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Slow Cooker Oatmeal couldn’t be easier to make. You can even make it the night before! It’s healthy, delicious and can be topped with anything you love!
I’ve been making Slow Cooker Oatmeal for as long as I can remember now. It’s one of the recipes everyone in the family can agree on in the morning. Plus, it’s inexpensive and can be doctored up any way you like it. We top ours with everything from hemp seeds, to berries, sliced bananas, chopped walnuts, maple syrup, honey and more.
As the seasons change and the weather gets colder, I have a growing desire to make warm, hearty foods for breakfast. To me, a hot bowl of oatmeal before heading off to school on a chilly morning gives kids a sense of comfort — not to mention enough energy to carry them through to lunch.
How to Make Slow Cooker Oatmeal
This recipe is about as easy as 1, 2, 3 and basically cooks itself. Here’s how to make it:
- Place 1 cup steel cut oats, 2 cups water, 2 1/2 cups milk and 1 teaspoon cinnamon in your slow cooker.
- Cook the oatmeal on low heat for 2-6 hours. The amount of time can vary depending on your slow cooker. Some that don’t have non stick surfaces can get hotter then others.
- Stir in your desired toppings and serve!
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Got a Rice Cooker?
Don’t have a slow cooker? You can make this recipe in your rice cooker on the porridge setting. Super duper easy!
More Oatmeal Recipes
- Coconut Cream Baked Oatmeal
- Refrigerator Oatmeal
- Pumpkin Spice Oatmeal in the Crock Pot
- DIY: Oatmeal Buffet
I’ve now made this recipe five days in a row now, so there must be something about it that’s working! Let me know what toppings you always add to your oatmeal and tag me on Instagram if you make this recipe!
Slow Cooker Oatmeal
Instructions
- Place the first 4 ingredients in a crock pot and stir to combine.
- Cook the oatmeal on low heat for 2-6 hours (the amount of time can vary depending on your crock pot. Some crock pots that don’t have non stick surfaces can get hotter then others). Oatmeal will stay warm overnight.
- Stir in desired accompaniments and serve.
Video
Notes
- I like to let the kids squeeze in their own honey to get them involved.
- Swirl in a bit of extra milk to cool it down for kids.
- Optional ingredients: berries, fresh or frozen fruit, chopped nuts, chocolate chips, maple syrup, pumpkin pie spices or other toppings you enjoy.
- Don’t have a crock pot/slow cooker? You can make it the same way using a rice cooker on the porridge setting.
I have made this a few times and LOVED it even though I also had burning and globbed up oats around the edges. 🙁 I am going to try again tonight on warm, fingers crossed!
Someone else had mentioned the milk and adding it on at the end… Has anyone tried that? I too always thought milk should be added at the end of something cooking, especially for a long time. Any insight on this?
Thanks for the great recipe! Mine burned around the edges too but now I see I can try the warm setting. I’ll try that next. This is great with a little organic peanut butter and honey stirred in. My 5 year old gobbles it up! Thanks again!!
I tried this in rice cooker yesterday. yummy! I put on “keep warm” for 9 hours. Easy cleaning because the non-stick surface. Thanks for the idea. Love your site.
Love this. I’ve never used steel cut oats, it took me a while to find them at any store. I cooked it in a metal bowl with water around it in the crockpot on low, just a little crunchy around the top edges. So easy to clean up.
Thank you for this because I have been wanting to try the crock pot recipe but I have a whole bag of rolled oats that need used up so I didn’t want to buy more oats until I used those!
I love this!! thanks!!
I use my rice cooker to cook up regular/ old fashioned oats. This takes ~15 minutes in the morning instead of preplanning the night before. Have you done a rice cooker recipe here before?
Here’s my oatmeal in the rice cooker recipe. 🙂
Coat the inside of the rice cooker with nonstick spray. I use a 1.5:1 water:oats 6 C water + 4 C oats for 2 adults & 4 kiddos. Stir in 1 T vanilla. Click on. Once cooked, unplug. If adding in grated fruit/veggies, do so with the vanilla and up the liquid (for those who need exact ~by 1/8 C for each C oats so 6C water + 4 C oats + 1 grated apple + 1/2 C water )
At the end, it will be sticky and require additional liquid. We stir in cold milk & a mix in for the big kids (berries, nuts, mini marshmallows, brown sugar, mini chocolate chips)
I made this for breakfast this morning. While the edible portion was yummy, there was at least half that was burned and stuck on my crock pot. A tip for removing the burned on mess is to fill the crock pot with water up to the top of the burned portion and cook on warm until it loosens up enough to clean easily.
Love the frozen blueberries to cool it down! And the Nutella suggestion- can’t wait to try this!
I still did have burning, but my edible oatmeal to burnt oatmeal ration was much better when I doubled it!
the first time I made it, it had a one-inch thick border of burnt oatmeal around the edges. This time I doubled the recipe and it turned out much better. Leftovers for school mornings.
I also added shredded apple and pumpkin pie spice it. The apple totally disolves very nicely into the oatmeal,and the house smelled like apple pie in the morning.
The first time I made this it burned and was near-impossible to clean out my crock pot. I tried it again on warm overnight and in the morning put it on high for about an hour and a half and it was AMAZING. I’m going to make it for my family when they are in town so that is why I am going to double the recipe ^.
Does the cooking time change if you double this recipe?
Is it really okay to cook milk all night long? I always thought milk should only be added at the end of slow cooking.
I meant to note that it was on “warm” setting overnight.