Overnight Chocolate Zucchini Oats

So here it goes. My overnight oats discovery happened when I was in college, living in a dorm room. (During my first two semesters in college, I was studying ASL Interpreting and not nutrition! Long story short, I was studying nutrition in my room while I should have been studying ASL interpreting – something needed to change!)

Anywho, in my dorm room, I had a huge bin of food, and bananas EVERYWHERE because cooking in a dorm room was near impossible. My roommate thought I was insane! I couldn’t stand the options at the dining hall so I started looking up recipes I could make in my room, with only access to a refrigerator and a microwave. My overnight oats obsession was born! Every night I would sit on the floor of my dorm room next to my big bin of food and measure out my ingredients, let them soak overnight in my weird blue cup that I used for everything, and heat them up after my run in the morning.

When I came home to a local university to study nutrition, my obsession with overnight zoats (zucchini oats) was born! I started adding shredded zucchini to my oats to bulk up the volume without adding a ton of calories. I’ll never look back! I have overnight oats nearly every morning because it’s just so nice to wake up, run, and come home to a healthy option that’s ready to eat.

Now here’s the deal – and this is what makes these overnight oats so amazing – you can eat them cold right out of the jar OR you can cook them and enjoy them warm! I usually heat them up and top it off with some blackstrap molasses and PB2, but do whatever floats your boat!

Overnight Chocolate Zucchini Oats