Photo by Abby Ladybug
Cold winter mornings are the worst. Knowing that I have to crawl out of my nice warm bed into the cold air, stumble down the stairs and get the kiddos ready for school. . . Sometimes I just wish there were a nice, hot breakfast waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs.
Well, with Overnight Crock Pot Oatmeal there is! With this recipe there will be plenty of oatmeal to feed 4-6 adults. Don’t need to feed that many? Just toss it in the fridge and reheat the next day.
Oatmeal is a frugal person’s friend. Oats can be purchased inexpensively at most stores-and if you have the option of a bulk food/healthfood store you can pay even less. Oatmeal is also an extremely healthy & filling breakfast. It is naturally high in fiber and low in fat.
*****NOTE: People have been experiencing difficulty with this recipe-coming out way too soupy & mushy. I did a huge experiment, with help from readers, to try to figure it out. Please check the info out before you cook.*****
Overnight Crockpot Oatmeal
1 cup steel cut or regular oats (NOT Quick Oats!)
4 cups water
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 TBS butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon
Combine all in crockpot and cook on low for 8hrs. Serve with milk & cinnamon sugar.
Variations:
Add up to 1 C raisins/dried fruit before cooking.
Add 1 chopped fresh apple before cooking.
Top with fresh fruit (in season) or canned fruit (drained).
Add a pat of butter or a dollop of jam/preserves.
Drizzle with honey.
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I bet that is a yummy smell to wake up to! We just started eating steel cut oats. I made a big batch at the beginning of the week on the stove – just plain. Then we just heat up what each person wants each day and they can add whatever toppings they like.
Oh, you answer my prayers, for I, too, am tired of the early-morning stumble down the stairs. I’m going to try this as soon as I get to the store to buy regular oats. It sounds great – and convenient. I love your “make a bunch and reheat” plan, too, Robyn.
This may be a silly question, but why can’t you use Quick Oats? That’s all I have in the house, and I’d love to make this up for breakfast tomorrow.
They will be overcooked – mushy or turn to liquid. The steel cut oats are more durable.
Quick Oats have been so processed that they have little nutritional value. Steel Cut oats are the best way to go,
Quick oats have more of the fiber & hull removed so that they will cook quickly. If you put them in the crockpot overnight they would turn into paste. The regular or steel cut oats will hold up better to the long cooking.
Thanks for this! We are a huge oatmeal family and this is going to save me time and the energy usage of cooking steel-cut oats on the stove top. I’m trying this for tomorrow with some molasses I received for Christmas!
Thanks for the idea! I have this in the crock pot right now and hopefully tomorrow it will encourage me to eat breakfast with my kids.
Wow….I just made this and it was a disaster. I woke up to brown soup (and I did not use quick oats!) It seemed like a lot of liquid for only a cup of oaatmeal, but I followed the recipe exactly. I wonder what went wrong????
Monica-I am so sorry to hear that! I wonder what happened? I have been using the steel cut oats and it has come out fine-a bit wet but not soup (I don’t like mine uber dry anyway). . . has anyone else had this issue?
Yes! I made it last night and it didn’t look anything like the picture. It was brown mush! Reheated with milk, dash of salt, sprinkle of sugar and slight drizzle of honey. Tasted pretty good but not what I had imagined.
I admit-it wasn’t my photo. I just found a generic “oatmeal” photo. . . however it still shouldn’t be mush-so try a bit less water or more oats next time.
Instead of just using the water, you can use apple juice. Yum!
I did have a problem with the oats kind of disintegrating by the next morning. I used regular oats, but not steel-cut ones. I fixed the problem by microwaving up a serving of the regular oats and stirring them into my crockpot. It thickened up nicely and added some texture. I think next time I might add another half cup of oats at the beginning, though. And a sweeter apple. I used a granny smith and it was just too tart.
I made this last night and had the same problem – soupy oatmeal. I used regular oats (not quick). I made another 4 servings of oatmeal on the stove top and added it to the slow cooker oats. That seemed to work. It is pretty tasty.
