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Oatmeal in the Crock Pot

November 2, 2010

As the seasons change and the weather gets colder, I have a growing desire to make warm, hearty foods for breakfast. To me, a hot bowl of oatmeal before heading off to school on a chilly morning gives kids a sense of comfort -- not mention enough energy to carry them through to lunch. Back when I first had Kenya, I discovered my crock pot, a wedding gift that had sat unopened in our closet through two moves. After years collecting dust, it quickly endeared itself to me and became my best friend in the kitchen. It’s so easy and efficient to use, I think I try to find a way to make everything in it. Oatmeal is one of the things I wanted to make in it for the longest time, but it wasn’t until last week when the weather finally got cooler here (and Kenya took to draping himself with a blanket at the kitchen table), that I felt truly motivated.

Plus, with my husband leaving for work everyday before 6am and the kids and I not eating our breakfast until around 7:30am, I loved the idea of preparing something the night before that, no matter what time each of us fed ourselves in the morning, would seem totally fresh and special. As hard as this all may sound, it was one of the easiest breakfasts I've ever made. All I did was toss steel cut oats and the other ingredients into the crock pot, stir it up and 8 hours later we were enjoying a perfect nutritious meal to start our day. The added benefit was that the kitchen smelled so amazing in the morning that even the kids stopped to remark, "what's for breakfast, Mom?"

I've now made this recipe five days in a row, so there must be something about it that everyone loves!

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Oatmeal in the Crock Pot  (Serves 4-6)

  • Total Time: 5 hours,

Ingredients

  • 1 cup steel cut oats
  • 2 cups water
  • 2 1/2 cups milk
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Preparation

  1. 1. Place the first 4 ingredients in a crock pot and stir to combine.
  2. 2. Cook the oatmeal on low heat for 5-9 hours (the amount of time can vary depending on your crock pot. Some crock pots that don’t have non stick surfaces can get hotter then others).
  3. 3. Stir in desired accompaniments and serve.
  4. * I like to let the kids squeeze in their own honey to get them involved and swirl in a bit of extra milk to cool it down for them.

Accompaniments: honey, maple syrup, walnuts and or raisins

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Comments






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  1. christine

    August 30, 2011 at 9:03 pm

    Reply

    I first soaked the oats in water and 1-2 tbsp yogurt to break down the phytates (all grains need proper preparation for digestibility and removal of antinutrients that rob us of minerals). After rinsing, I warmed them in milk and my kids (7,5,3) have never asked for seconds until now. Amazing!

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  4. Justin Draper

    July 3, 2011 at 11:30 am

    Reply

    This is fantastic! I love sugar-free recipes, especially when they use whole grains. You’re site is awesome.

  5. Andrea

    March 8, 2011 at 6:25 pm

    Reply

    I am soooo taking out the crockpot and making this tonight!!! Thanks for sharing the recipe!

    My boyfriend is working another overnight shift and our little 10 month old boy loooves oatmeal cereal.

    I ADORE my crock pot!!! I’ve been using it long before William was born, but have been using it much more often with him now.

    Cheers
    Andrea

  6. kat08

    March 8, 2011 at 10:35 am

    Reply

    I have a crock pot that only has a low and a high setting so, the first time I made this, it came out really runny with a thick, burnt crust all around the inside of the crock. Last night I made it and it turned out perfectly! I had to use the glass bowl in a water bath method…and I only used 2 cups of milk instead of 2 1/2 cups. I like thicker oatmeal so we can add ice cubes or cold milk to cool it down. It was just too soupy last time but this did the trick. The oats still had texture to them, too. Thanks for all the ideas! :)

  7. mamamichelle

    March 4, 2011 at 7:02 pm

    Reply

    Thanks for the awesome recipe! It was a hit with my husband, who doesn’t normally get excited about oatmeal, so I’m super excited about it! Can’t wait to try all the add-ins everyone suggested!

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  9. Diana

    January 10, 2011 at 8:29 pm

    Reply

    Can you use rice milk for this recipe?

    • catherine

      January 11, 2011 at 3:05 pm

      Reply

      yes!! :)

  10. Sarah

    January 9, 2011 at 12:17 am

    Reply

    I’ve been making oatmeal in our crockpot for quite a while but I make enough at once to last us for several days if not the whole week. While it does stick to the sides, i just turn it off and let it set and after a while it tends to scrape down with a rubber spatula pretty well. That part becomes my fav on subsequent days. I put raisins in ours when I set it up at night. It makes it sweet enough not to need any added sweetner in the morning!

  11. shauna

    January 7, 2011 at 9:09 pm

    Reply

    Would like to try this. Love so many of the recipes on this site. However, I’m concerned about the burning issue. Catherine, how does this NOT happen to you? Those of you using a “bowl liner”, what type of bowl does it need to be in order to safely “cook” all night?

    • Janet

      February 11, 2011 at 11:55 am

      Reply

      My bowl is a pyrex bowl that was my mothers. I know it can withstand any heat. I’ve even made date pudding in it in the oven.
      The only way I think she can do it overnight is if she has a super fancy one with a timer. I make it at 10pm and turn it off at 6:30 once I get downstairs. That barely makes it under the 9 hours. But it reheats really well and my son eats it for 3 days straight. So if you are a fraid of burning, you could cook it for 6 hours during the day and see how that works.

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  13. Janet

    January 3, 2011 at 10:48 am

    Reply

    I loved the texture of it and my 2 year old gobbled it up two days in a row and cried when the last bite was gone but… Am I the only one that had half of the oatmeal stuck to the crockpot? It was easy and yummy but the clean up was no fun. Any tips?

