High Protein Overnight Oatmeal with Cottage Cheese

I've overhauled my breakfasts thanks to this high protein overnight oatmeal recipe!

As a fast-to-prepare meal prep option that can be customized in SO many ways, it's my new go-to for my early morning routine.

Each serving of overnight oatmeal with cottage cheese packs AT LEAST 20 grams of protein — and that's without protein powder, so you can easily bump up the protein content even more if you'd like.

Cottage cheese: a high protein dark horse

I first grabbed a container of cottage cheese to try my hand at Cottage Cheese Cookie Dough.

Immediately, my recipe-testing brain started to conjure up all the ways I could use cottage cheese for other recipes.

A typical 16 ounce container of low fat cottage cheese has four ½ cup servings with 14 grams of protein PER SERVING. 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.

And if you want more protein in each serving? You can easily bump it up with protein powder — overnight oatmeal with cottage cheese is a blank slate for lots of flavor combinations.

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 high 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 overnight oatmeal with cottage cheese for months, every weekday, changing up the flavor to fit the season and my tastes.

Paired with pre-cooked breakfast sausage and my post-workout protein, I average over 50g of protein before 9am. That's a huge win for me!

Ingredients needed for Protein Overnight Oatmeal

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

For the base recipe, you only need 3 ingredients. Of course, if you're going to add some flavor to it, you might need a couple more. But you can't beat starting off meal prep with just 3 things!

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.

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 High 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 — Just add the whole cottage cheese container to a blender 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.

Flavor ideas for customizing meal prep

And here we get to the best part of high protein overnight oats with cottage cheese — it's a blank slate for SO. MANY. DIFFERENT. FLAVORS!

Here's a few I've tried and/or want to try:

Apple Cinnamon Overnight Oatmeal

2 apples + 2 teaspoons cinnamon

Chop up apples and roast at 375 degrees F for 30 min, stirring halfway through.

Add sweetener to taste.

Cookie Dough Overnight Oatmeal

¼ cup chocolate chips + 2 tablespoons maple syrup

Blend the maple syrup with the cottage cheese.

Pumpkin Spice Overnight Oatmeal

¼ cup pumpkin puree + 2 teaspoons pumpkin spice blend

Blend pumpkin and spices with cottage cheese.

Mocha Overnight Oatmeal

2 tablespoons cocoa powder + 1 tablespoon instant coffee (OR 1 scoop coffee protein powder)

Blend with cottage cheese.

Blueberry Overnight Oatmeal

½ cup fresh or frozen blueberries

Blend with cottage cheese OR stir into oats before refrigerating.

Peanut Butter Overnight Oatmeal

¼ cup peanut butter

Stir into oats before refrigerating

Banana Bread Overnight Oatmeal

2 bananas + 2 teaspoons cinnamon + ¼ cup toasted walnuts

Mash ½ banana into each container with oatmeal, milk, and blended cottage cheese. Stir ½ teaspoon cinnamon + 1 tablespoon walnuts into each container.

Easy MORE Protein Overnight Oatmeal

As mentioned in an above section, one of the easiest ways to add even more of a protein boost to this breakfast is a scoop of protein powder. That's also an easy way to change the flavor of the recipe!

Just add a couple scoops of your favorite protein powder to the cottage cheese when blending.

I even have a recipe for Double Chocolate Protein Overnight Oatmeal!

My go-to protein powder is Equip Prime Protein, and their myriad of flavors offer SO many ways to customize this recipe. Salted caramel, coffee, strawberry... all fantastic flavors for protein overnight oatmeal!

Have any other flavor combos you've tried? Drop it in the comments or tag me on Instagram!

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