Can we just take a minute to soak in the fact that it’s November now? How is that even possible?! It’s definitely true that the older you get, the faster time seems to go by. Every year seems just a bit shorter than the last. Not that I’m down about it being November, because I absolutely love my family’s fall, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Eve festivities, so I’m actually pretty excited for the next couple of months. It just seems the weather did a complete 180 overnight here. We had an 80 degree day this week, now it’s 40 degrees with snow in the forecast.
With the chillier weather comes my desire for hearty breakfasts that warm me up on the inside. Oatmeal is definitely my go-to breakfast of this kind, especially those that cook in the crock pot overnight, so I can just drag my tired self down in the morning and scoop some into a bowl and breakfast is done. No effort required! Well, I guess if I’m being true to life I left out the step of making my life-juice a/k/a coffee, which takes all of about 2 minutes since it is programmed to be on and ready to go when I get downstairs. Gotta love the modern conveniences we have these days!
As for the breakfast part, though, oh my yums, this oatmeal here fits the bill and tastes great too. It’s like eating apple pie for breakfast, but in a much healthier and energy-boosting way. It’s thick and hearty and will easily keep you full until lunchtime. Cooking it in the crock pot is perfect, because you throw it in on your way to bed, then wake up to the smell of apple pie deliciousness filling the house. Just grab a bowl and you’re ready for your breakfast. It’s got some sweetness to it, but nothing too intense. There’s always room for adding more sugar or maple syrup in after it’s done, though, so you can easily make it suit your tastebuds.
- 1+1/2 cups (240g) uncooked steel cut oats
- 2+1/2 tsp. apple pie spice (my 5 minute homemade apple pie spice recipe is here
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 3 Tbsp. brown sugar (packed)
- 1/4 cup pure maple syrup (use the pure stuff, not the "pancake syrup", or it won't taste right)
- 3+1/2 cups apple chunks (I used 5 small apples, cores removed, then chopped them into 1/2" chunks, which yielded the 3+1/2 cups. I used ginger gold apples, which are on the sweeter side, and I kept the skin on the apples. If you don't like apple skin, simply remove it before cutting the apples into chunks)
- 4+1/2 cups milk
- chopped pecans (or walnuts or whatever nut you prefer)
- raisins
- additional milk
- additional brown sugar and/or maple syrup
- Spray slow cooker with cooking spray or use crock pot liner. If you don't, you will have a horrible mess of burnt-on oatmeal to clean. Trust me, you don't want this!
- Add ingredients to crock pot in this order: steel cut oats, apple pie spice, salt, brown sugar (crumble with your fingers to break up chunks), maple syrup, apple chunks and milk. Very lightly mix, but avoid scraping the sides or bottom of crock pot (you don't want to wipe off the cooking spray or you'll have a very messy crock pot at the end)
Note: It's important to add this way so that you don't have to mix much at all, which is important to avoid a super messy crock pot. - Cover crock pot and cook on low for about 7-8 hours. I like to put this on right before going to bed so it's ready when we get up. I program it for 8 hours and my crock pot goes into a "keep warm" setting after the time runs out, so even if I sleep a bit longer than the cooking time, it ends up perfect and ready for us when we get up.
- When the oatmeal is done, it will look quite runny until you mix it up. Stir it all up, though, and it will be nice and thick like the photo above.
- Serve oatmeal as is or with some additional toppings. In the photo above, I added some pecans on top. Refrigerate leftovers and eat within 4 days.