What setting do you use on the crock pot?
Joyce-it should be set on low.
This looks yummy. I’m a vegetarian and it can be hard to find meatless slow cooker recipes. I am posting my recipes on my blog http://healthyslowcooking.wordpress.com. You might fine some that interest you.
Yeah I just made this over the weekend and I got soup, icky runny soup. Yes I used regular oats and the crockpot was on low for 8 hrs. Was not the happy morning I had been hoping for!
I bought steel-cut oats from Trader Joe’s just to use in a crock pot. I get back to you with the results.
I made this last night with STEEL CUT oats and it was great! I cut the water back to 3.5 cups. My toddler, husband and I all really enjoyed it.
I’m so glad it worked out for you Amy. I still find it bizarre that on this one recipe I’ve had so many varied results from readers. . .
How much is my 4 cups of oatmeal and 8 cups of water and 1 cup milk going to expand????do ivneedxto worry? Please tell me no!
Breda-I’m not sure how that is going to turn out for you-Please let me know how it turns out! (and I hope you don’t have a mess to clean up)
The steel cut oatmeal needs 4 cups of liquid to one cup of oats, whereas rolled oats need 2 cups of liquid to one cup of oats.
I came up with a new recipe for this and if cooked in a crock pot on high for few hours, then just kept warm for a few more hours, it is not soupy. I used a 4/1 cup ratio of water and steel cut oats. To that I added red delicious apples and carrots that had been reduced to a sauce consistency in a food processer and crasians (dried cranberries), a generous amount of cinnamon and a little salt. I have tried cooking this at night, but found it severely stuck to the pot in the morning. So cooking it in the daytime while I can keep an eye on it works better for me. I hope someone will enjoy this as much as I have.
I have tried lots of crock pot oatmeal recipes and they all have been a disaster., until this one. We have made it about a half dozen times now using steel cut oats, and it turns out perfectly every time. We like thicker oatmeal so we scaled back the water to 3 1/2 cups and the 1/2 cup milk. It is so wonderful to wake up to the smell of this cooking on a cold morning. Thank you for sharing!!!
Mary-I’m so glad it works well for you! It is nice to wake up to a hot, delicious meal with no work
Just out of curiosity (if you check back on the thread here) do you use an older crockpot or a new one?
I have a 14 year old proctor silexcrock watcher brand crock pot. I know this only because we got it for a wedding shower gift. It’s the regular sized one, not sure how many quarts. I use the crock pot liners with this too. Makes clean up easy.
3 of my kids have just devoured this, leaving non for the baby or myself, (we are a family of 6, but only 5 will eat oatmeal). Looks like I will be making 1 1/2 batches next time.
I hope you don’t mind, but I shared the link to this with my moms group because we love this so much, and they are always looking for great recipes.
Mary-I think it is great that you shared! Be forwarned though, several folks have had problems with the recipe-It seems that some crockpots cook hotter than others, most noticeably the newer ones (which is why I asked how old yours is). This recipe comes out perfectly in my Mom’s old crockpot!
Here is the whole “experiment” so you can help folks out if theirs doesn’t come out as fabulous as yours.
http://www.frugalupstate.com/recipes/the-great-oatmeal-experiment-results/
Just want you to know I have made this recipe and it came out very nice! I used steel cut oats and did not change anything. It’s a bit loose the first day but I had enough to eat all week and the next day the texture was perfect when reheated. I am tweaking this batch, I added 1/2 cup brown sugar and some almonds. Thanks for the recipe!
Michelle-so glad it worked for you. Out of all my recipes, this one makes me the most nervous on the blog-folks have had such varied experiences with it depending on their crockpot
I’ve been making crockpot oatmeal for ages but I have a slightly differerent method. I only use steel cut oats. I put 4 cups water and 1 cup steel cut oats in the crockpot. I plug the crockpot into a timer (or you can use a programmable crock pot) and set the timer to turn the crockpot on for 4 hours only for oatmeal when I wake up. For me, that means setting the timer to turn on at 3 am and off at 7 am. I set the crockpot on low and go to sleep. I add raisins or brown sugar when I serve it. It always works for me.
