Recipe: Overnight Crock Pot Oatmeal
January 14, 2010 by Jenn @ Frugal Upstate
Filed under Recipes
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. Please stay tuned for notes & improvements once we figure this out*****
Overnight Crock Pot 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.
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?
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)
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.