Overnight Slow Cooker Oatmeal With Warm Apple Topping

The only thing better than having dinner made before breakfast, is having breakfast made before you go to bed. This Overnight Slow Cooker Oatmeal with Warm Apple Topping is simple enough to have ready for weekday mornings, but fancy enough, you could serve it to company. Either way, it’s a warm, delicious breakfast to wake up to when the mornings start to get a little nippy, which is just about now north of the 49th parallel.

You’ll need steel-cut oats for this recipe (also known as Irish Oats). I’m a big fan of Bob’s Red Mill Wheat Free Steel Cut Oats, which are easily found in most grocery stores now.

This is also a great recipe to get the kids making. The whole evening before process can be handled by them. In the morning you need only help cut the apples if they’re not quite there and supervise as they sauté the apples.

There is an important step here though that you will NOT want to miss. Be sure to spray the slow cooker insert with non-stick cooking spray before you add the ingredients. I know what you may be thinking. “Well nothing sticks to the inside of my slow cooker”. Do not fall for it. This will stick if not treated and you will need serious elbow grease to get it off. Take it from someone who has tried it twice without non-stick cooking spray. It’s not pretty and it kind of takes all the joy out of this brilliant make ahead breakfast when you have to spend an hour scrubbing the slow cooker.

I use 1% milk for this slow cooker oatmeal recipe but feel free to use whatever percentage you’d like. When my kids were younger and needed the fat milk provided, I used whole milk. Although I’ve not tried skim milk in it yet, I’m confident 1% less will do no harm. As far as other milks like almond or soy, I’ve not tried those. If you do, please let me know how it turns out. I think almond milk would add quite a nice flavour to this actually.

Enjoy!

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Overnight Slow Cooker Oatmeal With Warm Apple Topping

Ingredients

• 3 cups of 1% milk
• 3 cups water
• 1 1/2 cup steel cut oats
• 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 2 apples i.e. Gala, Granny Smith, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• 2 tbsps packed dark brown sugar
• 3 tbsps dried cranberries
• 3 tbsps chopped walnuts

Instructions

1. Coat your slow cooker with a non-stick cooking spray.
2. Pour water and milk into slow cooker and add oats and sugar, stirring to combine.
3. Cover and cook on low overnight (between 9 and 10 hours).
4. Cut apples into pieces
5. In a non-stick frying pan, coated lightly with spray, add apples and cook over medium-high heat about 5 minutes. Toss apples occasionally.
6. Add brown sugar, a tablespoon of water and dried cranberries and heat through.
7. Remove from heat and toss with chopped walnuts.
8. Transfer oatmeal to bowls and spoon on warm apple topping.