I just made this and it came out perfectly! I think the trouble so many people are having is that they aren’t using STEEL CUT oats. A lot of posters who had problems said that they used ‘regular’ oats. I would assume that to mean rolled oats, not the ‘quick cook’ kind. Either way, you would end up with soup, because rolled oats are going to end up as soup. You have to use steel cut to have any sort of consistency. Yesterday I made them and they were in the crockpot for 11 hours (my husband let me sleep in, bless his heart) and they still came out with a great consistency. I made it again this morning and it was even better. I like mine thicker, and we needed a bit more for our family, so I used 1.5 cups of oatmeal and 5 cups of water instead. Thanks for this recipe!
Also, I have a very hot cooking crock pot. Even on low, it will simmer things.
Aileen-No one who has used steel cut oats has ever had a problem. But I can use this recipe with regular rolled oats in my old 1980′s crockpot and it comes out fine-others can’t. It’s just weird
follosed recipe to the letter – Brown yucky soup – steel cut timing every thing. mush…
Robert-I am so sorry you had bad results. This recipe is the strangest thing. Some folks have great luck, others don’t and I honestly don’t know why. I did a bit experiment to check the variables. . . http://www.frugalupstate.com/recipes/the-great-oatmeal-experiment-results/.
I just tried making this oatmeal (and I added some cut up apple)…..my first time cooking steel cut oatmeal and doing it in a crock pot and I have to say it was not very good at all. No one in my family liked it.
I had to add TONS of sugar to make it edible. I was super disappointed.
Brook-I’m so sorry you didn’t like it. I have always thought mine tasted pretty much like regular oatmeal. Do you usually enjoy oatmeal? What was the specific problem with it?
I put the oatmeal in the crockpot last night, and today I woke up to delicious goodness! After reading some of the reviews I decided not to put as much water in, I put a little over 3 1/2 cups. After 7 hours it was cooked perfectly! I will definetly be making this again soon.
So glad you liked it.
I used old fashioned oats and took the suggestion of doubling the amount of oats and it still came out a soupy mess.
It smells good though.
Lisa-I’m so sorry it didn’t work for you. I use STEEL CUT oats (not old fashioned) and it comes out great. What type of crockpot are you using?
I followed you amended recommendations by adding one mor cup of oats. It scorched.
. I have a large oval crockpot, though. Doubling the whole recipe tonight and doing 4 cups oats to see if that makes a difference.
Eeek! That isn’t good. I hope you find a way that works for you. . .
I have never tried steel cut oats before. I have always wanted to try them so i finally got some. I cooked them using your original instructions and they turned out great. I used an older smaller crockpot for 8 hours and they didn’t even stick.
So glad it worked well for you!
I just made this last night and loved it! I made it with steel cut oats on my walmart cheapo crock pot. My kids loved it and asked for seconds! The only thing I would do is reduce the amount of cinnamon, but that is just a personal preference. I think I’ll also double the recipe next time as it was enough for about 4 adult bowls of oatmeal. Overall, great recipe!
I think this recipe is great – it looks mushy at first but once you stir everything up, it tastes great – has the right consistency and it’s very creamy – I add a little more milk and brown sugar once spooned out and it’s super! Clean up is not a problem but I have a 3 quart newer crocker pot – tiny but perfect for this size of meal. I also think by stirring it up when it’s done loosens any cinnamon or sugar on the sides. Then I just store the left overs and it’s great morning to morning during the work week.
My husband and I made this last night with steel cut oats and the apple juice. It was so yummy! The taste reminded me of apple cider.
I used part of your recipe. It worked really well for me! I’m not sure what the difference with the oats are but I used “Steel Cut”, or “Irish Cut” oats.
