Sweet, creamy Banana Bread Overnight Oatmeal made dairy-free and naturally sweetened with no added sugar. Nutritious, balanced protein overnight oats are an amazing healthy easy breakfast or snack.
You’re looking at the very breakfast I ate every day for nearly two years.
While I don’t eat oatmeal every morning any more, I do love it for an occasional snack or even dessert.
This banana overnight oatmeal is everything you want in delicious porridge.
It’s rich and creamy, overflowing with banana flavor, and leaves you feeling energized. Ready to conquer the day!
An amazing grab and go breakfast for busy mornings, overnight oats can be set up the night before and enjoyed throughout the week.
In addition to the boost of complex carbohydrates to support my physical activity, I love that the natural sweetness of this simple breakfast omits the need for any added sweeteners, making it a healthy recipe to replenish carbs without spiking your blood sugar.
What is Overnight Oatmeal?:
In case you’re new to overnight oatmeal, it’s basically the easiest approach to oatmeal ever. You just add rolled oats and your milk (and sweetener) of choice to a jar, shake it up, and refrigerate.
Minimal prep and zero cooking involved!
In the morning, serve up the creamy oatmeal like cold cereal with your choice of fresh or dried fruit, nuts, seeds, and additional milk and/or sweetener and a drizzle of almond butter or nut butter of choice. Cold oatmeal is so refreshing any time of the year, particularly during the hot summer months.
For this easy banana bread oatmeal recipe, I mashed up a couple of bananas with almond butter, cinnamon and almond milk in order to infuse the oats with banana bread flavor.
The longer the oatmeal sits in the refrigerator, the thicker and more luscious it becomes.
I enjoy it with sliced bananas on top and additional almond butter, but go wild when it comes to your toppings. I’ve also done chopped walnuts and raisins, which gives it a banana oatmeal cookie vibe.
Let’s discuss the fresh simple ingredients for this overnight oats recipe!
Banana Overnight Oatmeal Ingredients:
Ripe Bananas: Just like classic baked banana bread, use ripe mashed banana with plenty of brown spots for this banana overnight oatmeal. Overripe banana adds a great deal of sweetness and delicious flavor to the oatmeal.
For me, the oatmeal turns out plenty sweet without the need for added sweetener, but you can also add some pure maple syrup or honey to the oats to make them sweeter.
Oats: The star of the show here! Rolled oats provide a boost of complex carbohydrates and make for amazing creamy yet nutty texture in overnight oatmeal recipes.
Old-fashioned oats, whole oats, or rolled oats give the best texture, although quick oats will work if you like the texture. Use gluten-free oats if you follow a gluten-free diet. I use gluten-free sprouted oats.
Protein Powder (Optional): As an option, you can add your favorite protein powder to make a high protein overnight oatmeal. I prioritize protein at each meal, so I add two scoops of goat whey protein, which doesn’t have any added flavors or sweeteners.
Use hemp protein powder for a plant-based vegan option.
You can also add collagen peptides for to add health benefits for healthy skin, ligaments, nails and digestion.
Unsweetened Almond Milk: Because oats absorb a great deal of liquid and we need something creamy to make delicious overnight oats, we use unsweetened almond milk or any type of milk you like.
Cow’s milk, cashew milk, coconut milk, oat milk, soy milk or any non-dairy milk works great.
Almond Butter: A couple tablespoons of almond butter add thickness and richness to the breakfast, as well as healthy fat. Use peanut butter, cashew butter, sunflower seed butter, or any nut or seed butter you like.
Vanilla Extract: A little vanilla extract brings warmth and delicious flavor to the overnight oats. If you don’t have it on hand, you can skip it and the porridge will still be great.
Cinnamon: Ground cinnamon brings that rustic, inviting flavor and also richness and warmth. You can adjust the amount depending on how much you like. Feel free to add some fresh grated nutmeg too!
Sea Salt: A pinch of sea salt helps bring out all of the flavors and enhances the whole experience. Don’t skip it unless you must!
Pure Maple Syrup (optional): If the oatmeal isn’t sweet enough for you as is, you can add 1 to 3 tablespoons of pure maple syrup, honey, or brown sugar. I find it to be sweet enough on its own, but everyone varies with how sweet they like their oats.
For Serving: Serve overnight oats with fresh fruit, nuts or seeds, a drizzle of honey or pure maple syrup and almond butter, cashew butter, peanut butter, etc.
Optional Additions:
Add 1 to 2 tablespoons of chia seeds or flax seed for an omega 3 infusion. If you do so, also add another ½ cup of almond milk, as chia seeds and flax seeds absorb a great deal of liquid.
In addition, you can add 1 to 2 tablespoons of hemp seeds and/or chopped nuts or raw seeds.
If you love tangy Greek yogurt, feel free to add 1/2 cup of plain Greek yogurt for more protein, gut healthy probiotics, and a thicker oatmeal.
For apple cinnamon overnight oats, add some chopped or grated fresh apple and additional cinnamon.
Now that we have the basics down for this nutritious breakfast, let’s make this tasty overnight oatmeal.
