We've hit September, which means school is back in session and it's early mornings and kids who need to be fed something (hopefully) substantial before leaving the house.
I've gotten a few emails about overnight oatmeal, and I've been experimenting. Because of the way the Internet is, I've figured out a VERY BASIC overnight oatmeal --- the oats are regular rolled and not "fancy" steel cut, and the oats are cooked in water, not milk.
If you want to change-up the water for cow's milk, or almond milk, or hemp, soy, coconut, lactaid, fairy, or unicorn milk: go for it!
but water works, too!
The Ingredients:
serves 4-6
2 cups rolled old-fashioned oats (NOT quick cook) (I use certified gluten free oats)
4 1/2 cups water (or liquid equivalent)
The Directions.
Use a prepared (that's coated in cooking spray or butter) 4-quart slow cooker. If you only have a 6-quart, increase the quantities by 50%. You can freeze the leftovers in little sandwich bags, if you'd like.
Put the oats into your slow cooker and stir in the water. Cover, and cook on low for 7 hours.
Stir in the morning.
The result is creamy, bland, tasteless oatmeal. You can add stuff at the table: honey, sliced fruit, brown sugar, etc.
WHAT MY KIDS LIKE:
2 cups rolled oats
4 1/2 cups water
2 tablespoons honey
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice mix (1/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/8 nutmeg, 1/8 cloves)
2 small granny smith apples, diced (I leave on the skin because I'm terribly lazy)
In the morning they sprinkle on a bit more cinnamon and they like sliced bananas, too. What they'd REALLY like is for me to let them add brown sugar, but I don't.
because I'm terribly mean, too.
The Verdict.
The rolled oats disappear and become porridge-like. There is no longer a chew to the oats --- my kids like this a lot because it's the most similar to the little packets of sugar-laden oatmeal.
This is a very easy way to get a hot breakfast on a busy morning.
I played around with the timing for those who don't have a programmable slow cooker, and if you do low for 7 hours you will be just fine. If you sleep longer (I'm jealous), it'll just get a bit dried out on the edges, but you can easily fix that by stirring in some milk.
Enjoy!!
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