Over their holiday break from graduate school, my brother and his best friend decided to rewatch the original Star Wars movies to prepare for seeing the latest one in the theater. They put on Episode 4, the very first Star Wars film, a few days after Christmas, and once my parents returned from visiting our other grandparents in San Diego, the boys planned to play Episode 5 this past weekend.
On Saturday evening, they baked a kale, sweet potato, and butternut squash pizza with plenty of Parmesan cheese (Trader Joe’s sells some of the most interesting gourmet pizzas! Did you see it on my @AmyBakesHealthy Snapchat?), and after loading plates with big slices, we settled in front of the TV and pressed play. Since all three of us had last watched the trilogy in junior high or early high school, we had forgotten many of the scenes!
Partway through the movie, I headed into the kitchen for a glass of water. As I sipped, I spotted one of those oversized plastic candy canes on the counter filled with mini Reese’s peanut butter cups, which the boys had snagged on a 50% off post-Christmas sale earlier in the day. After politely asking my brother, I grabbed one of the candies and sat back down to watch the rest of the film.
The next morning, the big candy cane still lay on the kitchen, albeit with quite a few more peanut butter cups missing from inside… And as tempted as I was to nibble on another one (they’re one of my all-time favorite candies!), I left them alone and cooked my usual bowl of cinnamon-spiced oatmeal instead. However, after craving Reese’s all day long…
I compromised and made a batch of these Peanut Butter Cup Protein Overnight Oats to eat the following morning! These oats have the same sweet peanut butter and rich chocolate flavors as those Reese’s but no added sugar and none of the guilt—and just wait until you see how much protein is in them!
For those of you unfamiliar with overnight oats, it’s just a different make-ahead method of preparing oatmeal. You simply mix together the oats with some liquid ingredients, then set them in the refrigerator overnight. This softens the oats as much as if you had cooked them on the stove or in the microwave. And to make things even easier, the overnight oats are meant to be eaten cold—so breakfast is ready as soon as you wake up!
To start, you’ll need—you guessed it!—oats. For overnight oats, I tend to use old-fashioned oats, but instant (aka quick-cooking or one-minute) oats will work as well. Do not substitute steel-cut oats because they do not soften without cooking them, so your overnight oats would taste really tough and dry.
Next comes the protein source. If you’ve been around my blog for a while, you probably already know what it is… Greek yogurt! Plain nonfat Greek yogurt contains around 20g of protein per serving, compared to around 8g of protein in regular nonfat yogurt, so it’s a great way to sneak in extra protein in the mornings. I like to buy the big tubs of Greek yogurt instead of the single-serving cups and simply scoop out what I need. (It’s much cheaper that way!)
And now for the most important parts… The chocolate and peanut butter! All of the rich chocolate flavor comes from unsweetened cocoa powder. Regular unsweetened cocoa powder works just fine, and I prefer it compared to Dutched or special dark cocoa powder in this recipe. The latter two are a little too strong and mask some of the peanut taste.
To shave off lots of calories, you’ll use peanut flour instead of peanut butter. Peanut flour is made from finely ground, partially defatted peanuts. I love Protein Plus, which I buy from Amazon, because the only ingredient is—that’s right!—peanuts. Some peanut flours, such as PB2, also contain sugar, which we’re trying to avoid in this clean eating recipe, but they’ll still work in a pinch.
Finally, these overnight oats are sweetened with vanilla crème stevia. It’s my new favorite sweetener! Stevia is a plant-based, no-calorie sweetener that’s clean eating friendly. It’s very concentrated, so a little goes a long way! I usually buy SweetLeaf, which is sold in a small bottle with an eyedropper. You can find it at many health-oriented grocery stores, as well as online. (And you’ll use it in all of these recipes of mine, too!)
Now all that’s left to do is mix everything together, pop it in the fridge, and wait until morning…
When you basically get to eat candy as a healthy breakfast. Dreams do come true!
| Peanut Butter Cup Protein Overnight Oats | | Print |
- ¼ cup (25g) old-fashioned oats (gluten-free if necessary)
- ½ cup (120g) plain nonfat Greek yogurt
- ¼ cup (60mL) nonfat milk
- 1 tbsp (7g) peanut flour (I recommend Protein Plus)
- 1 tbsp (5g) unsweetened cocoa powder
- 16 drops vanilla crème stevia, or to taste
- Add all of the ingredients to a glass jar or plastic container with a tight-fitting lid, and stir until thoroughly combined. Cover and refrigerate overnight, or at least 8 hours, before eating.
Instant oats (aka quick-cooking or one-minute oats) may be substituted for the old-fashioned oats. Do not substitute steel-cut oats; they do not soften enough.
