Whether you train early in the morning, or you need to leave for work right when you wake up, it can be difficult to get a proper meal in when you're rushed. Cooking up an egg omelette or making some protein pancakes is time consuming, and just drinking a protein shake or smoothie isn't all that filling.

I personally like sleeping in as much as I can, so when I get out of bed in the morning I want something filling, tasty, and convenient to eat right away. That's why I choose to eat overnight oats. 

Overnight oats are a great meal that you can make quickly the night before, so you can eat a proper breakfast immediately after rising.

You can adjust the amounts and ingredients depending on your caloric or macro requirements, but here's the basic outline.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup dry oats
• 1 cup milk (or almond milk)
• 1 scoop whey protein powder (my personal favourite is Chocolate Milk from MusclePharm)
• Fruit of your choice (optional)
• Peanut butter or any nut butter of your choice (optional)

Directions:

• Before you go to bed at night, grab a mason jar, tupperware container, or any spill-proof food storage container, and fill it with the dry oats. Make sure it's large enough to contain a cup of liquid.
• Pour the milk into a shaker cup along with the whey protein powder. Shake well.
• Pour the protein milkshake over the oats.
• Add some fresh or frozen fruit to the oats (berries and bananas are my favourites).
• Add a dollop of peanut butter (or whatever nut butter you'd like) to the oats.
• Mix everything up with a spoon, close the container and put it in the fridge overnight. When you wake up in the morning you'll have a delicious, portable breakfast waiting for you to enjoy before hitting the gym.

The oats will absorb the milk overnight and create a fairly thick texture. If you like your oats a little more runny, feel free to add a little bit extra milk.

There are all sorts of combinations of ingredients and flavours you can experiment with. Try out different flavours of protein powder, add or take away different fruits and nut butters, put in some cinnamon or brown sugar, etc. You could throw some trail mix in it if you'd like, or even crumble up a protein bar. Feel free to experiment.

Enjoy!