Nut Butter Morning Oats | Ultralight Backpacking Recipe
By Aaron Owens Mayhew, MS, RDN
Updated September 12, 2024
This post may contain affiliate links.
Do you like overnight oats for breakfast? Well, you can have them on the trail as well! This cold soak backpacking recipe is our version of overnight oats.
Unlike some cereals, Backcountry Foodie’s Nut Butter Morning Oats recipe…
✔️Packs in 22 grams of protein per serving.
✔️ Provides 78 grams of carbohydrates for fueling your muscles.
✔️ It’s also an excellent source of fiber, with 11 grams per serving!
We suggest soaking the oats for up to an hour. Muesli fans, however, will enjoy it with less soaking time. Nut Butter Morning Oats makes a great starter recipe for cold soak beginners. It’s easy and will be tasty no matter how long you let it soak.
Looking for a hot oatmeal recipe? Give our nutrition-packed and flavorful Lemon Blueberry Oatmeal recipe a try.
Nut Butter Morning Oats
Rate This Recipe
View Comments / Leave A ReviewNUTRITION (per serving)
INGREDIENTS
- ½ cup (40 g) oats, old fashioned rolled
- ¼ cup (30 g) milk powder, whole
- 1 Tbsp (15 g) chia seeds
- 1 Tbsp (12 g) vanilla powder
- 1 Tbsp (14 g) brown sugar
- ⅛ tsp (0.3 g) cinnamon, ground
- 1 packet (32 g) honey almond butter, or nut butter of choice, 1.1 oz packet = 2 Tbsp
- 5 oz (150 mL) water
OPTIONAL
- ½ cup (40 g) oats, gluten-free old fashioned rolled oats (substitution), gluten-free option
- ¼ cup (17 g) milk powder, non-fat (substitution), heart-healthy option
- ¼ cup (19 g) soy milk powder (substitution), vegan, reflux-friendly option
- ¼ cup (26 g) cashew milk powder (substitution), vegan, reflux-friendly option
- brown sugar substitute (substitution), low-sugar option
- ¼ cup (32 g) peanut powder (substitution)
INSTRUCTIONS (per serving)
HOME
- Put all dry ingredients in a bag or leakproof container to be used in the backcountry.
- Pack 1 packet (2 Tbsp) of nut butter of choice to be added to the meal when consumed.
FIELD
- Add 5 oz (150 mL) cold water to the bag or leakproof container.
- Stir to mix well.
- Add 1 packet (2 Tbsp) of nut butter to the mixture and stir to mix well.
- Let the mixture stand for at least 15 minutes, allowing the oats to soften and the mixture to thicken. Allow the meal to stand for up to 60 minutes to reach the consistency of overnight oats. See the meal prep tip below.
- When the desired consistency is reached, stir to mix well and enjoy!
NOTES
MEAL PREP TIP
- We recommend consuming the meal within two hours of adding water, if reconstituted at >40℉ (4℃), to reduce food spoilage risk. Shorten this time period to 60 minutes if >90℉ (32℃).
NUTRITION
- Total sugar (per serving): 31 g including 13 g added sugar
- For a no-added-sugar recipe, replace brown sugar with a brown sugar substitute.
- Keep in mind the level of sweetness provided by alternative sweeteners. Adjust serving size accordingly.
- For a heart-healthy recipe and reduce calories by 90, replace whole milk powder with non-fat milk powder.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Aaron Owens Mayhew, MS, RDN, is a registered dietitian and ultralight long-distance backpacker with over 20 years of nutrition and backpacking experience. She’s also the founder and owner of Backcountry Foodie, online ultralight recipes and meal planning platform for backpackers. She also enjoys teaching hikers about backpacking nutrition via virtual masterclasses, YouTube videos, and podcast episodes. You can follow Aaron’s adventures in the kitchen and the backcountry via Instagram and Facebook.
9 Comments
Hi Aaron
This is a great resource, thanks!
Certainly cheaper than comercial dehydrated meals and probably healthier too.
If you make the recipes at home and bag them up in individual zip lock bags, how long would they safely keep on trail in your backpack?
Glad to hear you’re enjoying our recipes and resources! 🙂
Re: shelf-life of recipes. Great question! The answer is… It depends.
1. Ziplock bags are not airtight, which shortens their shelf life due to exposure to oxygen. One way to lengthen the shelf life if you want to prepare the meals well in advance of your trip is to vacuum seal them. I like to store meals (and ingredients) in glass mason jars until I need them. Amazon sells a vacuum sealer attachment that works great with the jars. If a recipe calls for something like vanilla wafers (our Tiramisu Pudding recipe), the vanilla wafers will likely be stale when you eat the meal. Packing those in a separate baggie just before you leave for your trip or vacuum sealing them with the meal will prevent that from happening.
2. High-fat ingredients will go rancid, shortening the life of the meal. I’ve found that meals with chopped nuts typically go bad within 6 months. Low-fat meals that are vacuum-sealed can last several years when stored properly.
3. Use the best-by date on the ingredient packages as your expiration date. The soonest best-by date will determine the shelf life of the meal.
4. Freezing meals after meal prep at home until it’s time to pack your bear back slows down the degradation process.
Hope that helps a little.
I made this recipe for breakfast at scout camp and it was delicious! I substituted vanilla whey protein powder for the milk powder and the vanilla powder and I thought it tasted like a cookie. I made 4 baggies to take to jamboree with me. I am bariatric surgery patient so I had trouble finishing the whole serving at once, but it was so tasty that I looked forward to eating the second half after my first shift on the archery range.
Has anyone put peanut butter powder in at the time of preparation, instead of nut butter at the time of consumption?
Adding peanut butter powder at the time of preparation instead of the nut butter packet when consumed would be fine. The difference would be the texture of the meal (less creamy) and fewer calories (nut butter is more calorically dense than peanut powder). You would also need to add more water to the meal to rehydrate the additional powder when it’s prepared.
If I make up small bags (vacuum packed) for trail use, why would I want to add the Nut Butter later instead of IN the mix? Thanks for your article, am printing it for my use.
I would expect the moisture in the nut butter to potentially cause the meal to mold. I’m also envisioning soggy oats. I added a note saying that the 2 Tbsp is equivalent to a 1.15 oz nut butter packet. Hope that helps.
Is there an alternative you’d recommend to the “1 Tbsp vanilla powder”, it isn’t something that is common in the UK?
The vanilla powder adds a nice flavor but isn’t essential for this recipe. It’s okay to leave it out.