Orange Creamsicle Overnight Oats Recipe (Healthy, Vegan, No Refined Sugar)

Do you love oranges and overnight oats? Then I have good news. You can mix them together! And if you add a touch of vanilla, you have an easy and healthy Orange Creamsicle Overnight Oats Recipe. This simple overnight oats recipe makes for a 5-minute meal prep idea so breakfast is already ready and waiting for you in the morning! Perfect for your busy weekdays before work or taking care of the kiddos.

Note: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase from one of these links, I may make a small commission at no extra charge to you. Thank you for your support! Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions.

My Recipe Requirements (Healthy without Sucking)

When I make a recipe for myself, it has to be at minimum things:

• Delicious: I mean, if it doesn’t taste good, I won’t eat it!
• Easy*: For me to successfully cook / prep food, it has to actually be do-able on my busy work days, etc. When I worked in investment banking for example, I rarely had time to cook breakfast before work. So I aim to help fellow busy women realistically eat healthy.
• Filling: As someone who eats intuitively, I always aim to honor my hunger cues and also enjoy recipes that help me stay full from one meal to the next.

*I don’t mind spending more time on certain recipes that take more time, but I consider those more “special projects”. My everyday eats MUST be relatively quick and easy or I simply cannot realistically make them on my busy days. You know what I mean, right?

Orange Creamsicle Overnight Oats Ingredients

Maybe it’s my love of prioritizing whole foods over processed foods or maybe my lazy side prefers it? But, I like to keep my recipe ingredients as simple (and short!) as possible.

You only need 5 key ingredients to make this healthy Orange Creamsicle Overnight Oats Recipe:

• Mandarin Oranges: I think these are the perfect size for single-serve overnight oats. My family always has a bag of these in their kitchen, making them pretty easy to have on hand. Also when you get these, you usually have a HUGE bag, so sometimes it’s fun to find interesting ways to use them besides eating them straight up.
• Old-Fashioned Rolled Oats: These are the perfect type of oats for overnight oats. I prefer these over steel-cut or quick-cooking, which can be used but typically need some preparation variations.
• Milk of Choice: Basically any kind of milk will do. I just use whatever I have on hand, which is currently oat milk since I have a dairy sensitivity, and I love the creaminess of oat milk. I recommend using an unsweetened milk so you can control the amount and quality of your sweetener.
• Unsweetened Vanilla Yogurt: You can use pretty much any kind of yogurt. I prefer to use unsweetened vanilla or plain unsweetened so I can control how much sugar I consume. Since I have a dairy sensitivity, I wrote this recipe with non-dairy yogurt.
• Chia Seeds: I guess you don’t *have* to add chia seeds, but they’re a must for me since they’re so good for you by being so nutrient dense. They also add a touch of protein and healthy fats for satiety which is great for anyone eating intuitively. Or anyone who wants to stay full til lunch.

Note: substitutions and addition ideas below.

Optional Additional Ingredients

You can add some additional ingredients to the base recipe to help make this recipe more filling and / or to suit your flavor preferences.

• Nuts / Seeds: I highly recommend adding a handful of nuts and / or seeds for additional nutrients and satiety. I didn’t include these in the “must” list because technically this recipe can be made without them. But I personally always add something to help me stay full through lunch. Recommendations:
  • Sliced / Chopped Almonds
  • Walnuts
  • Pumpkin Seeds
  • Hemp Seeds
• Additional Non-Refined Sweetener: As you can see, I didn’t add any additional sweetener because I love relying on the natural sweetness of fruit as my sugar source. Oranges are already pretty sweet! If you prefer your oats more sweet, you can either add some sweetener of choice or use a sweetened yogurt. My recommendation is to use maple syrup or honey for a natural sweetener.
• Vanilla Extract: If you opt to use a non-vanilla yogurt or if you just want to kick the vanilla taste up a notch, you can add a few drops of vanilla, approximately 1/8 teaspoon.

Why No Added Sweetener? (From a Former Sugar-Holic)

Funny enough, I was a HUGE sugar-holic as a kid. But over the years, and thanks to paying attention to how my body responds to food via eating intuitively, I’ve noticed that highly sweetened foods, especially when it comes to breakfast / food first thing, are not for my highest good. They can leave me feeling jittery and chaotic. Which I prefer to avoid.

That being said, I always encourage you to adapt my recipes to suit your own health goals and taste preferences, so if you want to add sweetener, go for it! I noted sweetener recommendations above this section.

Orange Creamsicle Overnight Oats Ingredient Substitutions

As always, please make this Orange Creamsicle Overnight Oats Recipe work for you. You may have different health goals or flavor preferences. Or you may have different ingredients on hand. Do you!

Here are some substitution recommendations:

• Regular Oranges: Yes, you can use regular oranges. The reason I prefer mandarin is because I usually make my overnight oats one serving at a time, and one medium-large orange would be too much for me. You could always meal prep multiple servings or you may prefer your oats super orange-y.
• Orange Juice: If you wanted to make this recipe more orange-y or you simply have orange juice on hand and want to find a way to use it via this recipe, yes! You can add orange juice. I recommend taking the milk amount and splitting it into half milk and half orange juice. So 1/4 cup milk and 1/4 cup orange juice if you make the recipe with 1/2 oats.
• Greek Yogurt: If you can do dairy, consider using Greek yogurt for extra protein. I still recommend using unsweetened. Most Greek Yogurt is plain, and this recipe calls for vanilla yogurt. So be sure to see the next bullet if you opt for this yogurt.
• Plain (Non-Vanilla Yogurt): If you use plain (non-vanilla) yogurt, add a touch of vanilla extract to keep that classic orange-vanilla creamsicle flavor.