    • Janet

      January 3, 2011 at 10:59 am

      Reply

      Ahh I see now that I’m not the only one! I had only read the first half of the comments before. The second half is ALL about the burning. I’ll try the bowl liner and/or low setting and see how it goes. I really want to make it again for my son but was discouraged about the cleanup.

      • Janet

        January 6, 2011 at 8:21 pm

        Reply

        It worked wonderfully using a bowl! Clean up was a breeze and I got to use all the oatmeal. My 2 year old ate 3 bowlfuls and asked for more!

  14. Aubrey

    December 29, 2010 at 8:17 pm

    Reply

    I can’t believe how many people have never tried this! It’s fabulous and has been published just about everywhere on the web, like so many of the recipes and ideas here. Nice that they are all making it to a forum that gets attention due to the writer’s (former) status.

    • Hagerwife

      February 7, 2011 at 3:28 pm

      Reply

      Highly inappropriate and cowardly to anonymously leave snide comments. If you don’t like Catherine, or her site, then please just find somewhere else to go.

    • JAB

      January 7, 2011 at 11:34 pm

      Reply

      Most recipes are not originals. How many times have you seen the same recipes on cooking shows? I hope you can find piece in your life.

  15. Carly

    December 9, 2010 at 8:44 am

    Reply

    Made this for breakfast this morning, and it was fabulous! Just wrote about it on Facebook :)

  16. leeanna

    December 8, 2010 at 8:44 pm

    Reply

    I have made this a few times and LOVED it even though I also had burning and globbed up oats around the edges. :( I am going to try again tonight on warm, fingers crossed!

    • leeanna

      December 9, 2010 at 10:44 am

      Reply

      Just wanted to say that cooking on the warm setting all night and turning to high for about an hour in the morning made this PERFECT! No sticking, no clumping, soooooo creamy and yummy! My two year old is on his second bowl as we speak. :) )

  17. Amy

    December 1, 2010 at 12:14 am

    Reply

    Someone else had mentioned the milk and adding it on at the end… Has anyone tried that? I too always thought milk should be added at the end of something cooking, especially for a long time. Any insight on this?

  18. Kristy

    November 25, 2010 at 10:24 am

    Reply

    Thanks for the great recipe! Mine burned around the edges too but now I see I can try the warm setting. I’ll try that next. This is great with a little organic peanut butter and honey stirred in. My 5 year old gobbles it up! Thanks again!!

  19. Toni

    November 19, 2010 at 1:56 pm

    Reply

    I tried this in rice cooker yesterday. yummy! I put on “keep warm” for 9 hours. Easy cleaning because the non-stick surface. Thanks for the idea. Love your site.

  20. Kristin

    November 18, 2010 at 10:58 pm

    Reply

    Love this. I’ve never used steel cut oats, it took me a while to find them at any store. I cooked it in a metal bowl with water around it in the crockpot on low, just a little crunchy around the top edges. So easy to clean up.

  21. AllieZirkle

    November 15, 2010 at 1:31 pm

    Reply

    I use my rice cooker to cook up regular/ old fashioned oats. This takes ~15 minutes in the morning instead of preplanning the night before. Have you done a rice cooker recipe here before?

    Here’s my oatmeal in the rice cooker recipe. :)

    Coat the inside of the rice cooker with nonstick spray. I use a 1.5:1 water:oats 6 C water + 4 C oats for 2 adults & 4 kiddos. Stir in 1 T vanilla. Click on. Once cooked, unplug. If adding in grated fruit/veggies, do so with the vanilla and up the liquid (for those who need exact ~by 1/8 C for each C oats so 6C water + 4 C oats + 1 grated apple + 1/2 C water )

    At the end, it will be sticky and require additional liquid. We stir in cold milk & a mix in for the big kids (berries, nuts, mini marshmallows, brown sugar, mini chocolate chips)

    • CollegeSAHM

      January 7, 2011 at 9:48 pm

      Reply

      Thank you for this because I have been wanting to try the crock pot recipe but I have a whole bag of rolled oats that need used up so I didn’t want to buy more oats until I used those!

    • catherine

      November 17, 2010 at 5:01 pm

      Reply

      I love this!! thanks!!

  22. Angela

    November 10, 2010 at 10:25 pm

    Reply

    I made this for breakfast this morning. While the edible portion was yummy, there was at least half that was burned and stuck on my crock pot. A tip for removing the burned on mess is to fill the crock pot with water up to the top of the burned portion and cook on warm until it loosens up enough to clean easily.

  23. Rosie

    November 7, 2010 at 8:20 pm

    Reply

    Love the frozen blueberries to cool it down! And the Nutella suggestion- can’t wait to try this!

  24. Jennifer

    November 7, 2010 at 6:10 pm

    Reply

    the first time I made it, it had a one-inch thick border of burnt oatmeal around the edges. This time I doubled the recipe and it turned out much better. Leftovers for school mornings.

    I also added shredded apple and pumpkin pie spice it. The apple totally disolves very nicely into the oatmeal,and the house smelled like apple pie in the morning.

    • Jennifer

      November 7, 2010 at 6:13 pm

      Reply

      I still did have burning, but my edible oatmeal to burnt oatmeal ration was much better when I doubled it!

  25. jj0402

    November 6, 2010 at 11:11 pm

    Reply

    Does the cooking time change if you double this recipe?

    • jj0402

      November 6, 2010 at 11:15 pm

      Reply

      The first time I made this it burned and was near-impossible to clean out my crock pot. I tried it again on warm overnight and in the morning put it on high for about an hour and a half and it was AMAZING. I’m going to make it for my family when they are in town so that is why I am going to double the recipe ^.

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