How to Make Banana Bread Overnight Oats:
Mash the bananas in a mixing bowl until most of the chunks are out (you can leave it chunky if you prefer).
Stir in the almond butter until well-combined. Add in the milk, vanilla extract and the pure maple syrup (if adding) and stir well.
Stir in the oats, protein powder, cinnamon and sea salt until everything is well-combined.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 3 hours (overnight works great!), or transfer the oat mixture to a large (1-quart) mason jar and seal it up.
You can also pour the oat mixture into individual small jars if you’re making this a grab and go breakfast or meal prep recipe. Just before eating the oatmeal, give it a good stir to ensure everything is well-mixed and add in anything you like, such as a splash of almond milk or a bit of honey.
Store overnight oats in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
How Long Do Overnight Oats Last in The Refrigerator?
This easy make-ahead breakfast makes 3 to 5 servings (depending on your appetite) and can be kept in your refrigerator in a sealed container for a week. Yup, you read that correctly – it saves for 4 to 5 days! Even with the banana blended in.
In fact, it tastes better every single day, believe you me…kind of like lasagna.
I use a large wide-mouth jar to store the whole batch of this convenient breakfast, but you can also use small mason jars for make-ahead grab-and-go breakfasts for work!
If you love oatmeal, also check out my 3-Ingredient Oatmeal Cookies, Strawberry Oatmeal Bars, Peanut Butter Banana Baked Oatmeal Muffins and my Vegan Carrot Cake Baked Oatmeal.
For more overnight oat inspiration, check out these tasty recipes!
More Overnight Oats Recipes:
- Strawberry Overnight Oats
- Vanilla Chai Overnight Oats
- Carrot Cake Overnight Oats
- Peaches and Cream Overnight Oats
Enjoy this healthy breakfast each and every morning!
Banana Bread Overnight Oatmeal
Ingredients
- 2 large ripe bananas mashed
- 3 Tbsp unsweetened almond butter
- 2 cups unsweetened almond milk or milk of choice
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 to 3 Tbsp pure maple syrup or honey optional
- 2 to 4 Tbsp protein powder of choice optional
- 2 cups gluten-free rolled oats*
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoons sea salt
Serving Suggestions:
- Almond Butter
- Hemp seeds
- Fresh fruit
- Non-dairy milk of choice
Instructions
- Mash the bananas in a mixing bowl until most of the chunks are out (you can leave it chunky if you prefer).
- Stir in the almond butter until well-combined.
- Add in the milk, vanilla extract, (and the pure maple syrup if you're adding it) and stir well.
- Stir in the rolled oats, ground cinnamon, protein powder (if adding) and sea salt until everything is combined.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight, or transfer the oat mixture to a large (1-quart) mason jar and seal it up. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours. Store overnight oats in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
- Note: You can also pour the oat mixture into individual small jars if you’re making this a grab and go breakfast or meal prep recipe.
- Just before eating the oatmeal, give it a good stir to ensure everything is well-mixed and add in anything you like, such as a splash of almond milk or a bit of honey. I enjoy it with sliced bananas, any type of nut butter, and hemp seeds.
Notes
Nutrition
This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission off items you purchase at no additional cost to you.
…and I forgot say:
Julia, you wrote in this post about eating this (and other overnight oats) cold was a great counter to the hot weather you were experiencing when you wrote this post. Others above commented they couldn’t get into the idea because cold oatmeal sounded distasteful. Well, I always put my overnight oat jar (minus lid, of course) into the microwave for 45-60 seconds and enjoy hot (still quick) overnight oatmeal!
Hi Julia,
First recipe made from your blog. It is wonderfully delicious (I always make a recipe before commenting, having someone write, “this looks great!”, isn’t helpful!). I’m sure the blender version is good, too, but I skipped that step and it turned out just dandy. I read in your blog that you ate Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs until you saw the light at age 24 and switched to healthier fare. I can tell, though that you haven’t completely kicked your sweet tooth. I put in 4 teaspoons of maple syrup instead of the suggested 3 tablespoons and it was plenty sweet. I also changed the amount of almond butter to 4 tablespoons from 3, partly to make all the measurements all even numbers to easily cut recipe in half or quarters. I don’t like making big batches of one flavor of overnight oats, so I cut this in half and made it in 2 half pint jars. On to your Carrot Cake Overnight Oats next!
I’m so glad you enjoyed the recipe, Erik! Thanks so much for the feedback and for sharing your changes 😀 xo
Could you please give the calories, fat, etc?
Hi Debbi!
I added the nutrition facts to the post. Let me know if you have any more questions!
This sounds like a truly yummy recipe for overnight oats! I really like the chewy texture steel cut oats, think I’m going to give it a try with those. Thanks! 🙂
I was sooooo excited about this flavor combination and so eager to try it until I saw the need to use a blender — not my idea of quick & easy prep. Never came across that in an overnight oats recipe before. Really disappointed.
Hey Julia its great blog about the banana bread with oatmeal and its light and healthy dish. Thanks for telling us such a delicious dish.
Looks like a super delicious way to start the day!
Banana bread flavoured oatmeal? YES please. Definitely need to make this recipe.