Slow-cooked Oatmeal

My sister made this oatmeal for the first time awhile back and RAVED about it. She gave me the basic recipe, and we added our own likes. We gobbled this up in 2 days. I will give you a word of caution - if you make this, instant oats will never be good enough for you again. Delicious!

Slow-Cooked Steel Cut Oats

1 cup steel cut oats (I bought these by the pound at Sprouts)

2 cups milk (you can use any type - cow's milk of any fat content or soy)

2 cups water

tsp salt

dash of cinnamon

splash of vanilla

Okay, the trick to these oats is that they are steamed in the crockpot. You'll want to find an oven-safe bowl that will fit into your crockpot with enough room around it to fill the crockpot bowl with water. My small oval Corningware dish worked perfectly.

In a bowl, combine all of the ingredients and stir to combine. Put your oven-safe bowl into the crockpot, and pour the oats mixture inside. Now pour enough water around the bowl to fill up to the fill level inside the bowl. I should have taken a picture of this step. But, basically you're creating a water bath.

Now, set your crockpot to low, and cook overnight (for 8 hours maximum) or for at least 4 hours. Fluff with a spoon, and serve warm. You can refrigerate the oats for up to a week. To reheat, scoop some oats into a microwave-safe dish, and pour milk over the top. Heat in the microwave 1-2 minutes, and stir.

You can add literally anything at all to this oatmeal. Add nuts, berries, sugar, butter, etc. For the batch pictured, I added a handful of dried cranberries before cooking. Then to serve, I drizzled agave nectar over the top to sweeten. I cannot sing the praises of this oatmeal enough. You'll love it!