One of my favorite sweet breakfast options is oatmeal, but I don’t always have time to make it in the morning. So, overnight oats are right up my alley.
To prep this popular breakfast, you simply mix together your ingredients and pop them in the fridge. The next morning, the concoction is ready to be eaten — hot or cold.
Since I’m always on the lookout for more ways to flavor and elevate my overnight oats, I decided to test recipes from a few celebrity chefs: Ree Drummond, Nancy Fuller, and Carla Hall.
Here’s how each turned out, and which one fully won me over.
Drummond’s overnight oats had an interesting combination of fruits.
I was instantly intrigued by the apple-raspberry combo in the Pioneer Woman’s overnight-oat recipe.
Her recipe called for old-fashioned oats, half-and-half, brown sugar, whole milk, vanilla extract, salt, a Granny Smith apple, sliced almonds, and raspberries.
I soaked the oats overnight, but the recipe says just 10 minutes will do the trick.
This was easy enough to whip up.
I combined everything except the almonds and raspberries, then let the mixture soak overnight. Drummond places these in a zipper bag in the recipe, but to skip the single-use plastic, I used a reusable container.
The next morning, I added the mix to a bowl and topped it with raspberries and almonds.
The oats were too liquidy, but they tasted amazing.
I noticed right away that the liquid didn’t absorb very well into the oats. However, my first bite was very good despite the extra liquid.
I tasted the vanilla first, then the sweetness of the fruit, and finally got the crunch from the almonds.
I was also impressed that the apples only softened slightly. I was worried the texture would be weird from sitting in liquid overnight, but they still had a bit of crunch to them.
The oats were slightly mushy, but overall, I’d happily try this again with a little less liquid next time.
Fuller’s recipe serves up the oats in a cantaloupe
In her recipe, Fuller serves up a hybrid of chia-seed pudding and overnight oats in half a cantaloupe, then tops it with blueberries and honey.
For this, I needed quick-cooking oats, whole milk, full-fat Greek yogurt, honey, chia seeds, cinnamon, blueberries, and a cantaloupe.
I was admittedly confused about how this breakfast would turn out, but I figured it would at least look cute with a fruit bowl.
I had to adjust the instructions slightly to get the oats in my fridge overnight.
The recipe says to let the oats sit in the cantaloupe overnight, but I didn’t want them to spill since I have very limited space in my fridge.
Instead, I put all the ingredients except the blueberries in a container and refrigerated it overnight.
Before serving in the morning, I sliced the cantaloupe open, removed the seeds, and scooped the oat mixture into the center.
This fruit-filled breakfast looked and tasted wonderfully extravagant.
I’m not a huge cantaloupe fan, but the flavor paired so well with the blueberries and honey. Plus, eating my breakfast straight out of a giant piece of fruit had fun tropical-vacation vibes.
I like my oatmeal on the thicker side, and the added chia seeds helped it achieve that ideal texture.
Leaving the oats overnight in the cantaloupe may have added even more flavor, but I was perfectly happy with how these oats turned out.
I probably won’t ever soak my overnight oats inside the fruit, but I’d definitely make this again exactly the same way.
Finally, it was time to test Hall’s fruit-and-nut oats.
For Hall’s recipe, I needed nonfat Greek yogurt, honey, oats, sliced almonds, cinnamon, salt, dried apricots, milk, cranberries, and mint leaves (for garnish).
The combination of toasted almonds and dried fruit sounded yummy, and I liked how simple the ingredients were.
These layered oats required a few extra steps.
Since these oats were layered, the assembly process was different from any of the other recipes I tried.
I had to mix together the fruit and toasted nuts, combine the oats and dry ingredients separately, and stir the yogurt and honey.
From there, I added nonfat milk to the oats and mixed in some of the yogurt.
Preparing these oats reminded me of making parfaits.
Next, I added the oat mixture into two jars, layered the fruit and nuts, and topped it all off with more honey-infused yogurt.
Once I put the lids on, I placed these jars in the fridge overnight.
It looked very runny, so I was hoping the oats would soak up all that liquid by morning.
The varying textures made these overnight oats really stand out.
After the oats chilled overnight, I added more fruit and nuts to the top and finished with a garnish of fresh mint.
The oats soaked up all that liquid, leaving the concoction soft but not mushy. The final result had a nice variety of textures, with the soft oats, chewy fruits, and extra-crunchy almonds.
I would love to try this recipe again and play with the different kinds of dried fruits and nuts.
All three recipes were pretty great, though I’d make a few tweaks.
I’d happily make all of these recipes again.
It was hard to pick the best one, but I think I’d put Fuller’s unique cantaloupe overnight oats at the top. I wouldn’t even make any changes to how I followed the recipe; it was that good.
For Drummond’s oats, I’d just cut back on the liquid. Otherwise, I loved how sweet they tasted.
Hall’s oats were also delicious with a great contrast of textures. Her original recipe was good, but I’m also interested in experimenting with other flavor combinations.
Check out the other celebrity-chef recipes we’ve put head-to-head so far.
This story was originally published on October 29, 2021, and most recently updated on April 17, 2025.
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