I never thought I would like oatmeal. It’s a texture thing. I ate the instant stuff as a kid. As an adult, I was told that I didn’t make it correctly. I just used hot water from the faucet. Once I learned that oatmeal was supposed to be “wet” and lumpy, I was totally uninterested.
Anyway, a few years have gone by and the granola bars for breakfast just aren’t working anymore. I’m too busy in the morning to be cooking up a feast and my waistline sure doesn’t need a feast. Trying to be healthy, I found oatmeal again.
Recently, one of the moms at my MOPS group brought in oatmeal that had been cooked in a slow cooker. It was so yummy. She had raisins and apples in there, I think. I haven’t gotten the recipe – yet. I was so inspired by her oatmeal, that I starting surfing the internet for recipes. This recipe is everywhere with minor tweaks. I “think” the source is Alton Brown’s Overnight Oatmeal from the Food Network, so I’m linking to his recipe.
Below, I’m giving you the recipe I used. I tweaked Alton’s recipe based on some of the reviews I read and because I wanted to use Almond Milk instead of half-and-half. Many of the reviewers complained about the oatmeal burning to the side of the slow cooker and suggested cooking it overnight on Warm instead of Low. There was also much confusion about what size of a slow cooker should be used. For my recipe below, I used a 1.5 quart slow cooker. I also halved the recipe because I didn’t need 4 servings. Everything filled up my slow cooker about 2/3 full, which is about where you want it to be for everything to cook properly.
For those of you that work, this would be a great breakfast on the run. It can cook overnight and be ready for when you need to run out the door. You could put it in a thermos and go.
Overnight Slow Cooker Oatmeal
1/2 cup steel cut oats, also called Irish oats (MUST be this kind)
1/2 cup dried cranberries
2 cups water
1/4 cup Almond Milk
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 pinches of salt
Combine the 1st four ingredients in a slow cooker and set to Warm. After about 8 hours, add the last two ingredients and switch to Low for an additional hour. Stir and serve.
(If you sleep for 9 hours, I wouldn’t worry. Just check it to see if it’s done. If not, you can always switch it to low for a little while and check again. No biggie.)
It came out perfect with nothing burnt to the sides of the slow cooker. Today, I added a little extra brown sugar and some maple syrup at serving time – yum!! I’m converted!