I used:
1 cup steel cut
2 cups water
2 cups milk
But, I toasted my oats for about 5 minutes in the butter before adding them into the crock pot. (I took note to many other sites who suggest it). I added cinnamon and nutmeg along with the brown sugar and vanilla. Stirred until all was combined and flipped on the crock pot to “low” from 11 pm to 6:30 am. It was a little sticky and cooked terribly to the edges, after stirring the oatmeal it evened out fine. Other than that it was AMAZING! I think I will try to spray or coat the crock before hand. My Crock pot is a bit older, I know this was a question above. I don’t know HOW old, it was some what a gift from a great aunt, but I know it’s not more than 15 years. Hope this helps!
As i read the description listed above i kept thinking to myself this sounds exactly like me. After a long night of MLB the show 09 its often hard to leave the comfort of my water bed in the morning. Thanks to this invaluable info I’ll never again have to face those agonizing not to mention cold mornings alone.
For those of you with a newer crockpot, if you take the butter and use it to grease the crockpot, reduce the water just a half a cup..you may be surprised at the results. We use this recipe all the time, adding different toppings when warranted..have noticed that if we use bananas or applesauce that these wet ingredients need to be added only 1/2 hour before eating and reduce all liquids by 1 1/2 cups total..Perfect!
Great tips Becca-thank you for sharing!
Hi, was just wondering why you use mostly water and a little milk and not the other way round….I’m in the UK and here the thought of porridge made with water is just disgusting! Im new to slow cooking (as we call it!) so my question might be obvious to most but not me! Also does it taste buttery or is that just to make it creamy? Thanks.
Niamh-Honestly? I make it that way because it’s the way the recipe I originally got was written.
Sarah, thank you for the comment about the new vs. old crock pots. I thought I was losing my mind or I had a bad crock pot I had an older one and LOVED it! My mother gave me a newer, oval one and it cooks way too hot – even on warm. Wish I had not given away my older one. But, will have to try this in the small pot that I usually cook BBQ pork in.
Does anyone know if you can make this porridge with all milk, or will it curdle?
I’m afraid to try incase I wake up in the morning and my breakie is ruined!
Cliona-sorry, I’m not sure. We’ll see if any of my brilliant readers know!
Just as note- you can use milk instead of water. It makes a thicker, much more dense oatmeal. I usually split the milk (I cook with whole milk) and water. All that being said, I haven’t used *THIS* particular overnight recipe, but others work fine with only milk. I will try it out tonight and see…..
Thanks for adding in your experience Amy! I always appreciate it when readers can help answer a question from true experience!
Tried it out last night and, with all the back and forth on how it worked, followed the recipe exactly (I usually cook it with mostly milk). It turned out just fine. Although I must confess, I still prefer the richer flavor of the milk based recipes. The recipe itself was nice so I will use it again, only with milk instead of water. Thanks for the recipe.
Mine STUCK to the crock pot
Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that Amanda. Bet you have a newer crockpot right?
Just adding my two bits here – I did this last night with 1.5 cups regular oatmeal, 2 cups water, 1/2 cup milk. I have a 2.5 quart crockpot (one of the NEW, SUPER CHEAP mini ones). I also added a handful of craisins to the recipe. It turned out perfectly! My husband loved it and asked me to make it for him every day.
So there’s another option on the ratios.
I had a crockpot that was fairly new (not from the 80′s) Probably 10 years old and only had the manual knob. All was well but over time of always cooking food on the same spot on the counter it scorched my counter eventually. Oddly enough, when I got a new one a couple years ago that has the automatic warm when the cooking time ends the new one was way hot and always burned my food (but not the counter,lol). I’ve never been as happy with the new one as the old and as far as health the old ones arent a problem if it is timed by you and not by the crockpot. My old one didnt time. It just had low or high and so it would not be at an unsafe temp because it would still be one. Interesting though, my new one that goes to warm mode at the end actually keeps it so hot that it keeps cooking as well but since I relied on it (rather than time it myself like the old one) it would overcook the food. Warm was actually still at a low boil! I guess it depends on how you will use your crockpot (leaving the house or whatever) which might determine which is better to use. Bummer these things cant have a more consistent setting. Whatever the case, I always used old fashioned oats with 4 cups of oats and 8 or so cups of water and never have soup problems. Sometimes I have a lot of sticking but that is because my newer crockpot is way hotter than the old one. Adjust the water higher until you get the right amount for your crockpot. If it sticks but doesnt burn then just mix it back in.
