If there is one thing I can say for sure after a week on the beach, it’s that there really is NO place like home! I will dive deeper into our trip and some learnings and experiences from that over the next few posts, but I am really excited about my newest overnight oats recipe andI couldn’t wait to get it up here.

I have mentioned in the past that I love zucchini bread. Over the summer growing up, fresh zucchini bread was a staple in our house. I couldn’t live without it! This summer, my garden has been quite frustrating. Some of my chipmunk friends in the backyard have played a slew of pranks on me and the garden was just not what I had hoped for. Yesterday I was trying to make some sense of some of the overgrowing plants that had all but taken over and had thrown the garden into pure chaos. As I started to pull and cut and tug, something caught my eye. One zucchini, a huge zucchini at that, was perfectly ripe and ready to go. I was beaming. This garden that I thought was nothing but waste this year had produced in fact the most perfect, giant zucchini I had ever seen. I cleaned up a bit more and found an entire city of cucumbers hiding under the greenery as well. So maybe my tomatoes, peppers, and other veggies didn’t make it to the end, but it looks like I will have quite the harvest of cucumbers and zucchini this year! The funny thing is, neither of these plants shot up even close to where I actually planted them. Needless to say, the chipmunks in my neighborhood are quite the schemers.

So what do you do with a zucchini the size of my arm?? Well you do lots of things! I know I will get to making my Flourless Zucchini Muffins at some point. I will throw some on the grill this week, get out the spiralizer to make some zoodles and I will still have plenty left.

Right now though, we need to talk about these Zucchini Bread Overnight Oats. I have read here and there this concept of ‘zoats.’ Zoats are basically oatmeal prepared along with shredded zucchini. Veggies are not always what I think of when I think oatmeal, but I have told you how much I love zucchini bread so creating overnight oats with the same flavor was surely worth a shot. And this recipe is a certain hit!

One thing worth mentioning is the cashew butter. It’s certainly not a must in this recipe, but when I compared the version with and without the cashew butter, the version with cashew better was where it was at! You can decide on that on your own as well. Almond butter could also work I am sure, but I just love the light sweetness of the cashews. As always, eat these cold or warmed up. These oats can be made with any type of milk and also with gluten free oats if needed. The other thing about zucchini bread is that every family seems to have their unique recipe. We always had lots of juicy raisins in ours. I had a friend though that had walnuts and pineapple in hers all the time growing up. Make this one your own! So if you have a big zucchini in your garden or from the Farmers’ Market or even from the grocery, go make some zoats!

If you love overnight oats as much as I do, check out my Overnight Oats Recipe Collection–the options are endless!