Chocolate Protein Overnight Oats (with Protein Powder)

The best way to start the day: with a filling bowl of Chocolate Protein Overnight Oats, made with protein powder to keep you fueled for a long day ahead!

This stellar meal prep favorite uses just 4 ingredients for a breakfast with over 50g of protein per serving.

The secret high protein ingredient: cottage cheese

Since making Cottage Cheese Cookie Dough, I've become a little enamored with cottage cheese as a high protein snack and ingredient, using it for Cottage Cheese Baked Oats and Sweet & Savory Cottage Cheese Toast.

A typical 16 ounce container of low fat cottage cheese has four ½ cup servings with 14 grams of protein PER SERVING, with only about 80 calories. That makes cottage cheese a relatively high non-meat protein source. That's about 2 ½ eggs worth of protein!

As someone who strives for at least 150g of protein a day, a high protein breakfast goes a LONG way towards my daily goals.

Easy meal prep for the win

You're going to LOVE how easy it is to prepare this recipe.

I've made meal prep a crucial part of my routine, but meal prep has to hit several points for it to be worth it:

• EASY to prep
• PROTEIN-focused with healthy carbs to support my activity level and meet my protein goals
• TASTE great with ways to switch it up so I don't get bored
• REPEATABLE so I can whip it up without having to always refer back to my recipe
• GRAB AND GO out the door so I am at the gym at 5:30am without having to wake up too much earlier!

This chocolate protein overnight oatmeal recipe nails all those points, making this a meal prep slam dunk for me.

As of writing this post, I've literally been eating some iteration of overnight oatmeal with cottage cheese every weekday, for months.

Ingredients needed for Protein Overnight Oatmeal

You'll love how simple the ingredients list is for these overnight oats.

For this simple meal prep-friendly recipe, you only need 4 ingredients on hand.

Rolled or steel-cut oatmeal - NOT quick oats. To me, quick oats get too mushy when made as overnight oats. I love that rolled oats retain some of their texture. Plus, rolled or steel-cut oats have 6g of protein per ½ cup, which adds to the overall protein of the recipe!

Low fat cottage cheese - I opt for low fat so I get more protein bang per calorie, but if you just want more calories overall you can definitely opt for regular cottage cheese.
My preferred brands are Good Culture or Nancy's - they're higher-quality brands that both make super thick cottage cheese which makes the finished overnight oats extra creamy.

Chocolate protein powder - Use your favorite! Mine is Equip Prime Protein, a non-dairy beef protein powder that tastes absolutely incredible. Granted, the fact that it's dairy free is a moot point in this recipe, but it's still the protein I grab for all protein powder recipes on Chelsea Joy Eats!

Milk (dairy or non-dairy) - Use whatever milk you normally keep on hand! For my household, we typically use almond milk in our day-to-day, so that's what I end up using for my overnight oatmeal.
Obviously, the milk you use will impact the overall protein content, which you can use to your advantage if you want to squeeze more protein into your breakfast.

How to make Chocolate Protein Overnight Oats

You only need two steps for this recipe. Well, three if you count assembling your ingredients and containers.

Since this is a meal prep recipe for me, I pre-portion the ingredients in sealable containers and stir them up in those containers before popping them in the fridge.

If you prefer, you can prep a big batch in one bowl/container and portion out later.

That said, to make protein oatmeal with cottage cheese:

Blend the cottage cheese + protein - Just add the whole cottage cheese container to a blender with the 2 scoops of protein powder and blend until smooth! When super smooth, the whipped cottage cheese will resemble yogurt. It's oh-so-smooth and tasty.

Add ingredients to containers & stir - Portion out the oatmeal, blended cottage cheese, and milk to 4 separate containers. Stir to incorporate. That's it!

Refrigerate until ready to eat - Overnight oatmeal will keep in the fridge for at least a week and a half. Perfect meal prep, ready to grab and go.

My go-to protein powder: Equip Prime Protein

I've been using Equip Prime Protein for years as my go-to post workout protein AND for any recipes with protein powder on Chelsea Joy Eats.

It's a dairy free protein option that tastes absolutely fantastic - every flavor is an absolute winner, but my favorites are Strawberry and Peanut Butter!

Switching up the protein flavor is an easy way to adjust the flavor of this recipe, too. Why not give Iced Coffee overnight oats a try?

If you want to give Equip Prime Protein a try, you can use my affiliate code CHELSEAJOYEATS for 15% off your first order. Quite the deal! I'd recommend grabbing a few flavors to try right away!

For 15% off my FAVORITE protein powder and all other Equip Foods products,

Use code CHELSEAJOYEATS at checkout!
(First purchase only)

That said, you can use whatever protein powder you like for this recipe, and most brands have a chocolate flavor so you should be all set!

FAQs and troubleshooting