I’ve been making steel cut oats overnight in my crockpot for a while now. Always turns out fine but only the steel cut version! My trick is to use a “double boiler”: fill crockpot with water to desired level enough so that bowl of oat mixture will float on top, but still allow room for crockpot lid. Keeps oatmeal moist and soft and there is virtually no cleanup. If we cannot eat it all, I don’t have to scrape it out of cooker. I just put a lid onto bowl oats were cooked in an save for next day. If you were having problems before, just try the double boiler method.
Well, crum. I wish I would’ve read these comments before I started making this because I too felt like it was too much liquid but didn’t trust myself to alter since it’s my first time making it – AND I added one diced granny smith to it… which I’m assuming will put forth even more liquid! Sooooo, I decided to add about another 1/2 cup of oats (steel cut) and a little more brown sugar. Once I see what I wake up to tomorrow, I will tweak it from there if need be. If it turns out too runny, I’ll use less water. I really like the idea of this because I’m too lazy to whip up steel cut oats in the morning d/t the time it takes to cook. I’ll post back w/ the results!
Oops, I now see you have added a post re: experimentation. I swear I don’t know where my head is! Oh, well… here’s hoping it turns out great!
Don’t worry kg! I’m sure your oatmeal turned out great–the steel cut oats worked well in all of our different trials.
I added more water and more brown sugar…love it!! Thanks for posting.
I read on another sight that used a similar recipe that he used a 2 qrt crock and not a 6 qrt. He said it wouldn’t work in the larger, so I was wondering if that was a variant in some of the recipes not turning out right?
India-I think you are right. This is just one of those recipes where the size of the crockpot, the age of the crockpot (which affects the temp it cooks at) and the type of oats you use all can combine in different ways to change your results!
Thanks so much for this recipe! I made it last night with steel cut oats and had much success. I was about to give up on steel cut oats altogether because they require WAY too much time and attention to cook stovetop. Great job! I’m going to add some pumpkin next time.
Well I went with 4 cups oatmeal and 1cup milk and 8 cups water, 2 tablespoons butter , a little vanilla and cinnamon and a small amount of brown sugar. I set it for 8 hours on simmer, I hope it is not too watery now:(
Well it is now am eating time and the oatmeal smells and looks so creamy, cannot wait for my husband to get up and try it as this will be true test:)
It was incredible and I have the small 3.5 quart cuisinart ! It was fantastic! Lot’s of left overs!
Yay! I’m glad it worked out for you. I tell you, no other recipe on the planet has given me as varied results as this one.
Get a good thermometer.
Different crock pots have different temps. Seriously, there can be a big variance between brands and even years…..olders ones seem to be a lot more consistant, but some of the really new CHEAP ones run pretty hot.
I am willing to bet money if you were to get ten people on here to participate by making the exact recipe and checking the temp after cooking you would find the unhappy results have higher temps.
Alex-I think you are right! It’s funny though, most crock pot recipes come out fine, regardless of the variations, but this oatmeal is a little more sensitive.
Newer crock pots cook hotter than the old ones from the 70s and 80s for safety reasons. If you are cooking meat the old one’s keep it at an unsafe temperature for too long. That being said, I may start scanning the thrift stores for an old one just for oatmeal.
Sarah-I appreciate your point. Everyone should realize that there is a risk involved and then make an informed choice about what is right for their family! That being said-I think your compromise of looking for an older pot just for your oatmeal is a good one!
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