Overnight steel cut oatmeal made in a slow cooker is an easy breakfast that will keep everyone full!  Adding dried cherries and vanilla helps give this slow cooker oatmeal a boost of flavor.

I’m not a big fan of oatmeal.  I grew up eating the instant packets of oatmeal, but they weren’t my favorite breakfast.  As an adult I discovered steel cut oats and I do like those better, but they can take a while to cook up on the stove top. Ain’t no one got 30 minutes to cook oatmeal in the morning!

So then I tried baking oatmeal and I love my Chocolate Peanut Butter Baked Oatmeal Recipe. But again, it takes time to make in the morning.

I finally tried making slow cooker oatmeal hoping that I’d be able to wake up to breakfast in the morning. It totally worked! If you are a late sleep, watch the timing. The oatmeal will dry out the longer it cooks. I like mine nice and creamy.

If your slow cooker doesn’t have a timer, try using a programmable light timer.  Most of the smaller slow cookers aren’t programmable so I always uses this trick to make sure they food doesn’t over cook.

I love the flavor of this vanilla cherry oatmeal. I have a huge container of dried cherries in my pantry that I used. But you could definitely use dried cranberries or any other dried fruit in this recipe.

This recipe made enough for my husband and I to have 1 cup servings for three mornings and it re-heated really well on the stove with just a bit of extra milk added.

 Cherry Vanilla Overnight Steel Cut Oatmeal in the Slow Cooker

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Yield: 6

Cherry Vanilla Slow Cooker Oatmeal

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Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 7 hours

Total Time 7 hours 5 minutes

Ingredients

• 2.5 cups water
• 2.5 cups milk
• 1 1/4 cup steel cut oats
• 1/3 cup dried cherries, chopped
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Instructions

2. Stir together all ingredients in a small slow cooker.
3. Cook on low for 7 hours. Stir and serve immediately.
4. If you think you'll need an hour or more to sleep, add a bit more liquid so the oatmeal doesn't dry out.

Recipe adapted from Weight Watchers

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