fridge overnight, Deschanel’s overnight oats are ready to eat. But the fun doesn’t end there: The Elf actor suggests picking some colorful, delicious toppings from your kitchen to toss in before you chow down. “This is the peanut butter flavor because I love peanut butter,” she said. “So we have strawberries, but you can put jam on top—you can put whatever you want.”
We’re excited to give this recipe a try, and we love that the measurements are pretty imprecise. Just make sure you add enough milk to saturate the oats, and toss in a scoop of chia seeds, strained (Greek-style) yogurt, nut butter and a sweetener like maple syrup or honey—though we estimated the amounts to be around a cup of oats and a cup of milk, you don’t need to grab your measuring cups if you don’t want to. Overnight oats are fairly forgiving.
Want some more overnight oats recipes to try out in your own kitchen? We have you covered with overnight oats recipes that are high in protein, perfect for fall and taste like dessert for breakfast. However you decide to make your overnight oats, just have fun, use your creativity and be sure that the jar lid’s screwed on tight before you start shaking.
