Thanks to a vacation in Disneyland and eating at the marvelous Storyteller’s Cafe I discovered steel cut oatmeal. Steel cut oatmeal has a heartier and nuttier taste, but takes a long time (20-30 minutes) to cook. I do not have time for that in my crazy morning. I remember hearing on Oprah that you could cook them in a crockpot, but my experience has been that it creates a terrible mess to clean up, which once again I don’t have time for in the morning.
Problem solved: I cook my steel cut oatmeal in a double boiler, but I don’t have a double boiler, so I cook my steel cut oatmel in a crockpot and treat it kind of like a double boiler.
Gather the following:
| Crockpot | Oven proof bowl that fits inside the crockpot* |
| Aluminum foil | Steel Cut Oatmeal |
| Dehydrated Fruit | *I didn’t use an oven proof bowl and it was fine |
Pour 1 cup of steel cut oats and 4 cups of water into the bowl. Add Dehydrated Fruit of your choice.
Take a couple of small pieces of aluminum foil and make them into about 1/4 inch thick rectangular pieces.
Place the aluminum foil where the bowl will be touching the crockpot and place the bowl inside the crockpot.
Pour water into the crock pot (not inside the bowl) until the water level is as high as the oats are.
Put the lid on the crockpot and set the temperature to low. Let cook overnight and wake up to a warm easy to clean up bowl of oatmeal. This usually makes more than I can eat, so I store the leftovers in the refrigerator and heat up in the microwave the next morning.
