How to Make Oatmeal Overnight

We often hear that, "breakfast is the most important meal of the day" and want to go to work or send the kids off to school well-fed, but cold cereal is not always the best choice, and a heartier breakfast is often too much trouble when everyone is bustling around getting ready to leave for the day. Instant hot cereals often have unrecognizable ingredients and odd flavors. A good solution to the difficulty of a healthy breakfast is to make oatmeal overnight. Here's how.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• 1/2 cup rolled or steel-cut oats or other whole-grain hot cereal
• 2 cups cold water
• pinch of salt (optional)
• 1-quart crockpot for smaller servings
• fruit, dried fruit, nuts, milk, cream, butter, or other favorite oatmeal additions (optional)
• cereal bowls and spoons

1. For two one-cup servings of oatmeal, measure 1/2 cup of dry oats into a small crock pot. Add a pinch of salt, if desired.

2. Add two cups of cold water and plug in and turn on the crock pot at the lowest setting.

3. Allow the oatmeal to cook for 6 to 8 hours, or for as much as 10 hours. Stir well and serve with your choice of additives and condiments.

Tips & Warnings

• Oatmeal need not be sweet; if you must limit your sugar intake, oatmeal is very good with just a dab of butter and salt and even a little pepper. Experiment with different ways to eat it.
• Double or triple this recipe as needed. Just make sure you have plenty of everyone's favorite condiments on hand!
• Allow leftover oatmeal to cool and add to bread dough for a whole-grain enrichment.
• There are many good whole-grain hot cereals on the market which may be used in the same way as oatmeal, such as 7-Grain or 10-Grain cereal. Whole grains hold up well; other types may turn out a little too runny or gluey. Whole grains are healthier, anyway.
• Run hot water into the crock pot right away for easy clean-up. Hardened oatmeal is very difficult to remove from crock pot surfaces, though it does reconstitute if soaked for a while.

[gahazeleyes]

on 6/14/2009 Wow, this is great for me. I am not a big breakfast person, but a lot of it comes from me not having time to fix breakfast in the morning. I will try this.

[PearlsWisdom]

on 5/2/2009 I love oatmeal. I'll have to give this recipe a try - I've never heard of it!

[admiller]

on 4/17/2009 Oh my gosh! Crock pot oatmeal. This is a brilliant recipe! It's healthy, easy, and yummy.

[DiscountTickets]

on 4/15/2009 Great idea, oatmeal is a very healthy meal, great for cholesterol and great for your heart. This is so cool because we want to do things faster in the morning.