Frequently Asked Questions
You’ve asked, and we’ve answered!
Honest answer? Because we were tired of skipping breakfast. Tired of expensive café stops. Tired of “healthy eating” meaning imported powders and complicated prep that nobody has time for at 6am.
Overnight oats solved every single one of those problems and they solved them using ingredients every South African already buys at Pick n Pay, Woolworths and Checkers. Jungle Oats, Rooibos, granadilla, mango, peanut butter. Real food. Local food. Food that costs under R25 a jar.
And when we looked for an SA-specific resource to help us do it better, there wasn’t one. So we built it. OvernightOats.co.za is South Africa’s first blog dedicated entirely to overnight oats and every recipe, every ingredient guide, every tip is built specifically for South African kitchens and South African budgets.
We’re a small team of food lovers, early risers, and Jungle Oats devotees based in South Africa. We’re not dietitians or professional chefs we’re real South Africans who got obsessed with overnight oats and decided to build the resource we wished existed.
Every recipe on this site has been made in a real South African kitchen, using ingredients from a real South African supermarket, and eaten with real South African enthusiasm. That’s our quality standard if it doesn’t taste great cold from the fridge on a Monday morning, it doesn’t make the site.
No, we are completely independent. OvernightOats.co.za is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by Jungle Oats, Tiger Brands, or any other SA food brand.
We recommend Jungle Oats because we genuinely believe they produce the best rolled oats for overnight oats available at SA supermarkets full stop. That’s an honest opinion formed from testing, not a paid placement.
When we do partner with brands on sponsored content, we say so clearly. We only recommend products we actually use and believe in. Our community trusts us and we take that seriously.
Transparently, and in a few different ways — none of which affect the honesty of our content.
- Digital products — our recipe eBook, meal plans and shopping card packs
- Affiliate links — when you buy through our links (Takealot, Faithful to Nature, etc.) we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you
- Display advertising — contextually relevant ads shown on the site
- Brand partnerships — clearly labelled sponsored content with SA food brands we genuinely use
The free recipes, guides and 7-Day Challenge are always free. That never changes.
We shoot on a Sony A7III mirrorless camera with a Sony 90mm f/2.8 Macro G OSS lens for close-up jar shots and a Sony 35mm f/1.8 lens for flat-lays and wider lifestyle shots. Both lenses produce the beautiful background blur that makes food photography pop.
That said — some of our most-engaged content has been shot on a Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max. Modern smartphones are genuinely excellent for food photography, especially with natural light. If you’re just starting out, your phone is more than enough.
Natural light wherever possible — always. We position our shooting surface next to a large north-facing window to get soft, even light without harsh shadows. Overcast days are actually better than bright sunny ones for food photography because the clouds act as a giant diffuser.
For cloudy or evening shoots, we use a Godox SL60W LED video light with a 60cm softbox diffuser. The warm colour temperature suits food photography well, and the continuous light makes it easy to see exactly what you’re getting before you shoot.
We also keep a white foam board just off-frame to bounce light back and fill in shadows on the darker side of the jar. You can buy a foam board at any Makro or Builders Warehouse for under R30 it’s the best cheap photography accessory we’ve ever bought.
For desktop editing we use Adobe Lightroom Classic for colour grading and Adobe Photoshop for any compositing or cleanup. Our colour grade leans warm — we pull down the blues slightly and boost the oranges and yellows to give the oats that golden, appetising warmth.
For phone and social media content we use Lightroom Mobile (free version is excellent) and VSCO for quick consistent filters. For Instagram Stories and TikTok graphics we use Canva Pro the brand kit feature keeps all our green and gold colours consistent across every post without thinking about it.
Our go-to jars are wide-mouth Ball mason jars (500ml) — available on Takealot for around R60–R80 each. Wide-mouth jars photograph significantly better than narrow ones because you can see the layers and toppings clearly. They’re also easier to eat from.