The Best Overnight Oats Meal Prep Container

I think this glass container + lid is the PERFECT meal prep container for overnight oats. It gives you plenty of space to stir everything together without making a mess. And since it’s glass, you don’t have to worry about plastic/etc. toxins seeping into your food. It’s also dishwasher safe for easy clean-up.

And I know these pictures are super aesthetic, but I honestly just eat my overnight oats straight out of this container. See photo at the end of this post.

This also makes it convenient if you want to just grab and go and take this container with you to work, etc. when you’re rushing out the door in the morning.

Feedback from My Orange Creamsicle Overnight Oats Recipe Testing

I tried a few variations of this recipe while I was testing it out. I encourage you, as always, to make this recipe yours and adjust it to your own preferences. But if I can save you any time by sharing what I already tried as input for your adjustments, I’d love to help!

• Orange zest: I thought that adding orange zest would make the orange flavor really pop. It actually didn’t taste any different to me. The zesting added another step and more clean-up work to my plate, so I didn’t deem this worthwhile.
• Chopping the mandarin orange: I found chopping the mandarin orange up a bit a necessary step. One – it releases the orange juices into the oats making the flavor more orange-y. Two – it helps you check for the occasional seeds. But only for the first mandarin orange that you mix in. I preferred the topping mandarin orange to be in peeled segments. Probably to reduce work / be lazy – lol!
• Orange juice: Whilst the orange flavor of this recipe is on the less punchy side, I decided that was okay with me. I rarely buy orange juice and didn’t want to get a product I wasn’t interested in consuming just to make my overnight oats a bit more orange-y in flavor. If you want to try OJ in your version, see my substitutions above for my recommendation on how to incorporate it.

Did you try any variations making this recipe? I’d love to hear how they worked. Please share your feedback via a comment below!

Tips to Help You Stay Full Til Lunch (Satiety Tips)

If you’re like me, you want your breakfast to keep you full until lunch. So here are some tips to get this recipe to help your satiety, whether you eat intuitively like me or just know you won’t have access to snacks before lunch.

There are 3 key types of ingredients in a recipe that keeps you full:

• Protein
• Fiber
• Fat (preferably healthy)

This recipe is already a great source of fiber thanks to the oats and oranges. I love adding nuts and seeds for more protein and healthy fats. See next section for ways to add more protein.

Ideas to Get 15+ Grams of Protein

While everyone has their bioindividual nutrition needs, 15-30 grams of protein is generally considered a good amount of protein for breakfast. So I’ll share some ideas to get this recipe to 15 grams of protein, and you can adjust it from there.

Note: The base protein for this recipe depends greatly on which ingredients you use when it comes to milk and yogurt. I’ve calculated nutrition estimates based on the ingredients I used to make this recipe, so your numbers may be different if you use different products.

Here are some additions and/or adjustments you can do to get your protein to 15+ g:

• Add Nuts / Seeds: As I mentioned in the Additional Ingredients section, I didn’t include any nuts or seeds in the “must” ingredient list because you technically don’t need them to make this overnight oats recipe. But it is a “must” for my personal bowl because it’s one of the easiest ways to add not only protein but a good source of healthy fats for optimal nutrition and satiety.
• Substitute Regular Yogurt with Greek Yogurt: Greek yogurt is typically higher in protein than most non-dairy yogurt. Subbing Greek yogurt will up your protein a bit. To add a LOT more protein, you’ll also need to increase the amount of yogurt, which will also yield a creamier finished product.
• Have a Side Protein: You could add a side of sausage, veggie sausage, bacon, or an egg to add protein to your breakfast total.

Here are some recipe combinations to get this recipe to 15+ g of protein:

• Base Recipe + 3 tablespoons almonds = 15.5g protein
• Base Recipe + sub Greek Yogurt (whole milk) and increase to 1/4 cup Greek Yogurt = 15.9g protein
• Base Recipe + 1 Applegate Naturals Chicken & Sage Breakfast Sausage Patty (5g) = 15.9g protein
• Base Recipe + 1 MorningStar Farms Original Sausage Patty (9g) = 18.9g protein

Note: You can see the estimated nutrition values below the recipe. If you use the same products I used, the base protein for this recipe is 9.9g.

Print

More Recipes to Love

Here are some more healthy oat-based recipes you may like:

• Raspberry Overnight Oats Recipe
• Matcha Overnight Oats Recipe
• Banana Chocolate Chip Stovetop Oatmeal Recipe (No Added Sugar!)

***

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my Orange Creamsicle Overnight Oats Recipe (Healthy, Vegan, No Refined Sugar)!

365 Days of
Positive Affirmations

Send me the affirmations!

We respect your privacy. Unsubscribe at anytime.