Spring Break for the...fail

Spring Break has not been my friend.  I had travel trouble...twice.  I ate a horrendous amount of food and did not exercise. I have not finished anywhere NEAR enough work. 

All of this negative will not destroy me, though.  Spring Break is not over and I decided to start today the right way.  This means one thing:  oatmeal.  Who can feel bad with a yummy bowl of oatmeal?

My choice for oatmeal this morning was steel cut oats.  I don't enjoy them in their chewiest form, but they are perfect for overnight oats in the CrockPot. 

Normally, I make apple or banana steel cut oats, but I didn't feel like that this time. Instead, I went for plain oats.

Here is my recipe:

Slow Cooker Steel Cut Oats

1/2 cup Bob's Red Mill Steel Cut Oats
1 cup water
1 cup milk (I used light original almond milk)
Dash of salt
1/4 teaspoon vanilla  (optional)
2 packets Sugar in the Raw

Spray the liner of the CrockPot. 

Add the ingredients to the CrockPot.

Cook on low overnight.  I put mine on at 12 AM and turned it off at about 9 AM. 

Bob's Red Mill recommends only water (filtered water).  I like the added creaminess of milk, which is why I add it in here.  I've used apple juice instead of milk before, but I increase the water (1 1/2 cups water, 1/2 cup apple juice).

You can add fresh chopped apples or pears (I've used both), a mashed banana, canned pumpkin, spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, pumpkin pie spice), etc, if you want.  I made this version plain so that I could have different  toppings.  This makes two servings, so I can have it tomorrow morning too.

For breakfast today, I added cinnamon (always), Plum Medley dried fruit, chopped dates, and walnuts.  The dried fruit adds a lot of sweetness, but if you like your oatmeal very sweet, you can add more sugar in the CrockPot before it cooks, or you can drizzle honey or sprinkle more sugar on top when it is finished.

I was thinking about adding PB2 and drizzling chocolate syrup on it tomorrow, but today's version was so, so good.  Just looking at it again here makes me want another bowl.  I will try to control myself.  Two meals of oatmeal in one day may be excessive.