For surfaces we use a mix of a weathered white wooden board, a grey concrete-effect vinyl photography backdrop (bought from a photography store in Joburg), and a simple cream linen tablecloth for warmer shots. All of our backgrounds lean neutral — we want the green of the oats and the gold of the honey to be the colour that pops.
For props: linen napkins, raw honey in small ceramic bowls, loose oats scattered naturally, fresh fruit, wooden spoons, and sprigs of fresh mint or basil depending on the recipe. We source most props from Mr Price Home, Woolworths Home and Faithful to Nature.
The honest answer is that starting is simpler than most people think — and sustaining it is harder than most people expect. Here’s exactly how we’d do it if we were starting from scratch today:
- Pick one niche — not “food”, but something specific. Overnight oats. SA braai recipes. Budget student meals. A focused niche beats a general food blog every time for SEO and audience building.
- Register your domain — use a .co.za domain for SA audiences. Register through a local SA registrar.
- Set up WordPress — self-hosted WordPress on a fast SA hosting provider is the industry standard for food blogs. It gives you full control and the best SEO flexibility.
- Install RankMath SEO — free plugin, essential from day one. Set up your meta titles and descriptions on every post.
- Write 10 posts before you launch — don’t launch with one post. Build a content base first so visitors have somewhere to go.
- Start building your email list on Day 1 — not Day 100. A lead magnet (like a free recipe download) captures emails from your first visitors.
Genuinely, most food blogs take 12 to 24 months to generate meaningful income. Anyone telling you otherwise is probably selling a course.
The fastest path to income in the early months is your own digital products (recipe eBooks, meal plans, guides) and affiliate links — because both work from Day 1 regardless of traffic volume. Display advertising only becomes significant income at 50,000+ monthly sessions.
The blogs that make real money in South Africa share three things: they picked a specific niche, they published consistently for at least 12 months, and they built an email list from the beginning. The email list is what separates the food blogs that survive algorithm changes from the ones that disappear overnight.
WordPress.org (self-hosted) — not WordPress.com, not Wix, not Squarespace. Self-hosted WordPress is what the vast majority of professional food blogs run on globally, and for good reason: it gives you complete control over your SEO, your design, your monetisation, and your content. You own everything.
The most common beginner mistake is starting on a platform that feels easier (Wix, Squarespace) and then having to migrate everything to WordPress 18 months later when they get serious. Start on WordPress, learn it properly from day one, and thank yourself later.
We run OvernightOats.co.za on WordPress and offer hosting and setup services for other SA food bloggers. Get in touch if you’d like to know more.
No, and we say that having used a professional camera for years. Your phone is genuinely sufficient to start, build an audience, and even generate income from a food blog. The food blogs that struggle with photography almost always have a lighting problem, not a camera problem.
Start with your phone, a window, and natural light. Learn composition the rule of thirds, negative space, overhead vs 45-degree angles. Master those fundamentals first. When you’re generating income from the blog and photography has become a real constraint, then invest in a camera body and a single prime lens.
Mostly by thinking like a South African. We start with flavours and ingredients people already love, koeksisters, malva pudding, Rooibos tea, granadilla, biltong (yes, we tried a savoury version) and ask: what would this taste like in overnight oats?
We also listen obsessively to our community. The questions people ask in the Facebook group, the comments on our Instagram, the replies to our email newsletter those are a goldmine of recipe inspiration. If three different people ask whether you can use oat milk instead of regular milk in a week, that becomes a recipe.
And we watch global food trends but always filter them through the South African lens. If matcha overnight oats are trending globally, we ask: what’s the SA equivalent of that earthy, slightly bitter flavour profile? Rooibos. Honeybush. Buchu. That translation process is where our best recipes come from.
No but we recommend them because we’ve tested the alternatives and Jungle Oats rolled oats consistently produce the best texture for overnight oats. They hold up beautifully after an overnight soak without going mushy, and they’re available everywhere in South Africa at a fair price.
