This recipe is SO easy! Throw it in the crockpot before bed and wake up to your house smelling incredible and breakfast hot and ready! It also stores great in the fridge - make this on Sunday night and have your breakfast for the week all done!



Ingredients

2 Cups Steel-cut Oats
4 Cups Water
5 Cups Skim Milk (may use Almond or Coconut milk)
1 Large Honeycrisp Apple - skinned, cored and diced
1 Teaspoon Cinnamon
1 Teaspoon Vanilla
1/2 Teaspoon Salt

Directions

Oil the crockpot VERY WELL. Otherwise you'll be soaking it for a few days after. I rub it down with coconut oil. Combine all the ingredients and mix well - the apples will float. Cook on Low for 8-9 hours, stirring a few times before bed but no need to stir overnight, just stir again in the morning.

Notes: In addition to the cinnamon, I added in Apple Pie spice. The recipe itself doesn't call for any sweetener, but in the morning feel free to add in some Agave or other sweetener you like to suit your taste. This can cook up to 10 hours, after that it starts to get really clumpy, so I would transfer it to a mason jar or other containers after you eat. The recipe calls for Honeycrisp but I used Fuji apples and it came out fine. I also used 2 apples instead of one.

Original Recipe can be found here, along with a video if it being made: http://crockingirls.com/recipes/appl...l-cut-oatmeal/

Love this -- ate it this morning -- and I have some variations for you:

1) Replace the fresh apples with dried apples. (I get mine from the dried fruit and nut aisle at Trader Joe's.) Instead of getting mushy from cooking, the apples rehydrate and are a bit chewier.

Bananas are also good in this.

If you really want to splurge, because these aren't cheap, buy Trader Joe's Freeze-Dried Strawberries and add those.

Dried cranberries are also good. (I get the low-sugar variant if possible, and skip other sweeteners.)

2) Leave out the apples entirely, use canned pumpkin and a little less liquid, and add pumpkin pie spice.

3) Add Chia seeds and/or ground flaxseeds

4) Add almond meal, pecan meal or any other pulverized nuts, and adjust your liquids accordingly

5) Since I don't have any issues with artificial sweetener, I add Sugarfree Torani, Monin or DaVinci syrup flavoring, which you can buy in the coffee section of some large grocers or from specialty coffee purveyors. I've also found them in the gourmet food section at TJ Maxx, Home Goods and Marshall's.