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!
Love this post, short and sweet! I’m usually not into steel cut oats simply because of how long they take, but I’ll definitely be trying this recipe out. Your photos are gorgeous (and all the variations look spectacular as well). 🙂
Yummy! Too bad I don’t have a slow cooker…
Oatmeal is so filling and who doesn’t want something hot on those cold mornings!
I never made oatmeal in a crockpot, but I do love to make a big batch of it on Sunday’s and then heat and eat throughout the week! Nothing more comforting this time of year then oatmeal!
This will put my slow cooker collection to good use 🙂 I love oatmeal! Thanks for posting the size crock pot – that always helps!
It’s so funny you posted this… I recently rediscovered a mini crockpot that I have been using copiously the last few weeks. Since I’m lazy I just fill it with whatever amount of water, throw in the amount of steel cut oats (after rinsing) that I’ll be having for breakfast, and head off for a run or to the gym. By the time I’m ready to eat I just drain, customize and eat 🙂
I’ve been doing the same with quinoa, kamut, wheatberries, etc. I used to be so anti-crockpot (not a big fan of stews) but now I’m obsessed 🙂
Hi Katie!
I produce a nationally-syndicated radio program called “Zorba Paster on Your Health”. I don’t know when your cookbook is scheduled to come out, but when the date approaches, I’d love to have you feature a recipe on our program!
Dr. Zorba loves to find new healthy recipes that actually taste good, and I can think of noone better to share a great dessert recipe with our listeners than yourself!
If you’re interested, please shoot me an e-mail at gabrielle.pedriani@wpr.org.
Thanks!
-Gabrielle
This is making me realize I need to get a slow cooker again. I had one for a while way back when I was in college and it was great, I just wasn’t always the best at thinking ahead. But waking up to warm slow cooker oats would be fabulous. With the other 3 servings, would you just cover them and keep in the fridge or would they not last that long?
Per Alton Brown, I do this on low for 8 hours so I can start it before I go to bed and have breakfast ready to go. More than 8 hours burns, though. I do a huge batch and reheat the leftovers (or my 3 yr old eats the leftovers cold – on that note, the leftovers gel up a bit and are easier for the little one to eat than the fresh hot goodness). Mmmm, I’m putting this on tonight. Little boy was in oatmeal mode last week and I kept making due with rolled oats due to the slow cooker being in use for broth.
I envy you your Italian grandma… Mine was the worst cook in the world somehow! But my Lithuanian grandma was an amazing cook. She made the best halupki (galumpki to you Polish)! And there were these cookies.. crunchy/chewy chocolate on the outside, peanut butter cream on the inside. Not like a sandwich cookie, somehow the pb was just in there! Like a chocolate cookie cream puff (she also made the best cream puffs, and gobs…) The two of you would have gotten along 😀