Woolworths rolled oats are an excellent premium alternative. Checkers and Pick n Pay house-brand rolled oats also work well. The one thing to avoid is instant oats (the flavoured sachet variety) the added sugar and salt throw the recipe off, and the texture goes soft and pasty.
The key word is rolled oats sometimes called old-fashioned oats. That’s what gives overnight oats their characteristic creamy, structured texture.
The everyday ingredients — Jungle Oats, yoghurt, honey, peanut butter, fresh fruit — you’ll find at any Pick n Pay, Woolworths, Checkers or Spar. We always make sure our base recipes use only what’s on those shelves.
For superfoods like baobab powder, moringa, chia seeds and hemp seeds, here’s where to look:
- Faithful to Nature — the best online source for SA superfoods. Wide range, good prices, ships nationwide.
- Wellness Warehouse — stores in major SA cities, excellent superfood selection.
- Dis-Chem — increasingly stocking baobab, moringa and chia seeds in their health food section.
- Woolworths — stocks chia seeds, hemp seeds and sometimes baobab in their health food aisle.
We always mark recipes that use harder-to-find ingredients with a “Supercharged” tag so you know upfront what you’re committing to.
Most of our recipes are highly adaptable that’s by design. Here are the most common swaps:
- Vegan: Use oat milk, almond milk or coconut milk instead of dairy. Replace yoghurt with coconut yoghurt. Replace honey with maple syrup or agave.
- Dairy-free: Same as vegan milk swaps. Coconut yoghurt from Woolworths or Faithful to Nature works beautifully.
- Diabetic-friendly: Reduce or eliminate honey/sweeteners. Use unsweetened yoghurt. Add extra chia seeds for more fibre, which slows glucose absorption. Avoid fruit-heavy recipes or reduce portion sizes of fruit.
- Banting / low-carb: Traditional oats are not compatible with strict banting. However some members use our recipes as inspiration and substitute oats with chia seed pudding base or a mix of nuts and seeds.
- Gluten-free: Oats are naturally gluten-free but are often processed in facilities with gluten. Look for certified gluten-free oats, Faithful to Nature stocks options.
If you have a specific dietary question about a recipe, drop us a message or post in the Facebook community we’re always happy to suggest adaptations.
We love hearing from the community and yes, we occasionally feature guest recipes and community submissions. Here’s what we look for:
- Uses South African ingredients available at mainstream SA supermarkets
- Has been personally tested and eaten (not just assembled)
- Comes with at least one clear photograph of the finished jar
- Fits the brand tone — real, practical, not preachy
Send your recipe idea to hello@overnightoats.co.za with “Recipe Submission” in the subject line. We read everything, even if we can’t always respond to every submission.
We work with SA food brands, health retailers, kitchenware companies and wellness brands on sponsored recipe content, product features, newsletter placements and long-term partnership programmes.
We only partner with brands whose products we genuinely use and believe in — that’s non-negotiable, because our community’s trust is the most valuable thing we have. If your product genuinely belongs in a South African morning kitchen, we’d love to talk.
Email hello@overnightoats.co.za with your brand name, what you’d like to achieve, and a rough timeline. We’ll come back to you with our media kit and partnership packages within 48 hours.
Yes, OvernightOats.co.za is powered by our own SA-based WordPress hosting infrastructure. If you’re a food blogger, recipe creator, health coach or small business owner looking to launch a WordPress website, we offer:
- Domain registration
- WordPress hosting on fast, locally managed SA servers
- WordPress setup, theme installation and plugin configuration
- SEO setup including RankMath configuration and schema markup
- Recipe card plugin setup (Tasty Recipes or WP Recipe Maker)
- Ongoing site management and support
We understand food blogs specifically the plugin requirements, the recipe schema markup, the image optimisation, the ad network setup — because we run one ourselves. Get in touch at hello@overnightoats.co.za to find out more.