Lately, my favorite breakfast is a giant bowl of creamy crock pot oatmeal, hot from the slow cooker.
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It brings back memories of visiting my grandparents’ house as a young girl.
Grandpa believed steel cut oats were the healthiest food you could eat, and he’d get up every morning at 5 AM to make sure that a bowl of piping hot oatmeal with melty butter and brown sugar would be waiting for us when we all awoke.
Sometimes my sister and I tried to beat Grandpa into the kitchen. But no matter how early we snuck out of our beds, he was always two steps ahead of us, bowl of oatmeal in hand.
Below is my basic crock pot oatmeal recipe. You can easily customize it for endless breakfast options.
Crock Pot Oatmeal Recipes
- Cinnamon Raisin Crock Pot Oatmeal: add raisins before cooking. Stir in ground cinnamon and sweetener of choice (and butter-type spread if desired) after cooking.
- Mounds Bar Oatmeal: add shredded coconut, sweetener, and chocolate chips after cooking. Use coconut milk when it calls for milk of choice. Slivered almonds optional.
- Apple Pie Oatmeal: peel 2 small apples, chop, and add them to the uncooked ingredients along with 1/2 tsp to 1 tsp cinnamon or apple pie spice. After cooking, stir a butter-type spread and sweetener of choice (good choices for this variation include brown sugar or Sucanat or coconut brown sugar) into hot oats.
- Peanut Butter & Jelly Oatmeal: stir 1-2 tbsp peanut butter and 1-2 tbsp jelly into each cooked serving of oatmeal. Pour some milk of choice (such as almond milk) over top just before serving. Everyone knows a pb&j is nothing without the glass of milk!
Crock Pot Oatmeal
This healthy crock pot oatmeal recipe is an easy slow cooker breakfast.
Ingredients
- 3 cups milk of choice or water
- 1 cup steel cut oats (160g)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- add-ins of choice (see above for flavor ideas)
Instructions
- Slow Cooker Oatmeal Recipe: Combine all ingredients in a slow cooker or crock pot, put on the lid, and cook on low heat for three hours. No need to stir or anything until the time is up! I use a 3-quart slow cooker for this recipe; cooking times may vary if you use a much-larger size. If you double the crock pot oatmeal recipe, cook for 5-6 hours on low. (If you don't own a slow cooker, you can of course still make steel cut oatmeal. Just follow the cooking directions on the package of oats.)View Nutrition Facts
Notes
Readers also love these Banana Oatmeal Cookies.
Like this recipe? Leave a comment below!
This is a great idea! It sounds so easy and simple. I love putting rhubarb preserves and a dash of cinnamon in my oatmeal. It’s really good!
My grandma on my mom’s side is an excellent cook. She makes the best sugar cookies, hot turkey sandwiches, beef & noodles, and her hamburgers are to die for (that is if you eat meat)! She was born in Ohio so I’ve been raised on comfort food all my life.
This looks great, but what (quart) size slow-cooker did you use? Cooking times and results can vary if the wrong size is used. I came home to chicken charcoal once (and not in any good way) because my crock pot was too big for the recipe I used.
Thanks, Corey. I used a 3-quart crock pot. Post edited now.
I have the crock pot that has the WARM feature. Instead of setting it on a cook time I just set it on the WARM setting and let it WARM all night. Oatmeal turns out great.
We have been using Bob’s Redmill instant. I am now going to convert to your idea, steel cut and leave on warm overnight.
Me too it works well on warm.
Thank you so much for this only using ‘warm’ suggestion – I’m going to try it today. I have tried countless times to prepare steel cut oatmeal in my slow cooker and it has never turned out right.
Thank you again for the ‘warm’ tip – I just tried it and it worked beautifully! I am so happy!
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Do you use water or almond/coconut milk. Is the keep warm function ok for “milk” of some sort?
I will try this next weekend. I’ve only attempted oats in a slow cooker once (actually, my only time trying anything in a slow cooker!) and it turned out terribly! The oats burned and it was entirely inedible. I’ve seen so many great recipes using slow cooked oats though so thanks for inspiring me to give it another shot!
This looks so fluffy and thick – delicious!
I love slow cooker recipes! They are so easy and the longer the food cooks, the better it tastes! My grandmother on my dads side was an amazing cook. I remember getting excited to go to her house because she always made some yummy chocolate chip cookies for us.
Love a yummy bowl of steel-cut oats! I will defintely try this, as it would be great to have them prepared for the week. My grandmother was Italian too! She made some of the best meals. I especially loved her spaghetti and meatballs.
oh, I’m Polish too! you should try cabbage rolls – they originally call for meat, but the stuffing can be easily made with rice, buckwheat, quinoa etc. combined with vegetables, and put them into some creamy tomato sauce, it’s so delicious!
I love vegan eats, but how is real pasta vegan? It is flour, salt, water and EGGS!
Do you have a vegan equally good recipe to share?
Sorry, make my own pasta at home, did not realize that most store bought pasta is actually vegan. Good to know 🙂
Check out my recipe for PUMPKIN steel cut oats in the slow cooker, complete with cranberries & pecans 🙂 http://kellyshealthykitchen.wordpress.com/2012/11/08/slow-cooker-pumpkin-steel-cut-oatmeal/
Why is it that all Grandpa’s get up so early…mine was exactly the same!! Oh, now I remember…it’s because they spend all afternoon snoozing in the armchair. 🙂
Do you know if you can make a big batch of oats this way and chill for subsequent days?
Yes, edited!