What’s in the Crock? Another Crock! Oh, and oatmeal.
I’ve spent an absurd amount of time recently thinking about oatmeal.
A lot of things have consipired to make this happen:
- My sister put me onto the joys of real oatmeal. Not “minute oats”, not instant; the real-deal squished oats.
- Andrea wrote a post about steel-cut oatmeal. I’m so glad I’m not the only person who thinks – and blogs – about these things.
- Deb signed off Twitter one night with the pièce de resistance:
Bingo! Steel-cut oats are yummy, but they take too long. The slow cooker is a perfect fit. So I ran out and bought a little crock. You know, so our little batch wouldn’t burn to the sides of the big crock.
Instead, it burned to the sides of the little crock.
But all is not lost. The stoneware in the new crock fits perfectly inside my 5qt, and the results have been FANTASTIC! No burning. No scrubbing. Barely any sticking. Even with a little batch. Even without oiling the stoneware.
Oh, and it’s waaay easier to fish it out of a crock full of hot water than a regular casserole dish.
[What you see in the photo is actually a batch of Chocolate Raspberry Oatmeal, but I played with the recipe and didn't like the result. I'll post it when I get it just right 
.]
Want to try? Here’s what you do:
- Find a dish that fits inside your stoneware. Not too hard if you have a 6qt, but tricky for anything smaller. But the little slow cooker only cost $10, fit in my 5qt, and of course gives me another slow cooker to work with
- Put the the dish in the stoneware, and add steel cut oats, water, and salt, as per package directions.
- Fill the outer stoneware with water to about the same level as the water/oats mix.
- Cook for 8 hours on low.
We now do this nightly, and wake up every morning to oatmeal that’s quicker than instant – and way yummier too.
Oh, and a hint: as soon as you’re done serving, dump the water from the big crock into the little one: cleanup is a breeze, and you’re conserving water too.
And finally, a shout-out to Stephanie O’Dea, whose Chocolate Pot de Creme with Ganache was what gave me the idea to try bain-marie in the crock. Of course, that recipe was also what made me buy a second, bigger crock, plus a dish to fit inside it. And now I have three crocks.
It’s a slippery slope. Coated in oatmeal.
I’m loving this wake-up-to-a-hot-breakfast thing. Do you have any crock-pot breakfasts to share?
Other places I ramble
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13 Comments
Bummer that the chocolate rasp didn’t turn out well.
Let me know when you come up with. Let’s brainstorm and perfect this sucker, I say! Because I’m pretty sure the world NEEDS chocolate raspberry oatmeal.
I think the problem is the fact that I messed with the recipe. I’m going to start by following it.
It means making another batch. I’m really broken up about that
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Thanks again for all those recipes, I’m so looking forward to experimenting!
Okay, where did you get the tiny adorable $10 crock, and now that you are eating oats every morning (and losing pant sizes — saw your other post!) you have to tell me what you actually eat ON it! Do you realize you could be changing the way a nation of people eat here? Or at least my household!?!
Changing the nation, one bowl at a time… I like that
The crock came from Zellers, I will try to post a pic/brand (currently pinned to the couch by a sleeping child).
I happened to be in Zellers today and I found it! You’re right ~ $10 for the whole little pot! Wonderful. Next is buying steel cut oats, and I’m going to follow your lead right into those little jeans of yours.
I just get the PC Blue Menu ones – they come in a ‘can shaped’ package (I looked through them initially, I had expected to find a Steel Cut variety in with the Quaker options). Good luck, and enjoy!!
Just this morning I was thinking I need to start making the oatmeal the night before. But last time I did (2 years ago) I had the same, burned issue, you had. I will try this Bain Marie thing and see how it goes. Have you ever looked at the web site “Healthy Slow Cooking”? (stick a .com on the end of that and you have the URL). Almost every recipe is a different slow cooker oatmeal. I haven’t tried any but I enjoy reading about things like “pancake oatmeal”
I know the site you’re talking about, it’s in my RSS reader
. I kept adding recipes to my recipe box but had to stop because I never get around to making them! But the pancake one is top of my list to try, it’s got butter in it, right?
I’ve been finding I have to leave the slow cooker on the counter, that’s the only way I seem to remember to set it up in the evening. I need to find a better way though, because I *hate* counter-clutter. Maybe a big card in the basket of baby bottles that says “OATMEAL!!!” on it, so I get a reminder while I make up the night-time supplement. And then maybe print and staple a recipe to that
[...] posts, but this week I’m going to cheat and just point you to one I’ve already posted: Slow Cooker Oatmeal. It’s how I start my mornings, so I figured it’s appropriate for a post about [...]
Just gotta say…. you’ve changed our world! For the past month, once or twice a week I have been making these oats (including last night!) and my family LOVES it! So do I! Fave toppings: maple syrup and fruit, almond butter (with or without maple syrup), and with cold leftovers, I feed baby with yogurt.
Sometimes I cook with some cinnamon and/or vanilla thrown into the little crock. Tried frozen blueberries; was okay, but they all floated to the top like a little blue crust.
Lovin’ it though! And have converted my sis-in-law. Emailed her your post for full instructions! Thanks for the inspiration.
LOL! I always kick myself if I forget to make this the night before, or worse, if I remember but forget to turn on the crock. I love your topping ideas! I tried mixing in frozen bluberries in the morning, but that didn’t quite work out either. But I think vanilla may become a standard. *Love* vanilla in this house. And OOooh! I’ll be the house smells heavenly in the morning, too! And almond butter just went on the grocery list. Haven’t had it in years. I wonder what the 2yo will think?
My 6 year old and 4 year old (named Sacha, by the way) love the almond butter. It’s sweeter than natural peanut butter, so they think it’s a treat. Ha ha.
I also forgot to mention that yesterday I added the homemade granola (remember that recipe from Twitter?) into the oats with some maple syrup and it was YUM! Crunchy with mushy… mmmm….
Looking forward to seeing the perfected chocolate raspberry oatmeal! Also, I’ll need to write down all those recipe ideas from the other comments…or add them to my online recipe box
. Now to find steel cut oats. And a crock pot. And another one.