Slow Cooker Oatmeal

Day 121: The Cleaner Plate Club

May 1, 2011

Throwing together breakfast the night before and having it ready to go in the morning is a dream. Finding an alternative to the traditional egg back is a nice change of pace. I love to make meals that are made ahead and simply heat and serve. And I love to use my slow cooker, so to combine the two concepts of make ahead and slow cooker is perfect.

The idea behind this cookbook is to help parents cook meals that are nutritious for kids. Parents need all of the help that we can get….I so love the idea behind this cookbook. Interesting combinations of food that I think one of my kids would eat but the others would pass on. There is not only recipes but also tips on getting your kids to eat more healthy. All my kids would probably eat the Sweet Potato-Parmesan “Fries” or the Chicken Scallopini. They would probably pass on the sautéed Red Chard or the Carrot-Orange Souffle. I do give the authors major points for creativity. They don’t just give you steamed brocoli. With the vegetables they also give tips on each vegetable and why it is good for you.

The Ruling: I liked it….nobody else did. I like oatmeal and so do my kids but it appears like they like the kind that is full of brown sugar and made in the microwave. I used dried cherries in my oatmeal and it turned it pink. Maybe it was the color that turned my kids off. I don’t know if any color would have mattered to them. I liked it….so isn’t that all that matters!

Slow-Cooker Oatmeal, page 161

Ingredients:

• 1 cup steel-cut oatmeal
• 1/3 cup chopped dates
• 2/3 cups raisins
• 1/3 cup dried figs
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup chopped almonds or walnuts
• 4 cups water
• 1/2 cup half-and-half

Directions:

1. Mix all the ingredients together in a slow cooker before you head to bed. Set to LOW and cook for 8-9 hours.
2. Stir to combine.

To Joyful, Simplified Living,

MS. Simplicity

MS. Simplicity, also known as Melissa Schmalenberger  operates her business as I Did it with MS. Simplicity.  She is a Professional Organizer based out of Fargo, ND and her website can be found at www.ididit-fargo.com .  Need to contact MS. Simplicity privately, you can email her at melissa@ididit-fargo.com.  For daily organizing tips find the MS. Simplicity fan page  here.

If you try any of my suggestions, I would love to hear from you.  It helps me to understand what my readers want me to write about and what they think is a waste of their time….thanks for taking the time to help me out.

Day 20…..The Four-Sided Cookie

I love the name of this cookbook, “The Four-Sided Cookie“.  As a busy mom sometimes all I have time to do is a pan of bars so I am right there with the convenience of a bar versus a cookie.  Not a one color picture, but several back and white sketches to give you the overall idea of what a Blueberry Bar With Lattice Top should look like.  It is a bare bones small cookbook that gives you 55 recipes for bars.

I made the Oatmeal Bars with Chocolate-Covered Raisins on page 60 because…..I had all the ingredients in the house.  The idea of using chocolate-covered raisins intrigued me.  But there has got to be something missing from the ingredient list, because my bars did not cover a 9 x 13 inch pan.  I used a smaller one, and it still was hard to cover all of the pan.  My suggestion would be to make this in a 9 x 9 square pan.  The flavors were nice and the recipe was simple to make.  My oldest loved them, ate almost 2 rows himself.  The middle son ate one with little fanfare.  The youngest took a tiny bite and informed me that he doesn’t like the texture of raisins.  Do you get the feeling that I am living with the three bears?  Does that make me Goldilocks?

Oatmeal Bars with Chocolate-Covered Raisins, page 60

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup flour
• 1/2 cup quick (1 minute) oatmeal, uncooked
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup chocolate-covered raisins

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees, grease a 9 x 13 (I would suggest a 9 x 9) inch baking pan,  In a small bowl, stir or whisk together the flour, oatmeal, and salt.
2. In a large bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar.  Add the egg, egg yolk and vanilla and beat well.  Gradually add the flour mixture, blending will with each addition.  Stir in the chocolate-covered raisins.
3. Pat the dough evenly into the prepared pan.
4. Bake for 18 to 22 minutes, until the top is light brown and firm to the touch and the edges are brown.  Let the pan cool completely on a wire rack.  Run a sharp knife around the edge of the pan, then cut into bars.

To Joyful, Simplified Living,

MS. Simplicity

To see other sweets from the week at another site, try here.