To keep the oats clean eating friendly, the only ingredients in the peanut flour should be peanuts and salt (optional). Protein Plus is my favorite peanut flour. JIF peanut powder is also clean eating friendly, but PB2 is not since it contains sugar. PB2 will still work as a substitute.
Any sweetener may be substituted for the stevia. You’ll want the equivalent of about 4 teaspoons of granulated sugar.
{gluten-free, clean eating, low fat, low calorie, high protein, sugar-free}
Interesting idea, will give it a try. But, JIF peanut powder does have sugar, it’s right on the label
Thanks for sharing Kelly! The plain version of JIF peanut powder that I’ve seen doesn’t have sugar as an ingredient, but the chocolate peanut powder version does. Perhaps they’ve recently changed their formulation so the original flavor doesn’t include sugar?
These look delicious! I love breakfasts that taste like dessert. I haven’t ever tried the vanilla creme stevia. Is it better than regular stevia?
I like it much better than plain stevia because it doesn’t have any funky aftertastes! Plain stevia sometimes leaves a bitter flavor in my mouth, but the vanilla creme stevia does not. 🙂
Peanut butter cups are literally the best things on earth! I love this breakfast version, it would defs kill my sweet cravings throughout the day!
AMEN to that Bethany!! The dark chocolate PB cups are my kryptonite… I can’t even have a bag in the house anymore! 😉
I just had peanut butter overnight oats for breakfast this morning (they were great), so now I can’t wait to try this recipe!
Great minds must think alike Rachel! I hope you enjoy this version! 🙂
Thanks for the inspiration. This recipe looks delicious! I’m going to make a big batch of chocolate peanut butter oats for the week. I don’t have a lot of the ingredients, so I’m using peanut butter instead of peanut flour, water instead of milk, and maple syrup instead of stevia. Having dessert for breakfast makes me happy. 🙂
SO true about dessert for breakfast Elaine! 🙂 I hope you enjoy your “dessert” breakfasts for the week!
Alright, alright, you convinced me… I have vanilla creme stevia in my Amazon shopping cart!! Have you tried any of the other flavors they offer? Just curious!
You’re too cute! 🙂 I haven’t tried any other flavors, but I know that Jessica of Desserts with Benefits loves many of the other flavors! I think she has used hazelnut and lemon before… She’s the person who first introduced me to vanilla creme stevia!
Hi. I made this last night for breakfast today. I really enjoyed it and it is filling. However I did not have Stevia at home. Instead I substituted 1/2 tsp of honey. I often like honey and yogurt but then my friend said that it isn’t “clean”. Is this true? For some reason I thought you could sub honey or maple syrup for sugar and it would still be clean.
I’m glad you enjoyed the oats Kristin! Honey is almost always considered a “clean” sweetener. Some people have a very strict definition of what “clean eating” means, but nearly everyone I’ve talked to agrees that it’s clean eating friendly. 🙂
Loved this recipe – I upped the amount of oats to 1/2 cup, added a splash more almond milk and used a full (5.3oz) container of greek yogurt and it worked perfectly. I’m curious what would happen if you cooked the oats prior to mixing them with everything? Or warmed the jar up in the morning?
I’m so glad you enjoyed the oats Candace! And thank you for including your modifications; I love hearing what else works. Don’t cook the oats prior to mixing them in because then they won’t soak up the Greek yogurt and milk. You may warm them up in the morning, but be careful about overcooking due to the yogurt.
Anytime! I also made the chocolate version with raspberry yogurt and it tasted like a chocolate raspberry truffle – so good! Ok thanks, that’s what I thought. They are so good cold but some mornings you just need something warm. Have you tried making any dressings with peanut flour (for salads or stir frys etc)?
Yum — that raspberry twist sounds delightful Candace! I haven’t tried using the peanut flour in dressings yet (mainly sweets like buckeyes and fudge!), but that sounds like a great idea!
It was, would definitely recommend it (I might add some instant coffee because your raspberry mocha brownies sound divine – next on my list). Can’t wait to try your other peanut flour recipes. The Ginger People make a delicious ginger peanut sauce with peanut flour that I would love to try to recreate as I can’t find it anywhere here. Thank you for all your recipes!
Adding instant coffee sounds divine!! I’d love to hear how that turns out Candace!
I’m eating this right now! I used the JIF powder and honey instead of stevia and it’s so good!
I’m so glad you’re enjoying the oats Emily! 🙂
I made this last night and substituted sugar instead of stevia. It was amazing!
I’m so glad you enjoyed the oats Susan! 🙂