- Christie Brinkley adds probiotics and oat milk to her overnight oats.
- She tops her oats with berries, kiwi and walnuts for flavor and health perks.
- Overnight oats provide gut health benefits along with fiber for lasting morning energy.
Model, actress, entrepreneur and author Christie Brinkley loves overnight oats. The healthy, filling breakfast is a favorite of many people—including many of us at EatingWell—and Brinkley’s go-to recipe is flavorful and has some extra health benefits, including probiotics.
Brinkley shared about her love for overnight oats several years ago on Facebook, where she began by declaring her love for probiotics and gut health in general. She says, “a healthy gut is a healthy YOU!”
For Brinkley’s oats, you’ll need some Irish-style oatmeal, berries, kiwi, walnuts, oat milk and some probiotics. Here’s how she puts it all together.
She starts with organic, whole-grain Irish-style oatmeal. (Irish-style oatmeal is sometimes called steel-cut, too.) Oats can be used in plenty of recipes, including tons of delicious breakfasts, and they make a great choice because oats and oatmeal have many health benefits. That includes oats’ potential to support a healthy gut and also lower cholesterol because of the high soluble fiber content, which also helps you stay full all morning.
With her oats ready to go, Brinkley often mixes in some fresh fruit for flavor and antioxidants. She uses berries like raspberries, blueberries or blackberries (and sometimes includes kiwi for variety). She also adds in walnuts for protein and for their potential to slow glucose absorption. Some research has suggested that nuts can help with insulin sensitivity, making them a great addition to your snacking or breakfast routine. Her final product is a colorful assortment of tastes, all of which give her a nourishing start to her day.
Brinkley also uses a probiotics blend that she loves, but you could skip that step and include some probiotic-packed yogurt instead. For a thinner consistency, a big splash of fermented kefir would also add some gut-healthy flair. As Brinkley shared in an interview with PEOPLE, she prefers to douse her overnight oats with oat milk.
She also shared that she enjoys mixing up her oats in a jar, then shaking them up and letting them soak up all that delicious flavor in the fridge overnight. While you can make overnight oats in any vessel you have in the kitchen, mixing them up in a little jar makes it easy to incorporate all your ingredients with a simple shake.
If you want your oats to have a nutty, warm flavor, toast them with some spices before adding them to the mix, like chef Gordan Ramsey. Many people also include nut butter, chia or other seeds and flaxseed meal to their overnight oats mix. All of these additions add protein and additional fiber as well as flavor and texture. If you don’t have fresh fruit on hand, dried fruit tastes great mixed in and adds a nice chewiness. The amount of oats people use varies widely, with some people only using a small handful in a large jar. The less oats you use, the more pudding-like the final consistency will be.
Overnight oats has myriad options for variation, so it’s almost impossible to get into a rut. We love starting the day with oats, and it’s no surprise that Brinkley is a fan, too. We’re definitely stealing her kiwi idea—and we might just have to make a batch of her oats for next week.
