Cherry Overnight Oats

Creamy cherry overnight oats with almond butter for busy mornings or to just be able to have a cold breakfast on warm days.  

This recipe uses frozen cherries to save your fresh ones for snacking.  Also, no need to pit frozen cherries, and they can usually be found year-round in the frozen section at the grocery store.

Meal Prepping Overnight Oats

If you’re meal prepping overnight oats, I don’t recommend mixing multiple servings together and immediately portioning off to individual containers.  Since the oats don’t have time to soak up the milk, sometimes the liquid to dry ratio can get messed up.

Method 1:  If prepping multiple servings, add them all to a container with a lid and don’t portion out until the oats have soaked up most of the liquid.  Alternatively, just keep the servings in the container and scoop out your desired portion when ready to consume.

Method 2:  The assembly line method.  Line up your jars or containers, then just go down the line adding one ingredient to each jar.  Then go on to the next ingredient, adding it to each jar.  

When thawing multiple servings of cherries at one time and using this method, I just try to estimate adding the thawed cherries and juice to each jar.  Having a little extra cherry juice in one jar won’t impact the liquid to dry ratio as much as the milk will.  Just don’t add all of the cherry juice to one container (unless you’re only making one serving) and you’ll be fine.

Containers for Overnight Oats

Your oats don’t have to be stored in jars, any container with a lid will work.  I use 16-ounce peanut butter jars; when we’re done with the peanut butter they get washed out and labels removed.  They work great for individual portion sizes and they come with a lid.  

How to Make Overnight Oats with Cherries

Add your frozen cherries to a bowl and thaw in the refrigerator or use a microwave.  I smash the cherries with the back of a fork to have a small bite of cherry in every bite.  Sometimes they’ll squirt the juice, cupping your hand over the bowl while mashing the cherries will help.

The bowl will catch the cherry juice from the thawed cherries: don’t discard that, it’s more cherry flavor.  Add the cherries, their juice, and the rest of the ingredients to a container and stir everything together until it’s combined.  Then you can store the oats covered in the refrigerator for around 3-4 days.

Substitutions

• Maple syrup can be substituted with the sweetener of choice.  If you use granulated sugar and the oats come out a little thicker when you’re ready to consume, just add a splash of milk to thin out.
• Almond butter can be substituted with cashew butter.
• I didn’t test it, but if you enjoy sunflower butter, it can probably be used instead of a nut-based butter for a nut-free version.  Or you can just skip the almond butter.
• If you can’t find frozen cherries or fresh cherries, preserves would work.  Preserves are more concentrated than fresh fruit, so start with ¼ cup of cherry preserves instead of ½ cup of cherries.  Since most preserves have added sweeteners, I would leave out the maple syrup or add sweetener to taste.
• Fresh cherries can be used instead of frozen ones.  Pit and quarter the cherries before adding to the oats.
• Ground flaxseeds can be substituted with ground chia seeds or whole chia seeds.

Tips

• Since everyone has their own preference for sweetness, I suggest adding it to taste, starting with 1 teaspoon.  It will also depend on how sweet the cherries are.
• If you prefer a thinner consistency, add a splash of dairy-free milk to thin out or add dairy-free yogurt for a creamier texture.
• To transform these into chocolate cherry overnight oats, add 2-3 teaspoons of cocoa powder.
• For even more cherry almond overnight oats flavor, add ⅛ teaspoon of almond extract.  A little goes a long way.  If you like the cherry/almond combination, I have a cherry nice cream recipe that also uses almond extract to bring out the cherry flavor.  
• A ½ tablespoon of fresh lemon juice can be added to the overnight oats to help preserve the cherry color. Without the lemon juice, they will turn more purple the longer they sit in the refrigerator.

More Overnight Oats Recipes

• Pumpkin overnight oats
• Strawberry overnight oats
• Simple overnight oats
• Mango overnight oats
• Chocolate peanut butter overnight oats

As always, I hope enjoy the recipe for cherry overnight oats!

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