Despite it's unrelatedness to this post (yes, spellcheck, I
know that isn't a word), I have to start out by expressing some shock and awe that I am up this early on a Saturday. Of my own choice. (Okay, you are probably now looking at the time this posted and thinking, Um, that is
not early. I was, however, up at 7:30. Somehow, it is now 8:45, and I am really not sure how that happened. Plus, it will be even later by the time this is posted, because I'm sure a child will wake up before I finish this and it'll get postponed*. But, trust me, I was up early for me.)
And I guess it wasn't entirely by my own choice. My baby guy woke up at 7:30 and I comforted him, then realized I had a headache. (He went back to sleep.) My headache medicine has caffeine in it, which means I either keep the headache or put caffeine into my system. Neither is conducive to another hour or so of snoozing, so after a brief failed attempt (that must have been longer than I thought), I got up. And decided to post to my blog.
* I am dying to make a joke about posting and my post being
postponed, but the only way I can think to do that is by emphasizing the word
post in "postponed" using italics, and that's not all that funny. But you need to know that my use of the word "postponed" was, in fact,
pun intended.
Anyway. On with the show.
I am probably the world's biggest fan of doing things the easy way.
Well, except for having babies 18 months apart, maybe not that part. But it will be easier when they get older, right? Right?
RIGHT??? (Please tell me yes. Even if it's not true. Okay?)
Anyway, like I said, it's all about doing things the easy way. So when I read somewhere/
a friend of mine suggested to me the idea of slow-cooking oatmeal overnight in the crock pot, I thought it sounded brilliant! I love oatmeal, and up until now, my favorite way of fixing it has been to put some in a bowl with milk* and cook it for a few minutes in the microwave. Which works just fine. But fixing it before bed and letting it stew all night?
Even better!
* Not a fan of oatmeal fixed with water. Ew, blech.
So, I've been wanting to try this for months.
Months. And I never did. The reason why: unless I wanted to fix 5 quarts of oatmeal for my daughter and I to eat for breakfast (and maybe my husband, but you never know), I didn't have a crock pot small enough. And I just hadn't gotten around to buying one.
But yesterday, that changed. I decided that this was
going to be the night when I tried it, no matter what. Of course, "no matter what" changed to "well, if I have the chance" when I came home and started helping take care of two rambunctious toddlers. But fortunately, my husband wanted to escape after they went to bed, and that escape included a trip to Target because we were out of pull-ups for the Birdie. I asked him to get me a 2-qt crock pot while he was there.
He found a 1.5-qt one and a 3-qt one, and after some thought, I decided the 1.5-qt one made the most sense and he bought me that. When I
read the directions glanced briefly at the little piece of paper included with the pot after I'd started my oatmeal, I noticed that it suggests the crock be at least half-full "for best results." So the 1.5-qt one was the better choice of the two (although a 2-qt would have been perfect) because my recipe would have only
just half-filled the crock, and in retrospect, I am going to have to scale it back a little.
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
When
Craig got back, he immediately got on the computer, so I had him look up some recipes for me so I would know how much liquid to put in for a given amount of oatmeal. The recipes he found directed 4 cups water + 1/2 cup half 'n' half for 1 cup of steel-cut oats and 3 cups of water for 1 cup of rolled oats.
Water. So I'm sure you can guess the first change I made.
I had steel-cut oats, but in looking at my little crock pot, I suspected that there would not be quite enough room for the oats, the liquid, and the other stuff * I needed to put in it. So I used half a cup of steel-cut oats and half a cup of quick oats (the 1-minute kind). Those two things are probably mortal enemies, but I hoped they would work together just this once, enough to make a decent breakfast for me and my family.
(Aside: I just heard the baby guy's crib music start up. Not a good sign. But at least he can do it on his own now and didn't cry for me to come do it for him.)
Along with the oatmeal blend, I used 4 cups of liquid. 2.5 of those cups were skim milk, the other 1.5 was water.
* Because there
always has to be other stuff.
And what was that other stuff? In typical "me" fashion, I got a bit carried away with myself here. I tend to think, "if
this sounds good, and if
that sounds good, won't they
both be good in it? And why don't I add this other stuff, too?" So here is what happened. I thought nuts and fruit would be good. Dried fruit, that could hydrate and puff up all nice while it cooks. And I was right about that. But next time, I may add
a little bit less.
I added roughly 1/4-1/2 cup of raisins, as well as about the same amount of dried cranberries out of a cranberry-almond-cashew mix I had. I love the way nuts cook up when they get a bit soft in dishes like this, so I chopped up about 1/4 cup of cashews and 1/4 cup of almonds from the same blend and added those.
Then I stirred it all up a little (btw, that didn't make any difference. All the oats settled back on the bottom, the liquid went to the top, and the fruit floated. But I felt better, having stirred it.), put the lid on, and turned the cooker on low. All of this took somewhere between 5 and 10 minutes. (Would have been less if I hadn't separated out the cranberries, almonds and cashews before I chopped the nuts.)
Then I went to bed.
The Verdict:
After I got up with the baby guy at 7:30, I checked the oatmeal. It had been cooking for about 8-8.5 hours, which is pretty much perfect. Well, my first thought, upon looking at it, was "Oh no." The inch or so of space that had remained at the top of the cooker when I put it all together was gone, and when I nudged the cooker, the mixture was a bit...wobbly. This led me to believe that it had not cooked very well, and was still pretty runny. And it had grown.
But when I opened it up and stirred it, I discovered three things. First, the consistency actually
was pretty good once it was mixed up some. I dislike dry oatmeal, so the fact that it was not very dry was nice. (And it wasn't runny once I mixed it up.) Second, some of it had stuck to the sides and bottom. I had already scraped some of it into the mixture when I realized that may have been a bad idea. Oops. So I had to hope that I hadn't mixed in any burned flavors. And third, unless my husband eats
a lot of it, there is too much for just the Birdie and me. (So far, the baby guy has refused to touch oatmeal whenever I've put it in front of him. He takes one look and clamps his lips as tight as a little clam. Don't worry, though, I'll keep trying. I'm just as stubborn as he is.)
After my failed attempt to go back to sleep, I came up and fixed myself a bowl, adding some brown sugar and a little milk on top. And? Overall, I like it, although I'll make some changes next time.
The changes:
Definitely reduce the fruit and nuts. They're very good, but there's just way too much. Maybe a heaping 1/4 cup of each, total (instead of a heaping 1/2 of each).
Lose the cashews. The almonds were a really nice consistency - softened, but still pretty firm. The cashews were just mushy. And gross. Ew.
Use a bit less milk and a bit more water, respectively. I think the reason it stuck may have been the milk. Although if I try that and it still sticks, then I will assume that it's just supposed to stick and I'll go back to more milk.
Reduce the oatmeal by a quarter. Use 3/4 c. oatmeal and 3 c. liquid. (I will reserve final judgment on this one until after I see how much actually gets eaten, but I just can't imagine it all will go.)
Otherwise, I am quite pleased by how this turned out. It's easy to whip up the night before, and it gives you a hearty, filling, and, most importantly (right?) healthy breakfast to feed yourself and your kids in the morning. I'll be doing this again, and trying variations.
Because, really, what fun is there in leaving "well enough" alone?
