Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Oats-or how I survive 5:30 am

So I love my job. I really, really do. At least that's what I keep telling myself. And I love my kids, okay, most of them. But I really do love the days that I'm done at NOON! It's just that I have to get up at 5:30 in order to be done at noon. For over a year I made two fried eggs for breakfast everyday. But I just don't have time for that crap anymore. So now I make breakfast the night before.

This serves two. I start with a heaping 1/2 cup of steal cut oats. This goes into my 1.5 qt slow cooker.

To that I add 1 whole fruit or about 4 oz frozen fruit. I usually get 3 servings out of the regular sized frozen bags. We had mixed berries this day.

Next you can add your extras. How about mixed berry hazelnut spread flavored breakfast? I've got about 1 1/2 tablespoons of hazelnut spread here. It gets all over the sides of the crockpot and that's okay. If you use a spoon instead of a knife it will be much hard to get into the crockpot.

Next, I add 2 tablespoons of sugar. If you're *too healthy* for the sugar you don't have to add it. But I will judge you for it. Also, I've lost more weight since I started eating this for breakfast than I have my entire life. (Christmas weight doesn't count). Okay, since I originally wrote this post, almost a year and a half ago, I have cut way back on the sugar in our diet. I never cook with processed sugar anymore, and use raw if I absolutely have to have sugar, or honey and real maple syrup when I need something sweet. Most mornings, I just add a banana for natural sweetness and leave out anything extra. 

The last ingredient is the water. 2 cups and a shot as I tell my husband or 2 cups and 2 tablespoons if you insist on measuring. Give it a stir. The spread will not stir in and that's okay.

When we started this we bought one of those plug in timers like what you use for Christmas lights. You set it to start 3 1/2 hours before you wake up and to shut off a half hour before you wake up. Cook time 3 hours on high. You want it to set for about 30 minutes and the crock pot will keep it very warm. You'll cook it on high. After we bought our timer, I read online a lot of recipes where you turn it on low when you go to bed and it cooks all night. I haven't tried this way yet. I apologize for not having a picture of the finished product. If you would like to stop over tomorrow morning at 5:30 to see what it looks like, feel free. Bring your camera. The first thing I do in the morning is take the lid off of the crock pot and give it a stir. If there's any extra moisture in the oats, it will evaporate in the time you spend getting dressed. This also lets it cool down so you can eat it when it's time to eat instead of burning your mouth. Here are several combinations we've tried. You should play around and find out what you enjoy.


  • Apple cinnamon: heaping 1/2 cup of steal cut oats, 1 apple, we use honey crips, minced, 1 tablespoon molasses, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 2 cups and a shot of water. 
  •  Raisins and cinnamon: heaping 1/2 cup of steal cut oats, 1/2 cup raisins, 1 tablespoon molasses  2 and 1/4 cups water. You need the extra water if you're using dried fruit like raisins because they will absorb the water. 
  • Banana chocolate chip* MY FAVORITE: heaping 1/2 cup of steal cut oats, 1 banana sliced, 2 tablespoons semisweet chocolate chips, 2 cups and a shot of water. 
  • Strawberry: heaping 1/2 cup of steal cut oats, 4 oz frozen strawberries (You can leave these whole, they will break down as they cook), 2 tablespoons of sugar, 2 cups and a shot of water. 
  • Mixed berry hazelnut: heaping 1/2 cup of steal cut oats, 4 oz mixed berries, 1 1/2 tablespoons of hazelnut spread, 2 cups and a shot of water.
  • Blueberry Banana: heaping 1/2 cup of steal cut oats, 1/3 cup frozen blueberries, 1 banana sliced, 2 cups and a shot of water

Add the hazelnut spread, cinnamon, or chocolate chips to whatever fruit you want to make it your own.

3 comments:

  1. I totally left you a comment on this.... Did it not post or did you delete?!!!/! JK... but I really did. I think this sounds fantastic & am definitely going to try some of your flavor combinations! I do the lazy quick oats version every morning, but usually just do walnuts and brown sugar.

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  2. Sorry, I was playing with my settings last night and I might have accidentally deleted it. I've never tried nuts, sounds good. We splurged in some blueberries this week. They get so expensive in the winter that we haven't done blueberry oats in a while.

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  3. I actually think I didn't do the captcha to prove that I am not a bot leaving naughty links in your comments. We got blueberries this week too... I made blueberry muffins Sunday that may go up on the blog, depending on how lazy I am. :)

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