How To Make Crockpot Oatmeal & Hot Cereal In A Thermos

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A Hearty Bowl Of Oatmeal & Fruit Is Not Only Good For You - It's A Time-Saver Too!

Wake up to a hot, healthy breakfast ready and waiting for you with a simple recipe for overnight crockpot oatmeal–or try an easy to prepare thermos full of hot cereal that is ready when you get up.

You can add all sorts of delicious good-for-you things like dried cranberries, blueberries, raisins, apple slices and more.

Once you find an oatmeal recipe that works for you, experiment with adding your favorite fruits, nuts and spices like cinnamon.

Basic Recipe:

8 cups water
2 cups steel-cut oats
1/4 teaspoon salt

• Combine all ingredients in a 5 quart slow cooker and turn on low heat.
• Cover with lid and cook 8 hours.
• Fruit pieces can be added with the ingredients at the start or right before serving if you prefer (I prefer waiting to add them in the morning).

Troubleshooting Tips:

If you’ve tried making slowcooker oatmeal overnight before and found it to be a disaster, here are a few reasons why that may have happened…

• Your crockpot was too large for the recipe and you didn’t have enough ingredients in the crock to prevent overcooking.
• Your crockpot heats higher or lower than what the recipe author’s does.
• You’re not sticking with the steel cut oats and are using instant or quick-cook oats instead.

Overcooked, Burned Mess?

If you’re finding that no matter what you do, overnight crockpot oatmeal never turns out and is always overcooked or burned, try the Bain-Marie method (scroll down a bit to find the details) which is basically putting all the ingredients in a dish that will fit inside the crock, then filling the crock with water so the level is half-way up the dish. No more burned oatmeal mess.

If the oatmeal is cooking too fast for you and is overcooked in the morning, you could try the timer method. Mix the ingredients in the slowcooker before you go to bed and set the timer with a 4 to 5 hour cooking window, adjusting the time as needed (have the crockpot start in the middle of the night). If your crockpot doesn’t have a timer, you can pick up an appliance timer for a few bucks (check Amazon or locally–$10 will do it).

Suggestions:

• When making this for the first time, try cooking it during the day when you’re home to monitor it. You’ll be able to test the cooking time that works best for your crock pot.
• If you prefer a thicker oatmeal, play with the water amount a bit or increase the oats. This will take some testing until you achieve the consistency you like.

More Recipes:

• Crockpot Oatmeal
• Creamy, Fruity Slow Cooker Oatmeal Recipe
• Overnight Oatmeal

Thermos Method

You need a wide mouth thermos like those you use for soups and stews (called a “Soup Thermos” or a “Food Thermos”).

Use A Wide Mouth Thermos For Best Results

• Fill your thermos with boiling water, seal with cap, leave for 5 minutes. This will get your thermos heated while you prepare the oatmeal.
• On the stove top, bring one cup of water to a boil with 1/4 cup steel cut oats.
• Pour out the water inside the thermos, then pour in the contents of the pot (boiling water and oats).
• An alternative way to make this is once the thermos has been heated for a few minutes, empty the water, toss the oats in the thermos then cover with water that’s been brought to a rolling boil (same amounts of oats/water as above).
• Seal the thermos and leave it overnight.

Wake up to a thermos full of hot, ready to eat oatmeal! You can also prepare this first thing in the morning and bring it to work for a hot, ready-to-eat lunch (and a frugal lunch at that!). I also found this pasted in one of my vintage recipe scrapbooks:

How To Cook Cereals While You Sleep

Before retiring, stir 1/2 cup of your favorite raw cereal–wheat, oats, rye, or buckwheat, preferably cracked–into two cups of salted boiling water. Stir for just three minutes, then pour into a wide-mouth thermos bottle. Cork the bottle tightly. Next morning you will be greeted by a hot cereal, ready to be eaten. Sprinkle with wheat germ and bran. Add milk or cream. Really gets your motor going. Berries of all kinds are good sources of potassium and fairly good sources of calcium and magnesium.

Tips

Rule of Thumb:

• Recipes will vary but a basic guide to follow: Each serving of oatmeal is 1/4 cup steel cut oats to 1 cup of water, a dash of salt added if you wish.
• If you want to cut a recipe down, make sure you use a smaller slow cooker so the oatmeal won’t burn (and the opposite if you’re increasing a recipe–use a larger slow cooker).

Does It Really Matter What Types Of Oats You Use?

Bags Of Steel-Cut Oats

TIP: Steel-cut oats, sometimes labeled “Irish oatmeal,” look like small pebbles. They are toasted oat groats—the oat kernel that has been removed from the husk that have been cut in 2 or 3 pieces. Do not substitute regular rolled oats, which have a shorter cooking time, in the slow-cooker oatmeal recipe. See Source.

You should be able to find steel-cut oats without any problem at the grocery store or local health food store, they’ll be marked clearly on the packaging. Also check bulk food stores where you can buy bags of this cheap.

What To Do With Leftovers:

• Making a big crock full of oatmeal might be too much for your family, but you can package the leftovers and refrigerate for a few days. Just microwave to heat.
• You can also freeze portions to enjoy later.

Oatmeal As A Healthy Boost:

There probably isn’t a better breakfast food, it lowers cholesterol and is high in fiber. Skip the brown sugar and toss in some tasty, healthy treats such as nuts like walnuts, almonds, fruits like blueberries, apples, bananas and a little cinnamon for more health benefits.