Strawberry Cheesecake Overnight Oats with Graham Cracker Topping

Adding softened cream cheese before the other base ingredients helps avoid lumps of cream cheese in this strawberry cheesecake overnight oats recipe. Chia seeds help thicken the oats as they chill. This oatmeal dish features layers of cheesecake-flavored oatmeal and strawberries and a graham cracker-based topping.

I recommend using old-fashioned oats for this recipe because steel-cut and instant oats will yield different results and less filling in the jars if you use instant oats. Full-fat cream cheese and full-fat plain Greek yogurt add cheesecake flavor to the filling. Swirls of fresh or frozen mashed berries mixed into the filling add another layer of flavor without cooking.

Layer mashed berries between the two layers of oat mixture so you can see the strawberry swirl pattern when the jar is opened. Refrigerate for at least 6 hours or overnight, if you plan to serve the oatmeal for breakfast the next morning, and add the remaining diced berries before serving. Crushed graham crackers can be added before serving for a crunchy topping.

The batter should not contain lumps when oats are added. I start preparing batter by stirring room-temperature cream cheese in a medium bowl. Lumps in the batter before adding oats will look like small white lumps in the final dish and can be stirred out. I use a fork to crush strawberries. Strawberry juice should look like a thin sauce.